We've got 2 older ponies here, one's 19, one's 20,
The lady's been driving them for years obviously
she's well-known round the show ring
what the problem is, I think these ponies used to do scurry and all sorts
the problem is now
the little mare
in my opinion, I'm not a vet
but what I've done is massaged her back between this point and this point
and loosened her up. I don't think there's anything wrong with her, she's just a bit
stiff in the muscle.
That has allowed her - what she was doing before was pulling herself along on her front
feet
So let's just start there; she's pulling herself along on her front feet, she's not keeping
pace
with this horse.
So she's laid back a bit.
The consequence of that is
which people
don't seem to grasp
and I've had to explain to the owner
is this:
If this horse here
is hanging back there, and this horse is pulling on,
yes your carriage will still move but the natural consequence of that is
he's pulling on that side
of the fore carriage -
that side of the splinter bar
wanting to turn the carriage
out into the road.
So for the dear little pony here to keep it straight
he's now got to pull
his pole strap
because he's pulling behind
and he's got to go at an angle
to keep the vehicle moving
straight down the road.
So when
this horse then feels the pole being pulled away
she's laying back
and pulling away over there.
So you had a situation like this
where they're both going out.
Now its understanding the reason why
that's happening and the problem we're going to have
is explaining to the owner how to drive them.
We've got them going now. They were also in butterfly bits, we've got them in a piece of
rubber
because this fellow was hard mouthed,
very hard-mouthed, so we've retrained him a bit
and the reason he was hard-mouthed was because all the rein was on him because this little girl
wasn't doing anything.
So we've put rubber bits in both of them
So see what I mean; this horse was back
this pony's back there
this one's forward, the consequence of him pulling forwards is he started to pull out that way
she's felt the pole strap and gone that way. So you're driving down the road like this
The more she pulled the more that one pulled...
People think
you can do the coupling reins to alter that
and drag your coupling reins together -
that's true to a certain extent
but what you need to do is to sort the major problem out
which is getting her moving. The you've got to deal with the problem that
the horses are now going on
what they think they should do
they're going on memory
so he wants to get on and pull all the weight;
he's not expecting her to do it. So that's why we've added the rubber bits - remouthed the
pony
so he'll come back more and sit on the bit
and he'll answer the voice far more.
Now the lady thinks that the pony's worried about concrete, slipping over and
is it this etc - it's nothing
to do with that.
It's just the way they're driven and if they're not driven correctly...
The film will prove
that they're doing the job here. If they're not
driven correctly
after leaving here
then they'll go back to where they were.
We've also got them in rubber bits where they were in butterflys and he was down there with the curb chain on
and all that.
Well you can't
add more iron to a horse's mouth
in my opinion
to make it soft-mouthed. While we're on the point
when the lady came before and we had the horses for a day
just to have a brief look to see what was wrong we altered the coupling reins
to compensate.
Now we've got the coupling reins identical.
As you can see here
the holes being identical. The reason they put a load of holes in
coupling reins is so you can adjust them to suit each horse
but seeing as these horses are going dead square together
the coupling reins don't need adjusting do they? Because if they're going
square together and they're going at the same pace together and they're not pulling off the pole
whyever would you want to adjust them? There's no need.
This has been going wrong as I understand it,
I could be wrong but I believe it's two years
and they want it put right in a few days/a fortnight.
It's not the easiest thing in the world to do;
its in the horse's heads
how they've been allowed to go
and that's nothing detrimental to the owner
this has crept up over a period of time this problem
but that's not detrimental to them - I'm only interested in the horses and them being happy.
The ponies really don't have a problem. It's a bit
awkward to say
but I can only speak as I find and the way I see it, and my concern is
the ponies not the people that own them.
So what I'm saying is that its
been a driving problem
the driver's problem rather than the ponies' problem.
They should never have been allowed to get to this stage
that they need to come here, and a little bit of correction a long time ago
and they wouldn't be here today because there'd be no need.
I don't mean that nastily or disrespectful to anybody in any way, I don't,
but
I think what's happened, to give the lady the benefit of the
doubt here and her driving ability
this has crept up over a period of time
but it should have been noticed before perhaps and corrected. It's always easier
to nip something in the bud
at the very start than it is when its been established in the
horses' heads for a long time
because it becomes habit forming
and when you've got a habit that's a very hard thing to shift from a horse.
Take it from me, that's hard to shift. You can teach a horse anything, but a horse that
teaches itself something
that's hard to shift.
We've come out the yard
our place is literally 100yds behind
Steady babies.
You can see the mare, she's right on the pole, she's not pulling away at all and when we trot now
they've only got a bit of rubber in
Steady babies
So I'm driving these now, if you look at my hands, with my finger and thumb.
We're going downhill now
can you see, they're not coming off the pole, I've got no brake on
and these ponies are just holding this back going downhill
like that.
See all the traces slack as anything, just holding them there like that.
We've done our job
the lady's now got to drive them as I tell her to
and they'll be perfect.
Come over there babies.