Finally getting horses!

[Thecowboysgirl]

Hey guys…

So, after much consideration I decided that Haflingers were the way to go for us. After several months of looking at horse ads and wishing we had the money to go out and buy a nice team, a dog training client of mine called me up one weekend and said “I have two Haflingers I can’t afford to feed, is there any chance you’d take them?”

The story is this: they are a mare/gelding pair who has been together for at least the past five or six years. They are now 17ish. One of them was supposedly once an Amish work pony but (lol) nobody is sure which. They had been therapeutic riding horses at a handicapped riding stable then sold to my dog training client as a trail riding pair for her and her husband. They have since gotten out of riding and the pair have now been sitting around getting fat for at least a year.

The mare was the husband horse (he had never ridden). She will be my daughter’s riding horse since she is pretty trustworthy. Getting a horse for my older daughter to ride was a big priority and since this mare is suitable for her, even if that is all we get out of them we are happy.

Of course, I hope we can get them driving, too. I thought I would start ground driving them in a surcingle & headstall since I have plenty of experience doing that and just see what they do. I know of at least one trainer I can either haul to or have come here to help me start them pulling for real. She does only pleasure driving, but that’s more than I know…

[Jean]

We would like pictures please. Good luck with the new team. They sound great.

[Robert MoonShadow]

My mentor does “only” pleasure-driving…most of it readily transfer over to my training me donkeys to work. So now your fun begins!

[Cameron Littlejohn]

Congrats be sure to keep us updated!

[dominiquer60]

Hooray for you, have fun with your new adventure!

[Ed Thayer]

We have had Haflingers in the past and they are great partners. Good luck with your new team.

ED

[Thecowboysgirl]

I have ridden the gelding who is 13 something hh and I was so surprised to find that I didn’t feel rediculous on him! I guess because he is so wide my legs didn’t hang down. It was just easier to get on.

Pics to come for sure because I suspect they are quite overweight and need to loose some but I am not ffamiliar with body condition on a draft like I am a light horse, so…

I hope they are old enough to accept their new discipline calmly and still give us a few good years.

I have a few pics of them from the previous owner but don’t know how to post them here, can anyone tell me? they come home Sat. morning. Then I have to wean them onto my pasture without foundering them. They’ve been on dry lot for a few years. Yikes! (Remember we are in SW Florida so our pasture is tall and green despite the month. Sorry New Englanders!!)

[Thecowboysgirl]

Hopefully you guys agree I could make a driving team out of them since they know each other quite well? I don’t know what kind of relationship a horse has to have to be paired in harness, but I figured these two had to have a shot for as long as they’ve lived together. The mare can be witchy esp. about food and has kicked him before but previous owner says they can ride side by side on trail rides so I am hoping they can work together when there is no food about. Do blinders help with that sort of thing?

[Thecowboysgirl]

I uploaded a pick to an album on here. Don’t know how to put it into the thread, but the album is out there, called “Juliana’s haflingers” if anyone can find it. Will put more pics in there.

[Billy Foster]

Juliana
Congratulations, I am a few months ahead of you but am involved in the same process as you are about to undertake. A few months ago we bought two Haffys to use on our farm. They both had driven but had not worked together before. Oh yes and I am green as grass driving horses :).
My experience is this:
Find a mentor, they can really help you with the small details which speed up the development of the team and most importantly keep you safe.
You mentioned that you train dogs, I have trained and worked dogs for a long time and I have had a lot of luck training the horses using those same methods i.e. set them up to succeed, positive reinforcement, repetition and consistency.
I found a lot of security ground driving in a round pen. I spent a lot of time driving back and forth inside the pen. I started just ground driving them single with their harness on, then I would drop a trace chain and drag that around, then the other, then a spreader, then a tire. I did this until I could not get them to jump regardless of what loud “thing” I dragged behind them. THEN I hooked them side by side with a butt chain and a yoke and started the entire process of dropping the traces and hooking them up to a double tree again. When you think you are ready to head out of the pen get the help of a friend to hold a halter rope on the “spookier” horse as insurance.
Work on teaching them to stand. I didn’t think this was a big issue before but quickly discovered that to be safe and organized the horses must stand well.
Like with the dogs if the horses make a mistake they have not done anything wrong, you have just failed to prepare them for the situation you put them in.

Best of luck
Billy
Foster Farm

[drafthorsey]

Congratulations …. and twins at that. At 17 they’ll tell you what they can do, and should be a good learning team. I like the idea of a mentor as mentioned already. Mostly have fun and they’ll have some fun too.

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