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We've been asked to retrain these
2 Friesians; they were very very hard-mouthed.
They would lift my bodyweight out of the box seat
straight out, and I'm over 20 stone.
and they'd lift me out no trouble at all the 2 of them off their mouths - they'd pull the cart along just off their
mouths
as this man will verify that owns them.
Now we've got a problem. We've got them going in rubber, they're going as sweet as you could possibly ask 2 horses to do
bearing in mind these are
15 and 14 year old mares.
So what I mean is they've been going this way for a long long time.
But you see when they're coming down here their heads are not straight already.
They're not
straight.
You can see one horse laid on the other; see the films where I'm driving they're no trouble at all.
The problem is I've tried
as hard as I can to tell the fellow how to drive them
and the best way he can, but he just doesn't seem to grasp
about keeping the two horses up level
but whether he is a good enough driver to take these on
and keep them where
I've got them to now, I just don't know.
Fair play to him, he's come down
or come up from Somerset to here which is a couple of hours each way
to come and drive them but
I don't think he's up to these horses.
I'm not here to teach people my job is to train horses
but the man's been driving for years, since he was a child
but that doesn't make you a good driver. As soon as they go home
they will start pushing the boundaries
and what you've got to do is say "No, that's enough, do as you're told".
I can see some little things
creeping in where he's not on top of them.
what he's doing he's pulling them, and not letting them just sit on the bits nicely.
So he's maybe just a bit nervous,
but they don't need that; they'll go along with no rein on them whatsoever.
You know a very very slack rein. If you put a tight rein on them,
they are only going to go back where they were - hard-mouthed.
Well to train 2 horses to be soft-mouthed like this
after how hard-mouthed they were,
is a very very hard thing to do. Its not an easy thing to do.
And if the person is going to come back
and start pulling them too much
they won't be long before they'll start pulling back. And then he'll say
"Oh I'd better put them in Liverpool bits" and we'll be back to square one in no time.
If I come over here you can see the trace is working this side
doing its job; its got weight on it. If I come over there
you'll find that that one is flopping about slack.
So he's had plenty of time on the reins but just doesn't seem to
be of the standard that would be required
to drive these horses. These are cold-blooded horses, Friesian mares
its not like they're stallions or anything like that, they're just
plodding along. This is not to
put this man down but he's running a commercial company
doing weddings, and been doing it for a long while,
but he's done it with 2 old, what I would call, donkeys, old plods,
old dopes on a rope. And these are not
old dopes on a rope.
I said to him a while ago,
I'll say it in front of him today,
I don't think he's the coachman he thinks he is. And also they've been somewhere else
owned by somebody else, where they were
hard-mouthed, pulled, rushed on everywhere
this is according to this chap, what he's saying.
They were rushed on everywhere. But to run a commercial business
this is where the problems lie.
People think, you know, you just get up and drive 2 horses
well let me tell you; people who can drive horses
and I mean, really drive horses, are very few and far between.
Most people would say they're going up here lovely well I don't see it in the same way.
I certainly don't see it in the same way.
Its worrying me. And he's chatting away up there and he wants to be concentrating
on what he's doing. He's going to get complacent sat behind these now, think he's back
with his 2 old cobs.
Anyway I don't want to run anybody down, that's not what I'm here for, I'm here to help.
But you can only help if people listen. Now the man puts the inside trace on first
well if you put a pole chain on, pole strap on,
then put the inside trace on first, there's stopping the horse turning right round,
turning completely round
and standing in front of the pole, in front of the pole head
looking at you. Nothing to stop him. That's why you put the outside trace on.
When he reins up, he misses terrets,
well no good. You can say "Well the man's nervous
you know, in a different place" but he's been here now, we've made him as welcome as
we can
we sit and have a cup of tea together and a chat and I
say to him "This is what you've got to do" make him as relaxed as I possibly can
and help. I've done my job, those horses are now going up the road
doing their job. There he goes again with the hand
you know hitting the horse with the rein and if you can believe it
he's hitting the horse when we're going downhill.
B:How are their mouths now to what they were like?
Owner: Absolutely wonderful. I couldn't drive them like this when we first had them.
And they're very easy to drive.
B: But I'm telling you now
if you don't concentrate on what you're doing and keeping these horses going right
you're going to be on the phone to me saying "They're just not doing that"
and its no good. Don't worry about her
you haven't got to talk to her at all. What you've got to do is concentrate of what you're doing and keeping
these right.
They're 2 beautiful animals now. How soft are they on the mouth?
Owner: Lovely. Absolutely great. B: They couldn't be any better?
Owner: No.
Handful of stones right?
Are they moving? Not a foot are they? So if I've done a brilliant job
you're going to *** my work up. Now I'm telling you
not to put you down, not to make you look a fool or anything like that but sure as sh*t
you will be crying your eyes out with these 2 horses because in a fortnight
they'll be back where they were
unless you're on the all the time.
What horses can you take some stones like that
and the horses don't move.
Now, I just had a word
with
the lad who's driving them. And if you watch them go past
the lorry and watched the mark on the road with the tyres
they've gone
past perfectly straight.
Then when he's done past he's pulled out to the white line. Why, I don't know.
So he went past in a perfectly straight line
that was close to the vehicle, close enough
for comfort and everything good. But I shouldn't be talking to a man of his age
and so-called experience. But as he said himself
his horses were dopes on ropes, these aren't. He couldn't drive them
they were dangerous - I've got them perfect,
back perfect, they couldn't be better
and he's not concentrating on what he's doing because he thinks he's back
with his dopes on a rope. And these are not that way.
They've already been somewhere else in their heads, by that I mean
they've been somewhere else where they pull your arms out, do everything at 90
miles per hour.
Well they'll go back there, because they've already been there
If you give me a horse that's a baby, that's never had anything done the only thing he knows
is what I teach him. Therefore
reschooling older horses, obviously it can be done
we've just proved it. But what I've just said to him
I've been saying to him for the last 2 days:
"You've got to get your act together."
Whether you've got flu, you don't feel well,
you've still got to go out and get a living and if you've got a wedding booked and you're the only
driver you're the one who's going to be doing it.
So it doesn't matter how you feel, you've got to be on the ball to do the job
and when you're around the public its a dangerous situation, and that is why standards
are falling in this country.
And its heartbreaking to me, to put all this work into these horses
to see it go down the drain
because of a lackadaisical attitude
towards doing the job. Now these horses, he's concentrating, anyone
with a brain can see they're going better
than they were and that's just a little bit of concentration.
Now the horses were bad in traffic, they were bad when they came to me.
What they were like with the previous owner prior to this guy I don't know.
But when they came to me you'd want to be careful
you know getting them to go past anything, things overtaking them especially they were really bad.
private I come especially with really bad
climbing up the bank, climbing over one another to get away from it.
Now they're settled, they're happy, they're exactly what we try and achieve:
to be safe, confident and happy.
And those 2 horses are happy, confident in themselves, and happy
to go and do the job. There's no shaking the head, no niggles, swishing the tail
I don't want to do this - they're just sitting up there, loving their time out doing their job, enjoying it.
The trouble is, they're confident in themselves
now in a minute they're going to be asking this driver
a question. Now you say to me "they can't talk" well they can if you want to listen
and use your eyes. Their ears will come back, and they'll be saying to him
"Are we going left or right? Is it straight over this roundabout?"
"Is this coloured bit in the road alright to go over Dad?"
You know, that's what they're asking us.
Now these horses are on automatic pilot
at the moment. When they ask a question
of their driver, and there isn't an answer
they will lose their confidence. Confidence that's taken me weeks
and weeks and weeks to get into them. That they can trust
a piece of rubber in their mouths, they haven't got to lay on it with all their weight.
They've got to stand at junctions quietly. They've got to stand
all day long if that's what they've got to do.
That's what I would like for this fellow to take on board
what I'm saying and keep them there, otherwise its all just a waste of time.
Its a waste of bringing them here, its a waste of money, its a waste of my time.
I don't know whether this man is
listening to me;
I think, I don't know, I don't want to
cause arguments with anybody but I think he thinks "I've been doing it
for years
all I had was a problem with some horses that were
hard-mouthed. Yes you've sorted that out for me
and that's lovely..." so as I say I don't know
if I can help the man anymore than I have. I think what he thinks is
"I've been doing this for many years"
done it with 2 old dopes on ropes let me say
but he's been doing it for years and years
"I've been round horses all my life"
Well all I can say to that is
we'll see. These horses are on automatic pilot
and I think he thinks the problem was
he bought 2 horses that were hard in the mouth, wouldn't stand still,
I've put that right so now there isn't a problem.
I can carry on in my own way
and everything will be fine well it won't be fine. Because as I'm saying, repeating myself again,
these horses pulled your arms out,
wouldn't stand at junctions, would walk straight over that roundabout, walk
or canter over it
steering them was hard work.
So because they've been there
once in their lives, or a lot of their lives
all he used to do was let them run on.
Go to a pub, onto the next one, back home, there was
no real...they were just going flat out
everywhere. Wouldn't stand etc.
So we've disciplined them, they're 100% as you can see,
he's driving them and they're on automatic pilot.
and I'm telling you now if he doesn't liven himself up he's
going to be in trouble with these horses.
He'll be on the phone to me saying they won't do this, they won't do that
well the proof of the
pudding, they'll do everything they're told but unless he tightens his
job up you know
the concentration and the dedication to being a whip, being a coachman,
then he'll have nothing.
We had the same thing with a lady a while ago; she wouldn't listen,
she went off and bought some horses. She doesn't do weddings anymore
because she just couldn't handle them and I tried to tell her, I tried to tell her before she bought them,
I told her after she'd bought them,
I tried my hardest to put her on the right road and say "Look, this is what you should do"
but people know best
and my attitude now is let them get on with it, because you can't help them.
And these horses have only got a bit of rubber in their mouths
no great lumps of iron and curb chains and all that nonsense. They've had all that, you couldn't hold them on the
second slot on the Liverpool. Couldn't hold them.
So, what are you going to do. Going absolutely
superbly now, beautiful.
But that won't last unless he keeps on the ball.