Training driving and problems! bolting horse.?

Question

I have a 5 year old shire cross learning to drive and she has been doing extremely well. We can ground drive in arena and on the road, stand still for shafts going into tugs, and was doing well at walking with training cart with some occasionally spooking from the cart, until this week. she now has decided to "spook" out of the shafts. I don't want her to start bolting out of the shafts. Past two days, as soon as we try walking her with the shafts in the tugs she gets "scared" and scoots her butt and takes a couple steps forward and won't listen to whoa. She is desenstitized to the cart and noises so I don't think that is it. I think she is being a brat because she knows she can now. I put her to the fence and as soon as you make a turn away she was bolting out. then I put her in the corner and put the shafts through again and we took small steps forward and backward and so far so good. So, I was going to continue this by lengthen the steps and see how she does.Any suggestions?

Answer 1

i know you dont want to hear this but yopu should start from the ground up again.

i suggest a lot of long reining

Answer 2

try to take her in and take her out before she has a chance to bolt or get scared. do it as often as you can. and if she is food motivated,........try taking her in there and rewarding her. after you do that for a little while, don't give her the treat until she stands still.

Answer 3

I would take her back to a travois in an enclosed area and ground drive her.

I use PVC pipes for mine and it just drags the ground, but that way its easy on and off for these scooting moments.

Is she getting away from you too?  If she is.. Rural Heritage has a gal that drives drafts and uses a 'vosal', it has a good point to it and for this type of situation is fitting.  See if you can find that on the rural heritage website.

You also need to one rein this horse down, I know its hard with that size, and you can when your ground driving her, will be tricky in the travois.  

But for now, start back over, see where the hole is now and hook her to the travios for a while until you feel comfortable that she is moving past that.  

If you truely think shes being a brat, then theres another thing that can be used, more of a harsh consequence, but it breaks them of that bolting.