Zeppelin has been a pleasure to work with, he is beautiful, as most Friesians are, and very smart as well. Because he is going to be a driving horse, as well as a riding horse, the training has to taken on a new direction that I haven’t had the opportunity to teach Sandra Beaulieu. Sandra is his hands- on trainer under my direction.
We split his training into five different phases.
Phase One: We still begin with free lungeing with his side reins and Sandra doing at liberty half halts. Zeppelin loves this part of the training as he is able to receive treats. These are limited in his driving training as you can’t stop, jump out of the cart and hand your horse a treat.
Phase Two: Then we move on to long-lining. He has learned to make figure eights at the trot, and this last session we added ten meter circles. Sandra has learned to change direction on the long lines with ease and grace, never losing the rhythm of his stride in the trot as they do the figure eight. This takes skill to be able to change rein across the diagonal and to teach the horse to make the turn. Sandra has been studying with me in dressage for some years and her skill at half pass on the horse’s back serves her well in learning these turns. It takes a slight sponge of the rein to create an inside rein on the turn and then to use the outside rein to turn with. Most driving needs a half pass to control the horses turns, rather than a leg yield.
Phase Three: Next Sandra ground drives. He is doing quite well. In the beginning the challenge is to travel straight without wandering, as we want him to be able to pull a cart straight. A little half pass comes into play to teach straightness. After three short lessons, over three days, of about ten minutes each, he is now traveling straight and halting and learning to stand very still.
Phase Four: Next we put Zeppelin on the lunge line, as he was taught during the initial training, before he learned to long line. Now we reverse the order during his lessons. He knows how to lunge, but it is still part of his training to prepare him for riding. Sandra lunges him a few minutes on each side and then we have a rider mount him, and they continue on the same pattern of twenty meter circles in the middle of the arena. He is already used to the routine and has no trouble continuing when we stop and add the rider. In the beginning we would have someone mount him at the bleachers, which is our station for working with horses before beginning riding or training. There he would eat grain as we had a rider mount him. Once he adjusted to the weight of the rider, then Sandra would lead him around, again distracting him from the difficulty of managing the weight of a rider on his back by offering treats. Now he has moved on to carrying the rider on a lunge line at the trot and without any treats. Sandra is managing the lunge line to make sure he is safe for the rider. The rider only has to hold on to pommel of the saddle and do nothing but go along for the ride. All cues are given by Sandra as she lunges Zeppelin.
Phase Five: The last phase is teaching the horse the introduction to Piaffe. In the beginning it was just walking forward six to eight steps and halting and backing up two steps. Because he is going to be a driving horse and backing up a cart is crucial to driving, when doing piaffe he is asked to back up many more steps and we increase those steps in each session. We have advanced to trotting six to eight steps, halting and backing up eight to nine steps. Now this part of the training is done with the rider on his back. This teaches him riding and driving skills at the same time. We end there and Zeppelin gets a treat and pats from Sandy and is told he is a good boy. He stands with great pride, absorbing his praise and seeming to say, “I know I did a good job and I’m proud of it!”
Doing five phases of training keeps the training session interesting for the Zeppelin and we are able to add something new in each of the five training session. This way he learns new things each day but it seems like so little as it is broken up in each phase of the training. Sandra is becoming a proficient driving trainer and I think she will be bitten by the driving passion before we are finished.
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