Thank you.
This is another good reason why we believe its important
to train horses
for going out on the roads, because you can see we're on a country lane
out in the middle of nowhere
We've actually got a car behind us now so turning round and going back the other way
if we had a queue of traffic, wouldn't be the easiest thing in the world.
They've got a lorry here blocking off the lane
and this horse here has been with us for 5 weeks
so I suppose its only his 5th or 6th time in harness. He's got to stand still with all these flashing lights
the noise of the men shouting over there, crane going, and he's just standing there perfectly happily.
Not only is it
a good thing to get them used to traffic but they've also got to stand still when told.
If you notice there's nobody at his head; we haven't got a groom down to hang onto him.
So you can find traffic like this even on quiet country lanes, so we believe its important to
take your horses out and make sure they're good in traffic
even if you do live in the middle of nowhere.
because if you end up in a situation like this and your horse is panicking
because its never seen a van at all, its never seen a lorry, with all the strange noises
this horse had run away with a tyre before coming to us, when somebody else was trying to break him, but we've got him going in harness now and you can see he's stood there happily, he's a young green horse, 4 years old.
He might have been with us for 5 weeks but he's only been in harness for a week but he's perfectly happy, we don't need to get someone down to stand with him, we're not going to take him out of the carriage and turn around.
But he's not bothered, he's not moving his feet.
That's why its so important - you can't say I'm going to drive out round the countryside
and never meet any traffic, you want to know your horse is going to be safe in traffic.
You want to know whether it meets a lorry going down a
busy ringroad on the outskirts of town
or whether its going
down a country lane and meets one, you want to know that they're going to be safe and confident to go past it.
And if you're not prepared to teach your horse to cope with situations like this then
really you shouldn't be on the roads at all because there's nowhere "safe" -
I've had people say to me "The lanes where I live are so quiet I'd take my horse out there but I wouldn't take it through the middle of a busy town", well if you get a situation like this
down a narrow country lane and you meet something like this, your horse has got to be able to cope with it.
And that's why we train them the way we do
so they're safe confident and happy in harness wherever you drive. And that means right from the very first time you go out on the road.
This is a young horse, 4yo, newly-trained
only about his 5th time in harness, he's been in harness now for about a week
and yet he's come out and he's standing still perfectly happily.
If you notice all the time I've been talking there's been nobody at his head
he's not fidgeting, he's not pawing the ground, he's not doing anything other
than doing what he's told which is to stand still.
And that's exactly how it should be because if you have a situation where you do need to stand still, he's got to cope with it and do what he's asked.
I'll just show you here that its blocking the entire road
so obviously there's no way round.
We could turn round and go back the other way but this is a good training exercise for him.