Hitching for the first time

Make sure you use a butt rope so they can’t turn inside-out.

Hitch in a quiet place that is familiar to the horses and is free from obstacles and distractions.

Hitch to something heavy and strong and make sure you’ve got a path in mind and plenty of “runway” in case the 2 brains in front of you decide to go a little farther and faster than you’d planned.

As far as preparing yourselves or the horses, it sounds like you’ve done about all that can be done prior to the first hitch.

Just keep in mind that there are 4 brains and 4 personalities in the mix here. The horses can get used to having 2 different drivers and 2 different sets of commands, but it probably won’t go as smoothly or progress as rapidly as if they only had 1 driver. Maybe only one guy should do any talking or driving for the first several hitches?

I do love to work a single horse and often attend events where I am the only one not working a team. This inevitably leads to occasionally adding my one to someone else’s two and making a three. Or splitting a team and adding one to mine.

If one or both of the two horses considers itself an alpha, you could have a little more trouble than if they were both middle-of-the-herd in personality. I shouldn’t call it “trouble” because I doubt it will severely impact their ability to get work done, but it can add some “static” in the communication between the driver and the horses.

Some horses try to get the rankings sorted out straight away, particularly the mares. You didn’t mention the genders of the two horses involved. Any time you add a mare, you are more likely to be dealing with issues of rank. Not to say that it will always be an issue, or that geldings don’t care about rank. Just that, statistically, mares will be more interested in social standings.

The horse I usually work single is pretty full of herself when it comes to social standings. She’d try to assert her dominance with a new temporary team-mate unless I bark at her to be polite. They can set aside their differences and hold off on the pecking-order crap for a while in harness, but the question of which of the two horses is boss will always be there in the back of their minds till they get it sorted out. This is easiest if the customary owner/handler/driver of the more dominant horse is the one driving the team. If you can pasture the two animals together for a while so they can get the rankings settled, that can help a lot. Needless to say, if they are stalled close to one another, you will get the ol “team spirit” quicker.

If one is significantly crankier than the other, a jockey stick will keep him from biting at or intimidating his team-mate till they can get things sorted out on their own time.

hi Ed, They are nice looking horses and will work well together. Here are a few thoughts. Have either of you worked with a team before? In the picture above were they being driven as a team? There doesn’t appear to be much space between their heads. This would be caused by the lines not being set up right. (after looking at the picture more closely – those lines are probably not on right / set up right).

From my perspective the sniffing, turning, squealing, and kicking should have been done while they were turned out loose together. They are doing the natural pecking order behavior, just don’t want it in harness. As soon as they are harnessed, the teamster should take over all the leadership positions and turning and kicking are not permitted.

If neither of you has any experience driving or working with a team you might want someone to look over the set up. You can definitely share this team. There are plenty of ways that would work, but what I would do is work together. Take turns driving them for 15 minutes or so. You will naturally start to meld your commands and the horses will learn to recognize both of you as leaders. Grey’s suggestions above were right on, good for any one that is just starting a horse or team they are not sure of.

There is a thing called the three step rule. When you start a green horse (or team) to a new piece of equipment you know ahead of time you only plan to go three steps and stop. This way you are already stopping before you realize (or the horse realizes) that something is not quite right or bothering them. If everything is good you start again. Good safety practice.

Hi Ed, Just to make sure we are on the same page; the picture was before you fixed the stub lines? With out knowing what size evener you want to hook to; the stub lines should be 4″ to 6″ inches longer than the out side line. We can fine tune it to what ever evener / neck yoke you want to use. Donn

For a 42″ evener you could start out with stub lines 8″ longer per Steve Bowers.

@highway 15487 wrote:

I think the lines are adjusted correctly now? They worked very well together. The black horse has a tendancy to lip and mouth the other horse and lines and whatever else he can reach. He doesn’t bite, but it is irritating to the other horse.

Would a jockey stick prevent that when they are just being ground driven?

I also used the breeching rope on the rear to help keep them together when turning and backing.

Ed

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, my friend. Although it is difficult to tell what’s going on from the photos, your assessment of their performance really tells you what need to know. If it’s working, then you probably have it right! Looks right to me, from what I can see.

I have a horse that mouths stuff… particularly in harness and moreso when she is anxious. She did it constantly when I first started hitching her, but it has never really gone away. She’s not a very confident horse and mouthing things like that is her security blanket, like sucking her thumb. When she’s very upset, she’ll bite the neck yoke. It’s maddening, but if I get on her case about it, it only gets worse. I’m hoping she’ll give it gup one day. It’s been three years now and she does it about half as often as she used to. An 11-year-old thumbsucker. :rolleyes:

It can be a safety concern, I think, for the following reasons:

1.) The horse is putting some of its attention span toward mouthing things and not putting as much on the driver.

2.) Craning the neck around to reach things to mouth upsets the line tension on both horses.

3.) Fussing around like that increases the risk of getting a blinder snagged on a line or in some other way fouling the rigging. A great way of getting fouled up is to be using a shanked bit and have the fussy horse snag the shank on the other horse’s cross-check.

4.) The team-mate can get fed up and be inclined to grumble and squabble, which takes even more attention off the teamster and makes you have to work harder to keep them in line.

5.) If the horse takes hold of the line and doesn’t let go… well, I’m sure you can see the problem there.

You could certainly try the jockey stick (other horse’s hame to the fussy horse’s halter), but you might find that it interferes with your cues while ground driving. It works better while hitched to something with a tongue, I think. Also, depending on what the psychological basis is for the mouthing, it might squelch the mouthing but you might see a new behavior arise that is even less desireable.

I think that if you (and the other horse) can hang in there and put up with it for a while, try to ride it out. I’m guessing it only happens while they are standing? Hopefully it will disappear or dimimish after a few more hitches. Hope you don’t get stuck with a chronic “thumbsucker” like I did. It isn’t a huge issue with her any more, just a little embarassing. She mostly confines her mouthing to holding onto her own bit shank or mouthing the neck yoke, neither of which is a real safety hazard.