Driving shetties

Stinkbomb

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I have been thinking about the future with Ty ( miniature shettie ) and think that i may like to drive him although i know absolutley nothing about driving!!!!
Well we all have to start somewhere and i wondered whether you could have someone give you "driving lessons?"
I have never heard of this but all those of you who drive, how did you start from the beginning????
confused.gif
 
start long reining him thats what i'm doin with poppy. once she is confident with that i'll get her a harness etc, thats the extent of my knowledge tho lol! so i'll need help from there. there are places where you can send ponies to be schooled and broken for driving, and as afr as i know you can get lessons at the same time:) we are gettin tambo the mini shetalnd to use as a driving pony for the future!

have fun!!!
 
This is what I hope to do with G.

There's an assosciation of driving which has instructors etc. I plan to send him away to be broken to harness (already long reined etc myself) and then go along before I pick him up an have some lessons myself. I'm sure someone here will be able to give you more info.
 
I used to groom for scurry drivers and still do when I can find the time. I have also broken a few ponies to harness and last january broke a pair of shetties to drive. The first thing I would advise anyone who is attempting to break horses/ponies to drive is not to do it unless you are confident and have done it before successfully - there is a hell of a lot more that can go wrong and you must always have someone with you to "groom" essentially as a safety aspect - when driving you always have two people. there is so much more to it than putting a harness on them and dragging something behind it! PM for more info and I can tell you how we used to go about breaking ponies to vehicles. I'm not overly good with geography, but let me know where you are and I will see if any of the scurries I know are near you that would give you a hand!
 
Log onto http://www.britishdrivingsociety.co.uk/
They have a list of qualified driving instructors. If you have never driven it would be best to get some driving tuition for yourself, as a 'new' driver with a 'green' pony often leads to nasty accidents.
Training the pony yourself is reasonably easy if you have the time, but, again, you need the knowledge. There are a variety of books to help you train your pony, Sally Waldron is a very popular one

I hope you give it a go as driving is so much fun, especially with these little fellas.
Good luck
 
I drive my 34" shetland, it's great fun and he loves it. They are so intelligent that they love to have a job to do.

I broke him to harness myself, he is very laid back and has picked everything up really quickly.

The best place to start is with the British Driving Society, they have a list of qualified instructors. They will be able to teach you all you will need to know and help you to start him.

I have not found it particularly expensive re equipment, he fits the Tedex shetland size harness and the cheap Robinsons shetland cart. Please feel free to pm me if you want any more info.
 
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