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Why do carriage horses have their eyes covered2007-11-24 21:23:18

You can drive with or without blinders, its to prevent the animal from seeing what is behind them. Some animals however do better being able to see behind them. With carriage horses, you always want forward movement. A horse that refuses and backs is a trainwreck. This helps promote the forwardness and straightness needed also. All mine drive in blinders.

They do have trust in their drivers and are voice commanded. It gives me goosebumps watching a 8+ hitch and have them do the docking maneuver.

Driving is alot of fun, but way more dangerous than riding. I spend more time ground driving my animals than any riding training I do. My animals ground drive a solid 6mths before I ever hook them. Others do it sooner, I just like to know that they will be safe in any situation before I hook.

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I have just broken in a small pony to pull a 'trap' or carriage.

The reason they have their eyes covered is because they can see what is going on behind them without blinkers on. They see the carriage as something that is chasing them, and so their instinct would tell them to run!

Whilst training a horse or pony to pull a carriage, the person starts by giving commands from the side, and slowly moves around so that they are behind their horse. They do this without the carriage on, so that the pony or horse is used to receiving commands from behind.

To get a horse or pony used to pulling weight whilst receiving commands, you rig a tyre up to where the carriage will eventually go. This helps them put their chest into pulling the carriage, and it also gets them used to 'funny' noises behind them!