Horses that are ride and drive

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missshell

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Does the fact they can be drove affect the way they ride? Sorry if its stupid question but I have no experience of horses that do both
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I got one and when he went round corners he took them really wide and as soon as you slightly lent forwards he took off in trot but he forgot it all in a couple of months he has got arthritis though due to him been driven
 
I didn't notice any difference when Millie was broken to drive, riding was still the same she just listened more to voice commands.

ETA - Millie was only driven for a few moths before I gave up and she was broken to ride before she was broken to drive, not sure if that makes any difference or not!
 
Doug was a ride and drive. Well more of a drive than a ride before I had him. Now he is just ridden. I found he was so dead to the leg, but he worked well with voice. he is only 4 though, so may have a bit to do with it.
 
yes and no. depends how they have been trained to be driven i guess. My boy 'paces' so he has and extra trot gait and when i first got him i could not ever get a 'normal' trot. His canter is still to this day not normal and if hes in the field he will 'pace' over anything else. Its a very strange thing to feel when you rriding and difficult to know whether to sit or rise. It took years to get him to actually trot normally in the school but he would always go back it pacing out hacking/jumping or generally excited. i believe for them to do this it has to be trained into them and they only do that with ones that race...(i am prepared to be corrected!) Hes my pony of a life time and hes 27 now and owes me nothing i would have our time all over again even though as a teen i couldnt dressage etc. Obviously not all driving ponies have been trained this way so it would effect them at alll. The only other thing with my boy was he used to insist on walking in the middle of the road and would NEVER walk on a grass verge.....for obvious reasons when pulling a trap.

*I have called the strange trot thing he does 'pace/pacing' because i cant think what or if its called anything else right now....again prepared to be corrected!
 
I have a lovely ride and drive, he's 20 now and was driven at national competitions before a very good friend bought him, she then backed him as a 5year old.
He is a lovely ride, has been very well schooled in the past but he's very strong, which came from being driven by a man with hard hands when he was younger and so is stronger to ride than drive. He's probably been ridden more than driven laterly but we're trying to do a bit more driving with him now. He will quite happily walk at the side of the road.
 
Lots of Morgans are ride and drive, I think they break them to drive first as it is easier for them to pull something rather than carry a weight on their backs.

Of the Morgans that drive, several do ridden classes too. Mine was broken to drive before I had him and it hasn't made him any different to ride, although I don#t drive him. He is very good to lunge and long rein though, good to learn on as he doesn't mind reins trailing everywhere!
 
My horse had mainly been driven until about 2 years ago (he's 9/10 now) - I didn't find this out until after I'd bought him.

Once I found out though, a lot of things about him made sense.

He wasn't great at bending and I had a lot of trouble teaching him to canter, when you push him on he'd go into this funny 'pacing' kind of trot. He's always been great on the lunge and he's really chilled about things dangling around his legs and is great in traffic.

He's schooling nicely on the flat now and not a bad little jumper. I haven't tried to drive him myself, maybe one day.
 
I find no difference. Yes, if they only drive they arn't great off the leg, but very good off the voice and may find canter tricky, but if they regularly do both, they are great.
 
We have found that they tend to stay towards the centre of the road while being ridden, due to travelling in the same position in the road as when being driven.
 
A friend of mine has two ride and drive Welsh Cobs.
They both drive single or pairs, they do dressage at Club level, 3' 3 club show jumping, x-country and they both make great hacks.

It's all in the training, they get lots of lessons - they're both superstars. She's not a professional either, she just does lots of different things because she enjoys it... and she lets me ride/drive them too.
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