the experienced Professional teaches the young and restless and shy one. Does a lot of the job. Same with riding. A nice lead horse could avoid LOTS of trouble and misunderstandings. Many riding profis claim they "don't have time" for that and prefer the fights... :(

Ah, but there are more people who can help people, than people who actually need help. Most folk in a bad way are there of their own doing and are fully aware of how they got there and how to get out, even young people. Horses now, must rely on the very rare person who combines skill with benevolent attitude, for the one with out the other is of no value.

Horses are like kids really...

@@silverkitty2503Except they dont forget and learn quicker. Prey advantages I bet

@@gracewright9034From the U.S. here, and having worked with troubled children and ridden horses all my life, I disagree completely. Most troubled children are victims of adult abuse. They have no clue what would help. This gentleman’s patience and benevolence would be so restorative for them. So glad horses have him. Wish more children had the same❤️

Totally agree, having worked with both❤️

just heard of a rubber bit. nice

That was a beautiful story! Thank you for doing what you do for the horses.

Roly is a great boy, and he is also teaching the new guy. This new boy is gorgeous, and it breaks my heart -- he was beaten before he came to Barry. He was so terrified initially, and his constant looking back in fear is a sign I've seen in horses that have been beaten for "training" (combined with his sweating and nervous behavior -- poor boy). Barry has exactly the type who can work with this boy.

Beautiful movement

He IS Santa Clause!

I believe he is currently doing ridden dressage with his new owner :-)

+barryhook2 that's great c: I really enjoy watching your work though I don't drive I ride :)

I think Roly stays calm and does not buy into the other horse's behavior. That staying calm, I think, that that refusal, calms the other horse.

Roly and Barry are the real team, and the student horse draws strength and courage from both.

He has a video on this - I watched it last week & it was excellent but I don’t remember the title.

+TheAssholeProphet We have a lot of people ask this question so I made a video to explain them in more detail - it can be watched here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mbuErLih16jQj40.html It shows why we use the neck collars and also discusses how they fit. Hope that helps, Happy New Year!

+barryhook2 I'll go watch that then, happy new year to you, the team and all the horses ^^

Depends on the horse! For some their new confidence prevails, for others they revert to earlier avoidance behaviours.

@@barryhook2 So much like people in that regard. Would a return visit to you help the reverters perhaps make their gains permanent?

If he were raced, or just driven fast, it's possible. "Hurry up, horse!" whipwhipwhip, rather than just enjoying the horse and the ride.

Its an interesting question; I can't speak for every horse but our chap Roly is 23, driven on the roads (at faster paces too) virtually every day and hasn't had any problems from concussion or hard surfaces. I've known horses that are field companions who have ended up with leg injuries, having never been walked on a road in their lives. But like every fitness programme, you need to start slow and build up, giving the muscles/tendons/bones/lungs etc time to adapt. Bones will strengthen over time (same is true for human joggers) and there are too many variables to pinpoint the blame entirely on roads every time. For instance, did they have an existing weakness that only became apparent when they started training? Did they train with a personal trainer or by themselves, perhaps doing too much too soon as they didn't have the experience? Are they getting enough calcium in their diets? Do their shoes fit or are they responsible for creating imbalance which can predispose to injury? The same applies to horses - you need to take care of all of these factors, not just worry about the hard surfaces. You can never prevent injury to any horse (they could skid in the mud in a field and fall over, hurting themselves badly in the process, just as easily as they could trip on a pothole in the road for example). We work closely with a good farrier and excellent vet to ensure our fitness programmes are up to date and suitable for each horse, then keep a close eye on them during training. That way we do our utmost to reduce the risk of injury regardless of what surface they are worked on.

Thank you for the response. I have watched many of your videos and find them enjoyable, informative, and fascinating. If I may ask another question: How do you determine the fitness level of a horse before you begin working with them? Do you spend time riding/lungeing (exercising) them before you put them to work under harness? Again, just curious ;)

Thanks; yes we do an assessment on every horse that comes to us prior to the start of training, not just to determine fitness levels but to check them for any other issues prior to beginning work with them (i.e. are their teeth ok, do they have any scurfy patches on their manes or tails, are their hooves ok, do they have any old injuries that might affect them during training etc). Some horses come to us completely wild so we can't ride or lunge them before doing harness work - their fitness is build up as we go along with the training process. We like using interval training as a way to build fitness and also use heart rate monitors to assess the horses throughout the training programme.

Minnesota?? How do u figure that?

Horse Drawn Promotions - we're based in Hampshire, UK.

@@barryhook2 Then its definitely on my bucket list. What a beautiful part of the world

Feed does affect them, but some horses get "fizzy" on grain and some don't - it affects horses differently. Horses we train are given plenty of feed (both hay/haylage and short feed) so they have plenty of energy. Yes, they might be more "settled" if they didn't have as much energy to burn (i.e if their natural nervous energy wasn't being boosted by energy from feed) but that means they would only be behaving themselves because they have little energy, not because they are listening to us. Most of the horses that come to us are young and growing, therefore they must be fed properly. If they are putting their energy into growing, it is unfair to expect them to work on a low-energy diet (especially as we are getting them fit and also building muscle). We don't want them to get tired once any fidgety, nervous energy has worn off; we want them to be physically capable of doing the work we ask them to do with ease. As we always say when we take a horse down to the town, we don't want them going down there and being good because they are tired; they need to be fit so when they get down there they still have energy left to misbehave should they choose to do so. We want them to behave when they are fresh out the stable, fit, full of feed and bursting with energy. If they can be driven safely under those circumstances, THEN we have done our job right. Its the same as people lunging a horse before working it; it gets rid of the "fizz" so he's more likely to behave himself, but this isn't dealing with the root cause of the problem (focusing/controlling that energy and listening to the driver/rider/handler even though the horse is excited). It might be the easier option to lunge them beforehand, or reduce their feed intake, or give them a calming supplement, or a dose of sedative, or put a stronger bit in their mouths, but in our opinion its a quick fix. Horses that come to us are also stabled 24/7 i.e. kept in. As well as allowing us to monitor their exact feed and water intake, and lessening the risk of field-related injuries, this also means they have not burnt off any energy running around a field prior to being worked. That way at home if the horse has to be kept in for a period of time, or cannot be turned out for a few days (as often happens at shows) it will still behave itself when driven. Our job is to train the horse to behave under pressure - e.g. its easy to drive a horse down a quiet country road, but we want to know they will still be safe when driven down a busy, noisy road. The same thing applies with the energy - its one thing to drive an unfit, hungry horse that's been chased round a field for half an hour prior to being harnessed up - quite another to drive a very fit, energetic fresh horse straight out the stable. It may not be how people will keep the horse long term, but we try and go the extra mile when training as we believe it is better for the horse in the long run. Even with horses like Alfie, we would prefer that he settled on his own terms rather than because he was on a low energy diet, or being fed a calmer for example. If you watch his second film when he's in single, he is definitely more settled than he is here - and he is still on plenty of short feed. However we do prefer to feed fats rather than grains because they are better at conditioning a horse - fats are more energy dense than grains, easier to digest and there's less risk of digestive-related issues caused by grains such as EPSM and laminitis. Also if we have a horse with a small appetite it is easier to get the energy into them in the form of a fat supplement rather than trying to get them to eat a massive meal of oats for example. All horses with us get ad lib forage (unless they are overweight and we are trying to get them to lose weight), and are fed short feed according to the work they do, mainly our own nuts that we have made up by the ton which are similar to Build-Up, chaff, sugar beet if needed (some horses prefer moist feed) and they also get the fat supplement according to workload again. I hope this has answered your questions; if you have any more please feel free to email again.

Dual Carriageways - Yes, we drive on them sometimes. Motorways - No, horses and horse drawn vehicles are not allowed.

@@barryhook2 what horse breed is on the right of you