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Banderas, the Hackney pony, had another round of pretty good progress on his ground work in preparation for becoming a cart pony. In the last harness update here, I mentioned needing to work on several areas:
* WHOA and STAND
* Navigating more complex obstacles
* Adding sound from the Spookless de-spooking CD
* Adding a shaft and working up to a drag. A drag is a travois like contraption made of two poles attached with a cross beam at the ground end. It allows the horse to learn how to work with the shafts and use his body to turn them. It also allows him to get used to sound and feel of pulling.
With all of the above on the list, I completely forgot that although I had fitted and driven Banderas in the full harness; I had not yet introduced The Dreaded Crupper. The crupper is the padded leather loop that fits under the horse’s tail and attaches to the breeching (”britching”) on their rump. It serves to help hold the breeching and saddle (surcingle) in place. Looks and sounds equally uncomfortable. It is a bit like the pony version of the thong underpant.
When he first arrived this winter, he was quite jumpy about being touched on his haunches. I expected a little bit of excitement as a result of his introduction to his new friend the crupper: certainly a madly swishing tail, stamping of little feet, maybe a crow hop or two. Next trip out I braced myself, pulled the heavy tail through and buckled it up. Banderas for his part was completely bored with the new addition.
He’s beginning work to desensitize him to new sights and sounds. Hopefully his bold attitude will translate well into a carriage career: his reaction to unexpected visitors in the pasture whether of the paper bag, dog or person variety is to stand for a minute, stomp then boldly trot on to greet them (or in the case of dogs: chase them). He worked well over a tarp in the arena; a couple of attempts to dodge around it followed by a crisp noisy walk across. A good sign.
I also added a single shaft to our line driving exercises. The pony was a little uncertain of the feel of it hanging in the tug especially when he tried to turn, but he didn’t panic at the feeling of it pressing up against him. It’s a bit difficult with only 2 hands to orchestrate the lines, the whip, steer a 500 lb pony and hold the far end of the shaft off the ground while the other end rests in one of the tugs. Although he is a little unsettled with working from the right side with the shaft attached, I think this is more due to his unfamiliarity with being handled at right in general. Another good sign.
No progress yet on using the Spookless CD (see details in the previous post) and he needs much more work on WHOA and STAND. I will need to go back to teach him to ground tie first I think as everytime I tell him WHOA he thinks he needs to turn around and face me: symptoms of a lot of lunge line work in his past I think. Bad enough when he’s in the lines, but wow is that going to be an adventure if he tries to do that with a cart attached.
Next stop: build the drag. DH picked up the lumber parts for me already so now I just need to measure and assemble.
