Do people drive on their own ?

My driving instructor had a Shetland pony and a tip cart she worked her market garden with. She gave him the benefit of the doubt one day and he went home without her with a tip cart full of tatties. He negotiated 5 gates and the yard without losing a tattie. Some horses are clever enough and experienced enough to do this, but one in a panic won;t be thinking straight. Andy, know exactly where to place himself with his wheelchair cart as not to hit the boards when a disable kid is driving him, he's clever enough to ignore their commands and turn to keep everyone safe. But not if he's in a panic.

Well, as I said Esther.D and I have had very few real horrors in probably 80 years between us driving all manner of situations. I know where I cocked up, and I have never made that mistake again.
 
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Well, after an incident out driving it has been driven home to me to not entertain the idea at all.

I was out driving with Joyscarer (she knows my lad quite well) and on one of the roads heading out to the forest, a route we do all the time, a house was having some building work done on it and a flap of the tarp on the roof caused my horse to spook and shoot sideways, millimetres from going straight into the drainage ditch and tipping us all out, my horse shot to the right to the opposite side of the road (thank god there was no oncoming traffic !) and took a corner on someone's driveway very sharply and it was the front wheel that was heading for the ditch. I couldn't get my horse straight again and JC was out like a flash from the back of the cart to my horses head to calm him down and lead him out safely. It was a very close call that left us quite spooked as this was something that my horse has seen before but when the tarp flapped and made the noise it was just at the point of him not being able to see it due to the blinkers, however on the way back home, it was flapping again but I let him slow down and have a good look as we walked by, he had a look and then was fine.

He then decided the sheep in the field by the gate home were potential horse eating monsters and did a lot of snorting at them but behaved himself.

Never ever ever again would I even think of going out without a groom as I would not be able to get out in time.
 
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Scary biscuits, :eek: but all home safely, thanks to a good passenger who got out and stopped an accident happeing.
 
Absolutely, and fortunately the passenger was an experienced horse person ! As she took him by the head and spoke to him in a calm reassuring way and he calmed down as fast as he spooked.

The spring grass is making him show 'interesting' behaviour in the field and he is requiring a few reminders on his manners, my instructor drummed it into me about how they need ground manners even more so than ridden horses which I was always a bit confused on, but after seeing his team of 8 coming altogether from the field and his other horses, I could see why.
 
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MY driving instuctors coach horses, all massive powerful, red hot 17hh, easy as kittens on the ground and when she shouts STAND, they stand, mighit be from a flat gallop the HDT in their spare time) to halt and it's motionless, I love her horses.
 
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She's well - am seeing her soon at a vet demo with her daughter, I think she's verging on entering the horse world again soon :D
 
Gosh I'm glad it ended safely!

I, too, have been ignorant and naive and expected to drive Albi solo.... but this thread has opened my eyes somewhat and I shall be reviewing things.
 
domane said:
Gosh I'm glad it ended safely! I, too, have been ignorant and naive and expected to drive Albi solo.... but this thread has opened my eyes somewhat and I shall be reviewing things.
Click to expand...

It isnt ignorant and naive.
I think historically people did drive on their own. My grand mother never learned to ride (as her new husband hoped) as she was permanently pregnant, but she did drive first a donkey and then a horse. There is a photo of her driving. It is possible she delivered the churn of milk after the men on the farm were called up in World War 1. But she was a real novice.
She drove safely because the horse was well trained. We may dislike what photos show of the methods used, but training was done by professional grooms and it must have been effective.
Less wealthy people drove on their own too. OH's grandfather drove his cart to town, to the market every morning taking cabbages from his market garden. His son (my father in law) had the job of catching the horse and bringing it in every morning before going off to school.
Surely the difference is that today there is motor traffic, traffic is heavier and relatively few people can deal with horses. Newspaper descriptions of accidents in the days of horse transport show that, if anything went wrong, there was usually a passer by skilled in handling horses who could give a hand.
When horses were the basic means of transport people probably tolerated a certain level of accidents, just as we still turn a blind eye to deaths and injury on the roads. But people now drive horses just for pleasure and health and safety loom larger.
 
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Thing is back in the day when 'osses and carts were common, is that the average person on the street was horse savvy and could step in and help you sort out a miscalculation. Nobody sued anyone and there were no brainless car drivers about. You could give a 'appenny to an urchin to watch your turnout and he'd be worthy of his fee.
Due diligence was not heard of
 
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