Training Horses and Dogs

I was reminded of a valuable training lesson a couple of weeks ago, when I was working with my Shetland pony, Peppy.  He has been trained to drive and pull a cart for several years.  Suddenly, the last two times I've driven him, he has decided he does not want to back when hitched to the cart.  I am always pressed for time when I ride or drive my horses and ponies, because I have so much work to get done on the weekends.  I worked and worked with him to get him to back up when hitched to the cart, and he just refused to back.  He always backs great on lead, you can just give him the command and he backs until you tell him whoa.  Well, my time was running short, I wanted to work with the dogs on coaching to the cart, and I was getting really frustrated with him.  I finally decided to shove him back with my sheer strength (big joke!) and he got really ticked off at me, reared up, knocked me over, and took off, running over me with the cart.  Luckily, the cart was not terribly heavy, but one rib is hurting pretty bad.  Lesson learned:  It was my fault.  When things are not going well, you don't force the issue, you go back to square one, and start over.  I should have unharnessed him, and worked on backing without the harness.  I should have checked everywhere to see if the harness was hurting him, or not properly adjusted.  I did get up, dust myself off, and we did go driving for about a mile with the dogs, and he behaved perfectly, and did start to back then, after our huge blowup.  He forgave me, and I definitely forgave him, because I know better than to force the issue with a horse or even a 500 pound pony.  You always go back to a step that they will happily do, and work forward from there.  I have trained 13 horses over the years, and learned a long time ago, that praise and patience will get you miles further than forcing anything.  I didn't get any pictures of the cart and coach dogs this time, because of my frustration, but I did get some pictures the next day of the dogs getting to follow Jet and me on a trail ride.  Victory, Vegas, and Wishbone all absolutely love going with the horses.  Victory needs more obedience work before we get too far from home off leash.  We got to the neighbors and he saw their dogs and kids out, and he was pretty unwilling to come back when I called him!  He loves other dogs and kids.