Galahad’s Driving Training Part Two
Kristi Kingma
www.teamdonk.org

It is time to step up Galahad’s training and move to a pen with a full time helper.
For the beginning arena work, I used my driving harness without the traces and an open bridle. Now we will use the cart, the pole traverse (for training as a single) and cones to practice driving around. A light weight dragging tire for your helper and a heavy tire for the donkey with a single tree or for the team a double tree evener and some extra chain or ropes are needed.

If you are building a pole traverse it shouldn’t be any shorter than 10 foot long. The tips should be 22” apart and the crossbar 48”, from the end of the poles to the crossbar it should be 6 ft 3 in. You will need two screw in eyes to attach the traces to your traverse. Two inch PVC poles are what I used.

Before this part of Galahad’s training he had been ground driven in fields and down the road with a helper at his side as a single and with Luc in a team. Before I began this part of his training I had introduced a PVC pole touching him all over and the sound of it dragging on the ground outside his pen. This was a good introduction for using poles as a traverse later on. I did the basically the same thing with the tire by dragging it near him while he was in the pen and tied up. These are some pre-desensitizing things you can do ahead of time.

Luc was onsite to help with Galahad’s training. He was saddled and harnessed to help introduce Galahad to ponying both from back of the cart and while Luc was being ridden. This was done to get Galahad more familiar with driving and to prepare him for team driving with Luc.

Lesson One
I have completely discontinued using a stud chain on the lead rope. I am still placing the bridle over the halter. For this lesson I used an open bridle later repeating the same lesson with blinders.

This part of the training was conducted on a large flat area. I like the security of an arena or a large pen but it is not necessary for the first several lessons as long as you have a helper and he is going well. Ground driving with all of your training items scattered around, like an obstacle course. You are going to be working on cornering, serpentines driving thru the cones or buckets, large and small circles both directions. Here you will begin to refine whoa training with halts increasing to longer times. It is best to work on stopping durations towards the end of your workout not at the beginning when your donkey is fresh.

Start every session with a feeding. I use a mixture of beet pulp, grain, vitamin/minerals, dry molasses and wheat bran. I also use a small low protein pellet with grain and vitamins in a Calvary style feed bag. Brush your animal; check the hooves for rocks, and before harnessing.

To ground drive your donkey correctly you need to be positioned just off the flank and out of kicking range, not directly behind. Go ahead and drive him down the fence line, make some nice big corners and some large circles down the straight stretches. Remember you need to stay to the inside of the arena, keeping the donkey to the outside near the fence, with your helper in the normal leading position. Decrease the size of your circles as he gets better. You will do circles around the cart, your pole setup, in and out of the serpentine course going both directions and even over and through ground poles.
I used the pole traverse in my obstacle driving course.

I teach the donkey to back while I am ground driving directly behind him. Just one controlled step backwards at a time is all you will need. Use a gentle see saw on the lines not a steady pull and ask him to back. Your assistant will be able to help here with tugs on the lead rope. Then move off to the side to continue ground driving.

To practice and refine the halt you will want to stop often and stand quietly 10 to 20 seconds to begin with. If he wants to go give the walk on command and drive him on, making it your idea and not his. When halting say whoa and let him come into your hands without pulling back on the lines, staying out of his mouth. Here is where your helper may have to remind him with a short lead rope pulls. When you are at a halt relax the lines to release contact with his mouth. Praise him with every stop take up light contact, say his name and give the walk on command. Stop each time in a different place for longer durations. You know he’s stopping well when he stops on the voice command alone consistently.

Drive with the kind of contact you would use when holding hands. A little more security is needed on occasions; compare it to walking a child across a busy street. If you think about these analogies they make excellent sense.

If you feel you need some extra control this is a good place to add draw reins or just more time ground driving. As soon as you are comfortable and your donkey is relaxed let your helper drop back to his hip and finally away from you and your donkey. Place your helper in front of you a hundred yards and drive the donkey to him. My helper was used as a center pivot and we drove large to small circles around him.

Keep these sessions short, a thirty minute timetable worked well to start with. We found a 30 minute program with a rest break then coming back to do something else for thirty minutes worked well for his four year old mind.

Since we will be using harness traces soon before we unharnessed him we added them back on the harness. Feed them into the belly band and run them thru lazy straps and secure the chains with carabineers. Before you start or end each session rub the traces on both flanks, gaskins, down the hocks and lower legs. Rattle the chains until it is no longer a big deal to him.

Training your donkey to become accustomed to the hobbles is highly recommended. Most donkeys, once they figure out they are not going anywhere, become fine being hobbled. Hobbles will become your emergency brake when driving in the open and you need to stop to make an adjustment. You can do this anytime during your training. I use a soft rope hobble that twists around the cannon above the fetlock. Use the hobbles while you are harnessing and unharnessing or hitching to the items you will be pulling.

Each time you hitch and unhitch check all four feet for rocks. It’s a habit that needs to become part of your driving routine.

First Lesson Review: Always feed your donkey a treat while you are brushing and harnessing, this way he knows he is going to go to work but the feed gives him a reward.
This is where I introduce a soft hobble that wraps around his legs after I have checked hooves for rocks.

Start off ground driving using your helper near his head. Slowly have your helper quietly move back towards you. At this point you are doing the driving and the helper is there for an emergency only.

Keep your sessions short and if you don’t have time to complete all these tasks keep practicing until you are comfortable. Each lesson may take several practices.

LESSON ONE RESULTS: My helper and I spent 30 minutes ground driving without blinders, introducing the serpentine through the cones and doing some circles, both will take more practice sessions to get him working smoothly.

I saddled Luc and we ponied Galahad up the road and into the hills for half an hour. This was Galahad’s first ponying ever and I think it was very good for him.

We then ground drove Galahad another half an hour in the driving bridle with blinders. This time it was up the lane to the road and away from Luc. He was fine going up the road but was pulling on me just a little coming down the hill to Luc.

It was a long session for him but we broke it up with some rest breaks and he took it extremely well. He ground drove the best he has ever driven and is ready to have weight applied to the traces, which we added to the harness.

Lesson Two Repeat each session then add something new when you are ready. Each practice drive you need to extend the stopping time by about 30 seconds. See if you can get a one minute whoa, then two minutes working up to a five minute stop.

While you are ground driving find an object to focus on. Without looking at your donkey and looking only at that object drive your donkey to and around it both directions. Drive thru the serpentine, thru two PVC poles parallel to each other on the ground about five feet apart or over the traverse, around trees, 55 gallon drums whatever you can find to make it interesting

Once you are going well have the helper pull the tire away from where you are leading the donkey. As he relaxes you should be able to drive him behind the helper pulling the tire, then by his side and finally out in front. Have the helper pull the tire towards you and pass you giving you plenty of room until you can do this closer. I only do this for about five to ten minutes as just an introduction. As soon as he relaxes I quit with the tire. Pick it up in your next session with more duration coming a little closer each time.

Add a six foot lead rope to each of the trace chains to give you room to pull on them. This session will be a leading exercise. With your helper leading, take the rope that is connected to the trace and walk behind. Add a little pressure for just a few seconds, then release and repeat. If your helper cannot keep the donkey moving, you will need aid of a driving whip. Keep your donkey moving straight working up to 20 feet without releasing pressure on the traces. This teaches the donkey to pull without balking. Keep this first session short not to exceed 5 minutes. As your donkey becomes more comfortable swing the traces from side to side and drop them down around his legs and ground drive. Add pressure after a halt as he will need to learn to be able to start moving with pressure on the traces.

Lesson Two Review:
Review lesson one with blinders.
Practice longer whoas.
Focus driving straight towards an object, in circles, figure 8’s, and serpentine not looking at your donkey, this will teach you to drive by feel.
With the traces on the harness desensitize by sound and feel then while leading slowly adding short spurts of weight, increasing the duration of weight and finally start walking with weight on the traces from a stand still.. Keep the donkey moving and straight. Swing the traces from side to side and drop around the hooves.
Have your helper pull the tire, while you lead your donkey.

LESSON TWO RESULTS:
Harnessed Galahad and started ground driving with the helper near his head. Made some equipment adjustments and drove for about 10 minutes until he settled into the routine. My helper tied the lead rope to the hames and walked off in front of us and stopped, and then I drove Galahad to him. This progressed into the helper becoming a pivot point and we practiced driving circles around him. Drove Galahad into one of the large pens and had the helper leave. Took a little practice but soon Galahad was driving without any helper assistance. We then brought in the tire and drug it all around him. There was no reaction with the tire dragging it close to his side, in front and behind him on each side. He was pretty calm. Took the tire out of the pen and attached two lead ropes to the traces. My helper led Galahad as I pulled on the traces. That went well. Ended the one hour session without blinders driving figure 8’s in the pen. After a rest Galahad was ponied behind the cart up a gravel road. Again no problem, he really seemed to enjoy this adventure with Luc.

Lesson Three
Start with the open bridle for this work out. I like to start each session with something new where he can see it before adding the blinders.
Add pressure to the traces.
Continue with dragging the tire getting it closer to him all the time.

Before you unharness take one of the PVC poles you are using as ground poles and slide it into the shaft holder. You could do a short walk with your helper holding the PVC pipe in the shaft holder on each side. While your helper leads your donkey hold the PVC pole straight and back towards the flank. You can move the poles around so they come back and touch the flank. Do this on both sides as an introduction to the shafts.

Lesson Three Review Use the blinders.
Continue dragging the tire next to him.
This time add the PVC pole to the shaft holders.

LESSON THREE RESULTS:
This session was done without a helper so it became a review plus fine tuning all previous lessons. I worked him on the serpentine thru cones getting lighter and lighter, doing figure 8’s and small circles. We went to the roadway and working on longer durations of stopping. The other thing I was able to do on the road was drag the tire on the gravel next to his hind hooves while I led him, once he understood he was fine. It was an extremely successful day. Galahad showed me he is ready to drag a tire and start on poles.

LESSON THREE SECOND PRACTICE SESSION: Galahad did not progress the next day. We basically repeated lesson three and added in some of the next lesson components.

I changed some of our routine. First off I left Luc in his pen and only brought out Galahad to harness and work. It was a little upsetting to him but not bad, he jumped around a little while harnessing. When we left the trailer in harness he was a guy on a mission. Moving out big time, I was glad to have a helper at his head!

We worked with him in a large pen; this was Galahad's first time in this enclosure.
While stopping for a break Galahad's radar went off. This is the first time I had seen it happen. I glanced up on the hillside, probably a half mile away and on the ridgeline was seven head of cow elk running. They ran along the ridge then dropped out of sight into a canyon, then they popped back up on top and one by one jumped the fence line.

By now Galahad was pretty freaked out. We went back to dragging the tire this time behind him then we took a long break as he was still looking for the elk. I brought out a PVC pole and worked with him a little on that dragging it behind him. I had him pull me as I leaned against the traces. Then we brought out the single tree. I walked around him making noise and decided today was not the day to hitch to the tire. He helped me pick up the cones and we had a nice relaxing ground drive back to unharness. He was pretty jumpy and nervous most of the day so it wasn't the time to push him any further.

I felt like we had an excellent session with some relaxing breaks. We quit on a good note and that is really important.

LESSON THREE THIRD PRACTICE SESSION:
Remember this is the first donkey I have ever trained to drive which gives me flexibility to change things around and that is exactly what happened. The goal to train Galahad to begin his driving career as a single changed to driving him in a team with Luc for his first few driving months where he would be more secure.

Today we hitched the boys up as a pair and within 45 minutes of ground driving they were going through the cones, large to small circles, stopping and working well.

Lesson Four is a repeat of the first three using blinders full time now. Tire dragging was stepped up until it was not bothering the team, even dragging it behind them on gravel. We tied baling twine on to the traces for added length. This way they were long enough to hook to a team double tree evener that the tire will attached to, soft cotton rope would have been better to use. This became a leading exercise in a pen with the aid of two helpers. The only thing they drug to start with was the single tree. Once comfortable with the sound of a metal double tree evener bouncing over, catching and dragging rocks were we able to attached to the heavy tire to the evener.

We started off on a long straight stretch with the helper at the head, making all corners wide to begin with. Keep the tire dragging session short maybe just several laps each direction of the pen. As in the first phases of ground work have your helpers slowly drop back as things are going well.

Lesson Four Review
Repeat the first lessons with blinders in large pen.
Hook the single or double tree to the traces and ground drive. When Galahad is fine with that add the tire and drive on.

LESSON FOUR RESULTS This actually went better than I expected. We had no problems with legs getting tangled in the ropes used to extend the traces and the chains were against the back legs on every turn. It was very loud with the metal evener banging against the rocks in the arena. It went well enough we felt a second lesson was really not needed.

Lesson Five continues to be a repeat the first three sessions in blinders and moving to the arena getting more proficient with pulling the tire. Serpentine with the tire lots of stopping. The pole traverse, log dragging, a sled with the tire on it, plastic barrels and other objects would be good practice making different sounds and feel.

In this lesson we added “Haw Over & Gee Over”. To teach this drive forward asking for a 45 degree turn on the haunches. Continue to go forward before you lose the momentum so he does not stall out on you. Practice until your 45 degree turn becomes slower and progresses into a 90 degree corner.

Lesson Five Review
Having your donkey pull different objects until he is comfortable with lots of noise banging, clanging as loud as you can make it is excellent. As long as he is relaxed and comfortable you are ready to proceed. Introduce your haw over and gee over commands until you are getting a 90 degree turn.

Lesson Six
When you are ready to harness do a ground drive session to make sure everything is progressing well. When you are hitching a team you will need someone in the vehicle in control of the lines while a second person hitches.

Your driving area needs to continue in a confined area and away from traffic until as your youngster gains confidence. Slowly build his driving skills not giving him more than he can handle, go slow and short distances as you build confidence and the necessary muscles in your youngster.

In this lesson if you are going to hitch as a single to a cart you will be getting ready for hooking up to the pole traverse. Do this the same way as you accustomed him to pulling objects. Since we are not going to be hooking him as a single right now we will be training differently. When we are ready to drive Galahad as a single we will go back to these lessons using the traverse but for now we have taken a different fork in the road.

THE FIRST HITCH It took 45 minutes of team ground driving with Luc in order to settle Galahad enough to hitch the team together on the cart. We ground drove down the main road for an introduction to traffic and anything that might worry him.

They were hitched to a cart with a pole and started off with my helper by Galahad’s head as in all previous introductions, I was in the cart. As soon as it looked like everything was going well my helper rode in the cart with me. We only drove 30 minutes for this first time hitch. It went excellent; Galahad was calm with Luc by his side.

SECOND HITCH: Our second hitch was a repeat of the first adding in a short road trip. My helper was there him walking at his side to help Galahad adjust to light traffic and passing anything that might frighten him and feeling the pull of the britchin as we went down hill. Use your helpers as much as you can on those first driving sessions. Getting a new team to work together will take a lot of down the road time, using the aid of the driving whip to push the slower donkey forward.

FINAL NOTES: Do your ground work using a helper. Read your donkey and don’t hitch until you know he is solid in his ground training and above all if you need professional help find a trainer or driving mentor.

We spent 10 training days on this section of Galahad’s education. For us this time table worked amazingly well. We added in something new each time with a review of past
lessons. This was the sequence we used and it certainly worked well for OK Sir Galahad.

Train your driving donkey to stand quietly once you are in the driving vehicle. In other words I do not like to climb in and immediately take off. This gives you time to look everything over and get ready to drive. I always start off and end my sessions in a walk giving the muscles time to warm up and cool down. My drives involve a lot of stopping to give them rest breaks and make sure you are in control.

When ready to push ahead into a trot ease into it slowly and just go a few steps the first few times and back down to a walk. Extend your trotting sessions with a rest break each time.

The first part of this program was based on Doris Ganton’s book, Breaking and Training the Driving Horse with my own thoughts and findings added. For detailed information I highly recommend this book and the two hour video.