Cantering in harness

I don’t lope my teams around the ranch much either. I think you can get them used to it though. My last team of perch’s didn’t mind it when I’d break them into a lope with the bobsled chasing the moose out of the stackyards or hustling to beat the cattle to an open gate. BUT they were a good broke team and had done it enough to realize that sled wasn’t chasing them anywhere. I would not chase moose anywhere with my mules (sometimes they chase back). They don’t tolerate much cowboying. I really think it depends on the animals.

Like Andrew said, you build up to speed or really anything new. Prepare for it and it’s usually not that bad. I break some teams and a bunch of riding horses and mules. The one thing I’ve learned over the years is that you put the time in training and it pays off no matter if it’s under saddle or in a harness.

I don’t think that horses equate fear with running, as much as they may equate running with fear. In other words they charge around the pasture for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with fear. Although they may be inclined to run when scared, consistent work interrupting that reflex will have its affect in any situation, and I think it is erroneous to assume that when they run they become scared.

I can see how a person who was inclined toward the challenge would enjoy raising the energy level of the horses, and extending their skill level into new and more challenging experiences as a way to strengthen the working relationship.

I personally have never had a reason at my level of enterprise to take my animals beyond a trot.

That being said, I have had several instances where my horses were scared into running, and I was able to maintain the exercise of my initiative with them, even though they/we had never practiced it before.

Once while spreading manure, one of my oxen pushed through a gate from an adjacent field because he became so excited by the activity that he needed to investigate, and the charge on the fence was low or something.
He approached us at a gallop, and began dancing, throwing his head around and false charging.

This was extremely unnerving to the off horse who was getting most of his attention. Even with this stimulus the horses stopped when I said whoa, and tried to stand, but the steer was wound up by then, and actually nearly hooking the mare.

I knew that I could calm the steer if I got down, but the horses were justified in not trusting him enough to want to stay still for very long. However, they did remain standing until I felt the risk of physical contact was too high, and I spoke to them to move before they went on their own.

They definitely wanted to run, but I kept them at a brisk walk turning away from the steer, until I was able to pull the lever for the beaters which finally was enough to distract the steer completely.

After a few hundred feet without being chased, the horses resumed their normal demeanor, and when we reached the bar-way they waited calmly for me to close off that field so the steer wouldn’t follow us.

It’s just one man’s experience.
Carl

I once saw John Lyons drive his App Stud at a demonstration. He borrowed the cart from some other folks, harnessed, hitched and drove like a pro, blinders and all (his horse happens to actually be blind). Everyone was wide eyed when he asked for a gallop and then a near sliding stop, he rolled back 180 and proceeded to lope figure eights with lead changes. It was a shock to many but his point was just because it is not asked for in competition doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. And some people enjoy the challenge of bringing their relationship with their animals to an out of the ordinary level.

A friend of mine sent her mare away to train her to a cart, we had done the ground work and he was in charge of dealing with her fear of carts (a fear of which we did not create). When we got her back she would stand quietly to be hitched, had a whoa, walk, 3 speeds of trot and a canter. He taught all of his animals to canter in harness (world champion pleasure diving and harness racers alike). His goal was to make any mistakes easy to handle, like breaking to the canter in the show ring. If a horse broke they knew how to smoothly drop down a gear without a fuss and hopefully the judge was looking the other direction and never noticed.

Perhaps these examples are not the best for use with draft animals but I can see the value in practicing the canter in harness, if you are inclined to do so. I can also see doing this for the drivers sake, especially when training the novice teamster. I can best relate to this via riding. When a novice rider is learning to ride a canter, this is a gait that the horse is comfortable with, but not the rider, it can be scary the first time, it is a whole different feel from the steady two beat trot. I know that it is scary for a novice driver to suddenly have the run away of the century and panic in such a new situation. It happened to me and I choked ahold of that poor horse and nearly flipped him over before he made an even stronger bolt into a tractor rut and launched me. He didn’t even run home, he ran at least a mile and a half through 3 fields until he ran so hard he bled from his nostrils. Perhaps if I had been more comfortable and balanced at a faster pace, we could have been able to steer around the rut and eventually slow down to a trot aways past the heifer barn (apparently cattle were a new thing for him). If I had the chance to practice I would try the canter in harness just so I was more comfortable with that sensation should the unfortunate runaway happen again.

An alternative would be to get a position as a navigator on a combined driving marathon vehicle, that would take the spook out of me. Below are a couple of links for those with the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viYUdEjVqTE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMlCbdEv94Y&feature=related

Erika

There is always trouble to get into, you just need to know where to look, but I would be a little better prepared if I could survive a marathon.

Sometimes you hit a bump in the road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWWPw3x0E0g&feature=related

And sometimes equipment fails.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95WLQEERHw&feature=related

So sometimes trouble finds you when you’re not looking for it and you least expect it.

Sorry to those with dial-up, it a driving pair that hit a bump on a tight turn, tip the cart and run away. The other is a single horse who runs and kicks out of a failed breaststrap style harness, literally wiggles out and runs off with bridle and lines.

Erika

@Carl Russell 3259 wrote:

I was thinking a bit more about this. Although I never have the need to drive at high speed, I do engage a high energy forward gear when pulling heavy hitches of logs.

As I thought about the concept of fear and energy level, it became a little clearer for me. I don’t think about my animals being scared. Yes I can see the nervous activity, but at it’s root it is adrenaline release, the fear may be real for them, but only until I show them there is nothing to fear.

I can’t afford to wait until a particular situation, to interrupt, or condition a horse to the specific stimulus, so I am constantly conditioning them to de-escalate. Starting with a hoe in the barn cleaning manure, or at the water trough, if they jump or shy, then I work on it right then. Rather than letting them get numb to a situation, I want them to learn to come down from the heightened sense of response, right then, under my guidance. Sometimes I only make the smallest gain, but I follow a quote I heard years ago,(I think it was John Lyons) “Recognize the slightest tries”, and make a point that this is a lesson that they are learning from me.

In this way, I never try to guess what stimulus I may need to expose them to, because I have them conditioned to follow my lead. First time the school bus goes whizzing by, yes they pay attention, but they pay more attention to me. Then when it comes to the hard pushing of heavy loads, when they have to raise their adrenaline level to a place in an experience where they have never been, I let them get fidgety and flighty, and work back down to a relaxed state.

There are times when they can put on quite a show, but “so what, there’s nothing to be worried about” (my thoughts), and they know that I expect them to calm down. Eventually, we can turn on the adrenaline and turn it off without any fear.

I know there are people who use the fear-adrenaline-run-power equation for pulling contests, but working horses on heavy loads in the woods, or on the farm, is quite different that on level ground in a pulling ring, and there needs to be control. The photo that Jason posted on the gallery recently shows that very well. There is a team that is putting all they can into that effort, and there’s a very relaxed teamster (JR) just letting them do it. They have all been through that transition together many times.

I run into a certain mind-set among people with animals that they need to train them to do certain things, or accustom them to certain situations. I realize that it is a convention, and it obviously works, but I also believe that a successful communication process can be established that will transcend any situation, even a really scary completely new experience. It is also fundamental to actually performing work, because there are times when you just have to do something for the first time, and your expectations for completion need to be high.

So as little use as I have for cantering horses in harness, and a preference for practical application, I can see how the exercise has similarities to things I do with my horses.

Carl

… what Carl is saying here. I sort of take the same view. My issue is that I DON”T work my horses for a living, so I have to fit in harness time as I can. I have decided to actually SCHEDULE into my day the time I want to spend down at “The Horselot” as we call it.

While I don’t try to figure out what stimulus to expose them to (in Carl’s words) I do try to take advantage of the free resources that are right under my nose to give them a broader exposure to real world situations. Let me explain what I mean by that.

We live in a town of about 4,000 people. While there is no ordinance against keeping horses in town, ours are about .6 of a mile to the east of our home (which is in a residential neighborhood). I bought a few acres about ten years ago that just happens to be on the street that bounds the city limits & this is “home” for the horses. This property is about .4 of a mile north of the junior high & .6 of a mile from the high school. Cattle pasture in between. This means traffic is frequently heavy coming and going to these schools.

School buses, boys (and some girls) gunning their engines as they zip by … nothing seems to faze the horses as they graze. From there it is just a small step to getting them out on the road as this traffic passes. They don’t seem to notice it. Far different situation than when they first came down from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. EVERYTHING rattled them then. I also can drive them down to the high school as the band practices out beside the football stadium. Plenty of sights and sounds that they won’t see in the round pen.

To the east of the lot maybe 1/2 mile is a city owned baseball / soccer facility. I haven’t taken them down there when the kids are playing, but there is an access road on the back side that looks to be the perfect place to make them work while the chaos of youth sports goes on around them. The great thing is that it is fenced off from the park, so I won’t have to worry about the children getting “too close”. Only a block further east is a US highway & a railroad track. While most people would prefer not to expose their animals to these sights and sounds, I look at them (within reason) as a free education for the girls. As long as the experience is positive and the situation is something I can control, I welcome these opportunities to work in a different environment. There are other examples I could cite, but I think you get the picture.

If we were working several hours a day to a full day like Carl and some of the others on this site do I wouldn’t even consider the need to do the things I mentioned. In my situation it is a reaonable alternative.