breaking to drive

[sallypops]

someone said on my breeding post that it might be good for my highland, is it expensive?? i hadn't even considered it

might be fun tho ha ha!! i'm always up for a challenge when it comes to my horses

general info would be much appreciated

 

[belly]

By no means an expert but I broke one of my daughters teenie ponies to drive after she grew out of her. Started off long reining then tried with just bridle and blinkers and gradually introduced rest of harness whilst still long reining. Finally went on to pulling a tyre around the field beofre offering up a small lightweight cart.
I saw her at a show a few weeks ago in harness with a child driving!! So couldnt have done too much wrong ...lol.

 

[mollymurphy]

We broke Molly in to drive ourselves, because there are no instructors or people in-the-know near us. Fortunately, she's a very easy-going mare and took it all in her stride. It's not expensive if you do it yourself, but then you risk doing it wrong. You can buy decent synthetic harnesses for about £80 on eBay, and our trap was made-to-order and only cost £250 from a man at Beeston Market in Cheshire.
We just long-reined for a while, then attached a tyre, then i sat in the tyre and she dragged me around ('twas lots of fun!!), then we harnessed her up and we were away!

Good luck if you decide to give it a go! If you go on the British Driving Society (BDS) website, there's a list of instructors. http://www.britishdrivingsociety.co.uk/index.htm

Click on 'contacts' on the left, then scroll down to 'carriage driving instructors'.

 

[Donkeymad]

Highlands make lovely carriage horses. I have broken a pony to harness with help from my OH, who had been driving for 20 years by then. One thing I would caution though, is that a 'green' horse/pony with a 'novice' driver is a bad combination, so please get yourself some driving lessons while you are doing the breaking.
Good luck, driving is so much fun

 

[shadowboy]

Its not expensive to do on your own as long as you can fork out for the harness and breaking trap, and then the proper gig/cart or trap. Harnesses start from £80 for an asian leather or synthetic version. My mum breaks them in as her job alongside part time teaching! We have two in for breaking at the moment- one is 15hh and the other 12hh! It takes us about 6 weeks from a complete unstater i.e a baby that has done absolutely nothing, it can take us just 3 weeks to get a pre prepped horse trotting out on the roads and able to step back etc. The initial work is quite easy as long as your horse is easy to handle round its back legs etc, its getting used to the trap (which is why we start with a breaking trap which is lighter and simpler) they need to learn to back into the cart and brace, a tyre and sand school can be used if you dont have a trap. We charge £120 a week everything included including feed, wormer, and one hours work a day, we also include hay/shavings mahooosive 14x 16 stables with rubber matting and we only ever have 6 max on site at anytime- and mum lives on site
The hardest bit is also teacheing the pony to stop to turn right onto junctions etc and moving backwards correctly, but it can be done. If you want it done cheeply, my advice is to prep the animal first ie, get it used to the blinkers, harness, bit and being long reined and hand over the rest to pros. We will be happy to talk through any steps with you at any point (no cost lol) just pm me for my number