Today we continued long reining our two year old connemara filly "Ninni" (CleoS Gwen Ganeida), who had a little pause in training until we had the vet checking her teeth. I always have the teeth looked before driving youngsters as it is just waiste of time and effort to try to teach a youngster who has something wrong in the mouth. So better to check in forehand and then start driving when you know for sure that it is comfortable to have the bit in the mouth. I always use a straight iron bit, prefer a thinner one also, because they suit the youngsters small mouths best. It is no idea of filling the mouth with a too thick bit or use a snaffle bit so that they just start playing with the moving parts. Well now her fun childhood days are over (just joking) and she will have to get used to some work! She understands now a bit of steering but will still in the beginning do the opposite! I have broken several trotters to driving but never before has any horse offered determined left when you ask right :D Then of course when I asked her with reins&voice to turn to the direction I wanted and asked also with the whip to move her butt to get to the right direction she disagreed, but you can't have a two year old mare deciding where to go and she just had to surrender after some whinge. Ninni is quite a headstrong mare but not in a bad way and she is quite quickly setteled - at least if you compare with the fjord horse we had :) Ninni will turn out well, she is very curious one and wants to please people and she learns very quickly, a really smart one this little filly. She got a lot of praise and a good groom&rubbing as a thank for her good work.
Then it was Paulettes turn to be driven. Have not driven her single for a long time but she was very hard working as always. A lot to do to get her nicely on the bit though but I know she is a fast learner too! I drove her not too long as she has had two foals in a row and has not yet been working more than a few times a week. We'll start with easy work, short demanding sequences and not too much trot in the beginning and a longer nice walk in the end - you really don't want to bore a shetty with too much difficult things to do directly or ask to much strenghtwise in the beginning after a longer pause in training!
Last but not least I drove Verano. He is tooooo fat and I have now started to drive him again regulary. He had to work a bit more in trot than Paulette and with the heavier gig, and worked again a lot with him to get him to be comfortable with the whip, which he has been very freightened of ever since we got him :/ It takes still a lot work to make him understand the meaning of the whip in driving, or I should say he is used to it now gradually and understands already its meanings but he still doesn't trust 100% that it won't hit him. It is hard to tell a horse that you won't use it for that, wish I just could say to him that I would never ever beat him and he would understand :( Needs just a calm mind, time and routine! Love him, he is always a hard worker too and tries his best and you wouldn't believe how his trot feels like in the carrige, he just flies!
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