Making A Champion - From The Ground Up - Part 1

Jeri Miller of Hershey Pennsylvania has graciously agreed to share her story with us. This is one woman's story of the making of a champion through patience, hard work and consistency. Thanks Jeri, for allowing Hunt Seat Horses.com to print the story of your training of Phantom to become a World Champion Driving Horse!

Mohicans Phantom - World Champion

Before we begin, a short disclaimer...what I am sharing in this article is what has worked for me over the years. I am not a professional by any means, just an amateur owner who enjoys and gets great satisfaction from training and showing her own horses. Carriage driving can be a very dangerous sport...if at any time you run into problems that you cannot handle, please find a qualified professional in your area to help!!

Mohicans Phantom, Multiple PtHA World Champion

This will outline the training program I used with my gelding Phantom, who I bought as a weanling in 1997. After teaching both an older horse and a baby, I believe it is easier to have a clean slate and teach the baby; they tend to be little sponges and soak up everything you teach them!

I don't have any magic formulas - I just try to be quiet and consistent and let the horse tell me what the next step should be. With young horses, the number one word is "consistency". Do everything the same way, every day and your horse will be very trusting of you and willing to do whatever you ask of it. And I try and make it fun for both me and the horse!!!

As you do with a weanling, Phantom was exposed to a lot of different things as a baby, and we added a simple surcingle to his routine when he was about 7 months old, in preparation for line driving. I like to use a surcingle with leather underneath - it is softer for the horse and also tends to "stick" better. I would simply put this on while grooming, then just take walks with the surcingle still in place to get him accustomed to the feel of it being there and moving on his back.

Leather lined surcingle with rein terrets

My surcingle also has rings on the top just as a harness saddle would, as pictured above. These are called "terrets", and their main advantage over the flat rings found on many training surcingles is that they allow your driving lines to flow through them easily, without getting caught. This allows you to have direct communication with your horse, and he will not be confused by the tug of a line getting stuck, and perhaps be scared before you can untangle it. He will also feel from the very beginning the way the lines feel when they are run through terrets at the level required for driving.

The most important thing a driving horse can learn is WHOA. He must be taught that no matter what is happening around him, when he hears that word he stops, no questions asked. So a lot of "whoas" were done while simply walking with the surcingle - stop and stand - perhaps for only 5 seconds, perhaps for as long as a minute. You should not go on to the line driving step until your horse knows and responds to this word every time you ask.

In preparation for line driving, I attached a longe line to the inside ring on Phantom's halter and began walking further away from him and to the rear; almost as you would do to teach a young horse to longe. (I always use cotton longe lines instead of regular long lines - they are longer and softer, and since I am using ring terrets on my surcingle, they easily slide through.) I made sure that he was comfortable with this from both sides, and then added the second line to the other side. When standing still, I gently allowed the lines to fall down on his sides, at his legs, etc, to feel the sensation of them being there. I would also stand directly behind him, talking to him, letting him know that I was there, showing him that it was no big deal. Note that at this point I was not asking him to move off or do anything - just stand and be relaxed. Now it was time to try the line driving!

For safety's sake, always do your first line driving in an enclosed area, and have a helper available if possible!

Always at the beginning of a session, take 5-10 minutes to go back a step and review what your horse already knows, working from both sides. With a helper at Phantom's head, while walking, I gradually stepped from the side of his shoulder, back to his side of his rear flank (things he already knew and was familiar with), and then when I saw he was still relaxed and responding to my "whoas" when asked, I simply stepped behind him and continued "driving". At this point, Phantom was eight months old, and simply driving with the surcingle and longe lines off the rings of his halter.

Phantom line driving off halter rings at 8 months of age ...

As he became more confident with the driving, we removed the helper and went at it ourselves, stil in an enclosed arena. Over the next few months we drove perhaps two times per week, learning steering using a direct rein on the halter rings, doing serpentines, large circles, changes of directions on the diagonal, etc. Because we had also done work in hand over trail obstacles, we now line drove over them as well. We also added a few trotting steps in a straight line from time to time, always emphasizing whoa and stand.

At this point we were not asking for any bend, any headset - just wanting to familiarize Phantom with the sensation of being "out there" all by himself, with a voice in the back of him.

Bits suitable for beginning line driving with a young horse: three piece french mouth eggbutt snaffle (top), loose ring Myler Snaffle (bottom)

In the early spring, we introduced a bit in a simple bridle with no attached reins - I used a simple french mouth snaffle, but any mild training bit will be suitable. We then went back to square one, as if he didn't know anything, with the long lines attached to the bit rings instead of a halter ring. At the beginning I did leave the halter on under the bridle and bit; if I had to go back another step I could easily walk up and change the attachment of the reins back to the halter if need be.

We taught steering by gently using a direct rein via the bit; still not worrying too much about bending at this point; this will be done when long lining, which comes a little later.

Note at this point that we still have not introduced any "real" harness...we are still line driving. As Phantom as a little older, I wanted to teach him to long line, to begin to learn to bend and give to the bridle a little.

Phantom in long lines, working to the left ...

For Phantom's long lining sessions, he was outfitted in the same surcingle we have used since the beginning of training, with the two longe lines running from the bit rings, through the SIDE surcingle rings and back to my hands. (The side rings give a more natural attachment for long lining, and allows the horse to find his own headset comfortably, without the added pressure of the terret level). The bit of choice is either a large ring broken snaffle as shown above, or a three-piece French mouth snaffle. We would then work at a walk and trot on a large circle, using rein commands to familiarize him with bending, spiraling in and out, etc. This was done both directions until he was very comfortable with it, for about 10-15 minutes a session, once again, two times per week, keeping the circles large due to his young age.

To correctly long line, you stand in the middle of a circle, and allow the outside rein to drop below the horses butt and settle in the curve above his hocks. Keeping tension on both lines, you can use the reins to guide and bend the horse on a circle at the walk and trot. To get a soft correct bend with the horse traveling to the left, I would ask Phantom to walk forward, then pick up my inside (left) rein. This ordinarly would mean "turn in here to me...". HOWEVER, at the same time, I would use little half halts on the outside (right) rein - this signals "...stay here..." So the message that you are giving to the horse is "I want you to bend and give my your head, neck and back, but I want you to stay out on the circle and be soft and consistent." Sometimes the horse can learn this quicker than the trainer - it takes some dexterity with the lines at first!!!

Part II begins with the transition to full driving harness.

BIO: Jeri Miller has been involved with horses for over 35 years, starting with a grade Pinto gymkhana horse in western Pennsylvania as a teen and progressing to training her Paint/Pinto driving horses to APHA Honor Roll titles and PtHA World Championships. She also shows in-hand and under saddle, both English and Western, in local open shows and Paint and Pinto shows in the central Pennsylvania area. Her website is "Driving In Color".

Jeri Miller and Phantom