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This film shows the importance of preparing horses thoroughly for anything
they might encounter
so they are
safe, confident
and happy the very first time they go in a
carriage. This is Mr Darcy's first ever time in the carriage.
He is happy being worked at the walk, trot and canter.
He is only being driven
in a soft piece of rubber and is perfectly controllable at all paces.
He will go uphill and downhill showing that he can use his breeching without panicking,
i.e that he is happy with the feel of the harness and carriage
both when he is pulling it and when it is pushing into him while going downhill
especially when we are not using any brakes.
This situation here demonstrates exactly why your horse needs to be prepared for traffic
wherever you drive.
The route we are on today is rural roads between two quiet villages,
however here traffic is being diverted off the A303.
Now we have lots of large lorries passing Darcy for the first time
but as you can see he is not upset and will stand still calmly when asked.
Darcy is happy to have the lorries pass him at the walk, and he will also
stand still patiently
with no-one at his head. He does not need a groom
to stand by him and hold onto him to ensure he does not move forwards while
the lorries are passing.
He is quite happy to stand still as they go past
purely because he has been asked to do so by the driver.
This shows that he is listening to the driver, is relaxed and happy
and is trained properly, so that under these circumstances when we ask him to do
something he is happy to oblige
without getting upset or panicking. Bear in mind that this is his first time
in a carriage and his first time out on the roads.
It is possible to teach young horses to be safe, confident and happy
and even young, inexperienced horses
need not be frightened of going out on the roads.
This goes to show that when you first take your newly-broken horse out
it should be well trained enough to cope with as many situations as possible
so that it goes out on the roads safe, confident and happy
because you never know what you might encounter. The better prepared
your young horse is
the less risk of you being in danger out on the roads
and the happier driving animal your horse will be.