Breaking a driving pony to ride.. help!

[icklechlo]

I have been asked by a bloke up the yard if I can break his driving pony to ride.

I have broken in ponies before, so am not completely clueless when it comes to the general process, but what I wanted to know is what problems am I going to encounter due to the fact that he has been driven?

He is a 4/5yo 14hh cob, perfect temprement, has been sat on once or twice, but because the guy drives and doesn't ride he obviously hasn't tried to break it to ride because he doesn't know where to start!

Any help/tips etc would be very welcome!

 

[zelli]

Ive never done it, but I cant see that you would have any problems at all as far as the backing process goes, and you actually have an advantage in the fact that you have breaks and stearing already!

The only thing ive experienced when riding horses that used to drive is that its harder work to get them too work nicely due to the way in which there used to going in the harness, e.g. off the forehand, using the hindquaters and relaxing into the contact

 

[MillionDollar]

I've broken 3 ponies into harness. They were all very different.

1st one, 14yo NF mare, took 6 weeks.
Long reined her without harness for 2 weeks, then with harness for 2 weeks, then a week with blinkers going around spooky things, then straight in the cart, 1 week of going around the farm.

2nd one, 13yo NF mare, took 3 days!!!
1st day long reined, 2nd day long reined in harness and 3rd day in cart and off we went (shes def my fav to drive)!

3rd, 4yo Welsh A, took 4 weeks, same as 1st really.

Had no problems at all, as long as your preparation is good you will be fine. Make lots of noises when long reining.

Some people will always have a horse drag a tyre. I was taught never to do this, but each to their own.

 

[Baggybreeches]

Just treat it as a normal breaking to ride, if he were older then perhaps it would be a little more difficult, but at 5 I dont forsee any problems.

 

[muffinino]

Shouldn't be a problem at all as long as he has been driven correctly and not got in to bad habits. If anything, the pony should be more responsive and easier as he's already had training and should be used to having harness on/being given voice commands/responding to the reins. If he has already been driven then he should have a good mouth from long reining and you may find it takes less time than it would with a completely unbroken animal.

 

[MillionDollar]

Doh I didn't read your post properly

Ignore me

 

[rara007]

I've done it, 3 times so far, with one other pony just starting.

I always start with blinkers and no whip, then after about a month try with out blinkers and gradually introduce the whip as they do find this scarey. I find that it only takes one ride for a nice relaxed walk, takes about a week for them to relax enough to do a nice relaxed trot, but canter takes them a while to get the hang of it.

Any more sdvice you want feel free to PM.

Also alway start with the same bit as they use for driving, just makes it easier to start although after a while i expect you will want to change to a softer bit.

 

[muffinino]

I think it depends on the horse, really. I broke pony to ride that had only been driven and used a snaffle when he was used to a Liverpool and never considered putting blinkers on hium to begin with. He was around 6 and very a sensitive character but he enjoyed being ridden. I treated him like any other highly strung horse I would break and didn't do anything differently because he was a driving pony.

 

[icklechlo]

I don't think he is driven in blinkers at the moment, I am not too sure... my mind has gone blank!
Thankyou everyone for your help, I was imagining I will eventually have a problem with canter due to the driving, but we shall see!
Any other hints?

 

[Damnation]

I actually prefer to ride young driving horses than young just newly broken riding horses. One thing that I do is when you teach leg aids is use the same command that the driver would use to get the pony to trot (For example) Because they do go off you voice really well. To teach canter I use my leg aids and then give them a tap with the whip, or alternitively teach him to canter on the long reins and then get on him and use the same voice command, it does take ages though!

 

[Donkeymad]

My cob was broken to harness at 3 and then broken to ride at 12. Very straightforward with no problems due to age or driving.

 

[rara007]

Thinking about it you have 2 choices, just break him as a riding horse, as if he had never been driven, so building up gradually, but with 'normal' bridle. Doing it my way with the driving bit and blinkers does speed up the first few stages, although you then have to slow down abit once basics are there to remove blinkers and bit if needed. With the first pony I broke this way we came 4th in prelim ridden dressage (BD) 3 weeks after first being sat on. He is sensitive but not, opinionated might be the more 'correct' description.