Cantering in harness

[Carl Russell]

OldKat;3302 wrote:

… 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. ……

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 reasonable alternative.

I do much the same thing. Although it mostly happens in a working setting, I didn’t mean to insinuate that the type of exposure you undertake is somehow less valuable. I can absolutely see the value of the endeavors you undertake.

I think my point was more that it is not the actual stimuli that you expose them to as much as it is the act of YOU (me/us) exposing them to something purposefully. It is the replication of you taking initiative and introducing them to a situation that will distract them, so that they can learn to find you, their leader, in all the noise, to practice and reaffirm their trust in you. School band, school bus, chain saw, falling tree, walking, cantering, extreme exertion, or chasing bull, no matter, just horse and teamster.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Carl Russell;3259 wrote:

……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……;

Carl

The more I thought about this statement, it may have seemed a bit unclear.

I did not mean to say that Jason had a team of wildly fearful animals, rather the opposite. It is clear to me that they are very comfortable with the situation.

And I didn’t mean to say that he was just “letting” them do it. I was more importantly referring to his relaxed demeanor, and that they were responding with a very high level of adrenaline freely because of a level of trust they have for the teamster because of the continuity of contact, and because he has conditioned them to follow his lead even into that place of extreme exertion.

Carl

[jen judkins]

So Peanut and I cantered in harness today…by accident;). I’ve called it ‘bolting’ in the past, but I’m now gonna think of it as ‘practicing de-escalation’.

We’ve been triing to work on ‘Whoa’ since he got home from Ted’s and thankfully I finally felt some headway yesterday when Peanut offered to stop moving at the first utterence of the word…..without the need for reinforcement. A happy day indeed.

Anyway, he bolted on a paved road, approaching an intersection. He was clearly scared of something. Its funny, I didn’t even compute the danger until we got home safely and I had time to digest. I braced my feet, put alot of pressure in the reins and said ‘whoa’ twice. We maybe went 100 feet. I was pretty satisfied with our first bit of excitement.

On the way home we cut through the lower pasture toward the barn. I decided to experiment with my premise that speed and anxiety tend to go together. I asked Peanut to canter up the hill and he happily complied, but without any nervous energy or anxiety…it was quite lovely. And I’m certainly happy to be wrong once again:D.

Jennifer

[Gulo]

I’ve had my horses (clydesdales) at a canter on wagon and sleigh, but then find that when i’ve allowed this, they want to resort more often to this gait and i end up having to do more holding back for a spell. So, given that i never need anything more than a trot out of them, i now keep them from cantering. One of our horses came green-broke (the rest i broke myself), and for a long time she was forever trying to go faster. The guy who trained her was a “hitch-guy” and i suspect this is why. It was a pain in the ass.

My neighbor and at times mentor who’s been driving and farming with horses since the age of about seven, and is also a saddle-bronc rider in the rodeo (no fear of “adrenaline situations”) told me that he always heard, “Walk ’em out (to the field), trot em back.” But he says in his experience, “Walk em out, walk em back” is the best approach.

[jen judkins]

@Gulo 4067 wrote:

My neighbor and at times mentor who’s been driving and farming with horses since the age of about seven, and is also a saddle-bronc rider in the rodeo (no fear of “adrenaline situations”) told me that he always heard, “Walk ’em out (to the field), trot em back.” But he says in his experience, “Walk em out, walk em back” is the best approach.

Gulo, This is the crutch of my original question. If you want your horses to walk 90 % of the time, why introduce the trot or canter? I believe horses are fully capable of understanding that while they are in harness, they walk (unless asked to do otherwise). But during training, in the early training drives…do you ‘go there’, just to be sure you can? Or do you simply employ the pattern of walking and deal with the occasional speed up as necessary? Jennifer.

[Gulo]

Hi Jennifer…

My personal feeling is that it is unnecessary and perhaps dangerous if done too early in the process (better have a real big field!) Later on it’s maybe just unnecessary. They are smart, but also such creatures of habit. Keep them in the habit of walking or trotting and eventually that’s all they’ll think of doing. Get them cantering and they’ll want to canter (at least my horses seem to be like this). I’d rather devote my time to more sacking out with all kinds of different scary things. Also, i like to take them out in the field and hobble train them in a situation where they want to go home or get startled.

I’ve seen teams working around the big steam tractor when the release valve goes (deafening!) get panicked, but even then they’re not full runaways, maybe just a fast trot or controlled canter.

This is only my opinion, but i think the bottom line is this – get them cantering in harness and yes, you will perhaps get them and you used to dealing with it, but the down side is you may also train them to want to do it.

[OldKat]

@Gulo 4082 wrote:

Hi Jennifer…

My personal feeling is that it is unnecessary and perhaps dangerous if done too early in the process (better have a real big field!) Later on it’s maybe just unnecessary. They are smart, but also such creatures of habit. Keep them in the habit of walking or trotting and eventually that’s all they’ll think of doing. Get them cantering and they’ll want to canter (at least my horses seem to be like this). I’d rather devote my time to more sacking out with all kinds of different scary things. Also, i like to take them out in the field and hobble train them in a situation where they want to go home or get startled.

I’ve seen teams working around the big steam tractor when the release valve goes (deafening!) get panicked, but even then they’re not full runaways, maybe just a fast trot or controlled canter.

This is only my opinion, but i think the bottom line is this – get them cantering in harness and yes, you will perhaps get them and you used to dealing with it, but the down side is you may also train them to want to do it.

My thoughts exactly.

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