Carriage horses spook from wave noise

Young driving pair in training jumps sideways at :40 when startled by noise of crashing wave hitting base of cliff below the road to their left. Fortunately they didn't run into anything. Lake Champlain at Shelburne Farms, VT. Step-by-step pairs training, groundwork to hitching at: http://portraitswithhorses.com/blog/index.php?s=pairs+training+step-by-step

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Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• carriage driving
• horse driving
• driving horses
• arabian
• percheron
• horses
• coaching
• New Hampshire
• horse cart
• pair driving
• pleasure driving
• carriage pair
• Gilford
• Glendale

[SunshineHorse2247]

Lol "hey what's that?" "OMG! Run it's water!"

[horsepaintings]

@SunshineHorse2247 That's about exactly what ran thru their heads... except I doubt if they even recognized that it was water.

[Joybellmorgans]

What a nice place to drive!

[beautifulpassion]

@horsepaintings I don't even see what would prompt that comment at all, to be honest. No one was suggesting it was.

[horsepaintings]

@beautifulpassion I agree-- my point was that "whipping" with a crop, on a horse that is afraid, is not a productive way to use one.

[beautifulpassion]

@horsepaintings Not true. A crop can be a very useful tool IF you know how to use it properly.

[beautifulpassion]

@horsepaintings Meh, the calmest horse will spook from time to time, papergirl. My friend and I have two horses that are our favorites at the place I work- mine is an old cutting horse and he is the most go-anywhere-do-anything hard-headed (pain in my ass, sometimes >.>) thing ever, but even he's spooked on me once or twice.

[LucyInk121]

@horsepaintings Yeh I was always really quiet and calm around him.. I mean quiet with the way i handled him, when he was nervous id talk to him a lot. The beeping incident was a bad one though. I think people in their driving tests need to be taught how to deal with horses appropriately. They almost always get too close, speed past, or beep.

[horsepaintings]

@LucyInk121 I know the feeling-- our arab mare, who is normally quite sensible, often gives a hairy eyeball to rocks along the trailside. Once she did NOT want to pass a fake deer in someone's yard for bow&arrow target practice. She was SURE it was going to start moving. Those are your training and reassurance moments folks. Definitely NOT to be solved by whipping with a crop however, which only serves to reinforce the horse's fear...

[LucyInk121]

@horsepaintings It's so funny when they cat leap. Sometimes it takes me ages of looking around to find something that might have triggered it. The same thing happened again with that arab pony I used to ride, when we were passing a petrol station and there was a spinning sign in the forecourt. He honestly thought it was going to kill him, while at the same time, id now stopped a load of traffic, but people thought it was a good idea to start BEEPING!? just got to laugh along with it i guess!