How to measure a horse/pony to size of cart?
I am going to be training my 2 year old pony to drive this next spring, and i do not know what cart size would be best? I’m not sure if it’s a one size fits all kind of thing as i have never cart trained before. Any information regarding cart sizes and/or training would be great. She is small welsh pony size, so will probably be around 13hh or so.
Most modern carts are sold by horse size so on the order form they will be asking for the height of the horse.
I would not train her so young. She will have an awful lot of growing to do, both mentally and physically. Rather wait until she is 4 at the very least. Too much physical work can damage a young horse for life. Same goes for riding.
At about 3 years you could start to introduce parts of the harness and a little (about 10 minutes) of lungeing to get the horse moving from voice and whip movement. Start with the bridle (never use a Wilson Snaffle as this can get caught on the shafts and when the horse pulls its head up, the bridle comes off and you are left with a set of reins and a bridle in your hands and an uncontrollable pony! It happened to me!) Then the collar and get people to walk alongside and pull back on the collar a little so the horse gets used to the feel of pulling. The saddle and the crupper and finally the breeching, again you would need assistants to get the feel of the breeching coming into contact with the horse’s backside as it slows. Then to walk along side with poles stuck through the shaft holders to get used to turning straight and get used to the feel of the shafts bumping around the body.
Finally getting used to having something dragged behind them – noises and feel of the weight etc before you finally hitch them to the cart and with a very strong and fast assistant whom the pony knows and trusts well walking alongside driving her around the field and walking and stopping, turning etc.
That is just a brief synopsis of the process of training. It does take a bit longer than that! Fininsh each lesson on a good note!
Butterscotch – “FurReal” life-size Pony by Hasbro