Horse Training -- Break and Train Your Driving Horse Successfully

Horse training can be fun: the only thing you need is a huge portion of patience and a lot of time.

ground work Photo Mijobe (GNU-licensed)

Now that you decided on training your horse yourself, check, if you have got the following ready "at hand":

Be sure, you are knowledgeable enough for teaching.
At this place I would like to suggest a useful resource for understanding equine behaviour and how to teach a horse best.

If you feel you can provide the right background for your horsy "apprentice", you need to find yourself a reliable assistant who is experienced with horses him- or herself and who will assist you teaching your four-legged friend.

An assistant is necessary, as in later stages you will need to have somebody "beside" the horse's head/shoulder as a reassurance and human "break" for the novice driving horse.

Each link below leads you to different training stages. You should follow them step-by-step, if you consider working along this program for your horse.

You, the trainer and driver

First steps

Shaft work

Road work

Before you start to break and train your horse make sure you work safely all the time.
Never teach in a "rush", take your time and let the horse "digest" new learned lessons first.
Try not to be overambitious, because a horse does need its individual time learning new things.
Make sure you are insured for all eventualities. Owning a horse is already a liability as such.

Find here more information about horse insurance.

If you already know you have got neither the time nor the konwledge, you might consider getting an expert, who will do the job for you professionally.
A decision like this will save you a lot of hassle and disappointment.