Training a horse for harness
Lots of people have asked me how we trained our cob, Red, to work in harness and pull a harrow. For some time I have wanted to put information on a blog that will be easily accessible to people who are interested, so although Empower Network is about making money, it will also be my platform for the horse training stuff.
In the picture you can see Red being long-lined wearing his collar & chains and using rope ‘lines’. This was taken at a demo we did which we titled ‘Driving for Dummies’. It was an introduction to how anyone could take their ordinary riding horse, especially if it was a cob type, as a lot of riding horses in the UK are, and get it to do other useful things around the yard and field.
The most common reason why people are interested in this, as opposed to carriage driving, is so that they can harrow their field or arena. Horses make a mess of the ground. In winter large areas of their fields can get very muddy and churned up. Harrowing levels the soil again to allow the spring grass to come through. Also many people prefer to rotate fields and harrow in the droppings in rather than do daily poo-picking. This can be a much better solution if there are more than 3 horses in a field as 4 or more horses create a lot of poo! Small harrows, about 4 ft square , are available for towing behind a quad bike or car. If you have a quad then it is probably easier to use that, but a lot of people don’t have one. Also there is the fuel issue, and after all, if you have a horse why not use it? I firmly believe that horses want to be of use and each one has things it prefers to do and things it does not like to do. Very often these cobby horses like to work in harness, after all, that is what they were bred to do!
Issues to consider when training a horse for harness.
There are two main issues to consider: the horse and the harness. My view is that if you understand horses and can train one for riding then you can train a horse to do anything. As with all horse training it is about taking incremental steps, making sure the horse understands what is required at each step before moving on. The thing that stumps most people is the harness. All those straps and buckles. What goes where? How does it fit together? How does it fit on the horse? You can find pictures and diagrams of harness in books but when I started I found they only helped so far. Ideally you need some hands-on help, but failing that video will be better. Later in this series I will post video of harness and fitting. There are also significant differences between carriage driving harness and working harness. It is easy to buy carriage driving harness but much more difficult to get hold of work harness. It can also be a lot more expensive or very old and cracked.
It really upsets me to see good old horse harness nailed on the wall of a country pub! It should be in use!
Where do you start with training a horse for harness?
First teach your horse to long-line. If the horse is already a riding horse s/he will already be used to rein aids. When you ride start using voice aids. You need a word for ‘turn right’ and a word for ‘turn left’ as well as ‘walk on’ and ‘whoa’. People who work with harness horses have special words, a bit like the sheep-dog ‘come bye’, but I find ‘come round’ with a feel on the appropriate rein is adequate. So long as both you and the horse understand that is fine.
You can long-line using your riding tack. Use two lunge-lines or buy rope from a hardware store. If you buy rope each line needs to be about 5ft longer than the length of the horse from his bit to his butt! Get spring clips and fix them to one end of each line so you can clip the lines to the bit. If you do not have 2 lunge lines then rope is probably going to cost a lot less. Pass the lines from the bit through the stirrups or the stirrup leathers. You can use baler twine or any strap to attach the stirrups together under the horse’s belly so they don’t flap around.
This is just a brief introduction. I will be posting more with pictures & videos as time goes on. I am on Facebook and have a page about horsey matters, called Synergy Equine
See you soon.
Namaste.
