So my school has this brilliant idea to teach young Morgans to drive while teaching students how to train them to drive. It honestly works out OK because they don't allow RETARDS to do it, but still... Anyhow, the Friday before last I was out driving my coming 3 Morgan mare and there was more commotion than usual, but she had been great, had a really good whoa on her and everything, so we'd been in the cart behind her a few times at this point. Then I became a retard and rubbed the fence (which had happened before) and that was that. I got pretty banged up, she's fine but shaken, who knows when we will ever get her hooked again. We proceeded to back up to long lining and simple things to regain her confidence and she jumped on me while I was untacking her the other day, kicked me in the head and in the ass, stepped on both my feet, my back, and my arm, so if I wasn't banged up before, I was after Wednesday. As of now I feel like I have a grapefruit sized appendage on my ass.

Anyhow, I would like to hear your horror stories so that I don't feel so bad. (The driving instructor has been really great about telling me horror stories about people at SHOWS, those make me feel REALLY good about myself. Seriously, no joke.)

I am the queen of lucky when it comes to driving. I've only had two driving horses, and both were well trained and bomb proof so they put up with my boo boos with exceptional tolerance. I had a friend, however, whose horse was a liiiitle less patient than mine...

When I was learning to drive I once made the cardinal sin of having the breeching too loose. This meant that when I tried to stop, the cart slid forward and banged my pony in the hocks. He was logically displeased, and started giving little hoppy bucks. I had to have someone grab the cart from behind and pull it backwards so I could stop and fix the problem. I then kept driving. I really had no idea to what degree my horse was a saint until my friend had a similar situation occur. Except that she was driving her OTTB that she hadn't really trained to drive. She didn't really know how to train correctly, or know much about driving at all, and had never had any lessons. So when her horse got banged on the hocks, all hell broke loose. She was thrown under a barbed wire fence and nearly lost her ear (no helmet!) never mind all the other scratches and bumps. Her horse jumped several barbed wire fences with the exercise cart still attached before the cart and harness were smashed to bits. The cart was totaled, but the horse was (miraculousy) not too bad. Lots of scrapes, but everything healed up.

So I stick to Fjords - they are simple to train and don't get upset very easily. Driving accidents can be so nasty.

Most importantly, they have an extremely high Cute Factor.

Of course. They're Norwegian.

The barn I used to take lessons @ had Freisians. My friend and her mom went out driving their really experienced Freisian gelding(this horse won some major award in Holland before being imported). They were about a mile away from the farm when the horse spooked at something, took off and ended up in a ravine. He somehow escaped, my friend and her mom were ok, thankfully they had a cell phone. The trainer/BM went out and caught the horse, who was thankfully making his way back to the barn. The cart, of course, was ruined. I think the horse had some minor injuries, but he was ok.

I've had the biggest urge to buy a cart, decorate it with christmas ribbons, and hitch up one of my old horses [complete with bells and such], and go down the road playing christmas music. I really am considering it.

I've never done any driving, but it looks fun. When I was a kid, I wanted to get a mini and a cart... now that I'm older [and bigger] a draft and a cart may be a bit more appropriate.

If said older horse has never been driven, it would be a great way to land yourself an entry in this topic

No kidding! I've heard some real horror stories, and they're not always about greenies...

hahaha I'm sure it would. I'll save myself the trouble and just let everyone imagine what would happen to my incompetent ass. Although my horse is so lazy I don't think he has the energy to react too much.

Some asshat was teaching a horse to drive a cart at a barn where my trainer temporarily leased 10 or so stalls. One day I came out to see my nice wooden trunk practically demolished. It was the last one in a row of trunks along an angled corner wall next to the arena. (The lounge cut off a corner and our trunks were in front of there, if that makes any sense.)

Anyway, said asshat lost control and the horse and cart jumped my trunk. Well, the horse jumped the trunk. Apparently the cart didn't get the memo...

the worst wreck i have witnessed first hand was in karlstetten... one of the pony pairs went around a blind turn (there was a big bushy tree) and split the ponies on a post...there was a big whack...and one of the ponies was three legged lame. needless to say the driver had to pull up. the pony had broken its shoulder and was put down later that afternoon.

FluZ, I saw this video the other day and thought of you it looked scary there for a sec, but thank god the horse didn't get seriously hurt. According to the description, "harness broke in water hazzard going up a steep hill. The harness slid back acting as a bucking strap".

I found the video FluZ showed me a while ago, of when a single-horse carriage goes out of control and runs into a four-horse, which somehow broke up after running into something. Horses didn't get seriously hurt.

I love on how that first vid Jane posted pratically everyone is shouting "LOOSE HORSE!" second vid? eeeesh scary. Somehow loose horses with carriages scares me more than falling off...

Yeah and a bunch of people in both videos are screaming WHOAAAAA like it's a magic word that'll stop the thing and not just something that'll spook the horses more...

That horse in the first video is really pretty. And I never knew they had such a thing as cross country driving, odd.
The second one made me laugh a little. How does one get dislodged from the seat of a carriage? And how do four horses decide where to run, mine would all split in different directions and get stuck in one place before going anywhere.

You fall out of the cart when the seat belts fall off... Four horses run together because they're ATTACHED.

yes, and if the leaders stay together the wheelers just follow...alot of times they end up splitting a tree though. or one of them falls down and gets dragged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_driving

AND, our Miss FluZ here is a superstar in single pony. She competes at the FEI level, and was THIS close to make the team to represent the US in the World Championship.

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Haha funny how around xmas I had the same urge! Maybe ill take some driving lessons this summer and give it a shot haha

We did that with a donkey in the xmas parade when I was a kid! we had all the elves[even the 6'5" guy was an elf!]