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Afraid of the cart - breaking to harness
Training

Afraid of the cart - breaking to harness

My Shetland pony is very scared of the cart. The plan is to break her to harness, but since I have never broken a horse to harness before I need some help. So how do you train it out of her so she isn't scared of the cart? We tried putting the cart on behind her. But then she panicked and started to bolt.
Answers from HayHay's experts

Hi!

How lovely that you want to break her to harness!😍

🥕Breaking a horse to harness takes time, and demands patience and plenty of experience of driving and of breaking horses to harness. Dangerous situations can arise if the horse or pony becomes nervous of things behind it and frightened of the cart.

🥕Because of the way horses learn, it can also be hard to re-teach a horse not to fear the cart once it has been frightened. This is important for you to know, so you understand why it may be difficult to accustom her to the cart now that she has had a fright and bolted.

🥕Before you bring out the cart, it is important to train the commands for go and stop, and to accustom the horse to you being behind it as you steer. Start with lungeing, then move on to long reining, then long reining in a harness, and after that long reining with something trailing along the horse's sides, nothing hard that the horse or you could be hurt on.

🥕So there are many steps before you bring out the cart itself and start working with it.

🥕One of the most important steps in training your horse to be broken to harness is finding a good trainer with experience of breaking horses to harness. It is more enjoyable, safer and gives better results with good help😃

🥕I am including two links. The first is to Anders Eriksson's website. He is a real expert at driving and at breaking horses to harness. There you will find video clips on equipment, driving and breaking to harness. Anders also travels around Sweden teaching, so do get in touch with him if you need help finding a trainer or would like to take part in his courses.

https://www.anders-eriksson.se/korning

The second link is to an episode of the Swedish Radio programme Ridpodden, where a driver talks through the important steps for anyone wanting to break their horse to harness:

https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/korning-for-nyborjare-med-maria-kallander-ridpodden

Good luck with your pony!🦄😃

Malin Axel-Nilsson
Malin Axel-Nilsson
Equine Ethologist
Last reviewed:
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