Reactions and Reasons to Blinkerless

This week we're looking at the different reactions different horses may have to going blinkerless.
Some don't seem to mind at all, some drive better with blinkers and some drive better without. If a horse has trouble going without blinkers for the first time, Barry shares a trick he used with a horse he encountered with this problem.
We also look at how a horse may react to different things - such as coming to a junction - when blinkerless, compared to when blinkered and the possible reasons behind that. It helps to illustrate the differences that in this pair we have HDP Cloud with blinkers and Dursley without!
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[@Dewdaahman]

When Barry Hook speaks, horsemen listen.. Good day to you my friend, and much love to you and yours..

[@meagenruttan4681]

That's such a beautiful road to drive down! Such lovely foliage, paths, gardens, nooks, hedges, cottages and such. Seriously, you live in a really pretty country area.

[@ruthmcchesney4957]

Yet another gentle, calm insight into how little I know and also how I never, ever stop learning. And I never WANT to stop learning. Seeing dear little Dursley react, in trot, to suddenly catching sight of you behind him and accelerating away, purely because there were no blinkers there to block his view, was another " oh yes, of COURSE" moment. Very entertaining too, but that whole action/reaction wouldn't have crossed my mind had you not quietly explained it. If we could all just put ourselves in THEIR shoes for an instant, and think with THEIR translation of what we ask of them...wouldn't we all instantly ask the question very differently and be so heartened and thrilled by the response, freely given, that we would want to delve deeper into getting yet more responses like that. Thank you again, Barry and Rhe, for a fab video. X

[@MarcoNotPolo]

My thoughts exactly, thankyou Ruth

[@clairelacey8839]

Certainly is a good life to do what you love in beautiful surroundings. Easier on a pretty day but still a blessing. Good luck with the new hip. Glad you are on the mend

[@annamcknight2573]

That was eye-opening in more ways than one. I would not have understood that reaction to the head turn unless you had explained it. It would never have crossed my mind. The more you can teach us of horse psychology like this, the better for the future contentment of the horse. I don't know why people want to bomb off to other planets to find alien species when we have so many to understand here at home. Rock on, Barry!

[@barryhook2]

Thanks Anna!

[@janisabbamonte9040]

Wonderful video as always Barry. Best wishes with your hip replacement. Speaking from experience it’s a very successful surgery.

[@barryhook2]

Thanks Janis!

[@klauskarbaumer6302]

I am in my 61st year of driving horses and it is my experience that if they are trained from early on to work without blinders they will be less ruffled or spooked by any surprises.

[@barryhook2]

Congrats on the long driving career and long may it continue!

[@cawrighty]

Hello team. What is the red, what looks like baler twine, attached to both outer side of the horses there for please - what does it help with? Thank you.

[@barryhook2]

Hi cawrighty, it's a flat piece of string. We use them occasionally for a number of reasons. When training young horses, they can often be quite interested in everything going on around them - particularly if we're doing blinkerless work. This means they move their head around a lot, and may bring their head over so far to one side that they are at risk of hitting themselves in the mouth with the head of the pole as it floats / bounces up and down slightly as we go along. The piece of string, whilst not fully preventing this, acts as a little reminder to keep their head straighter.
It must never be too tight, as this would cause problems with steering.
The other reason is to act as a 'nagging line' - if a horse is particularly interested in the other horse in the pair, they may constantly be trying to touch, playfully nip or otherwise interfere with their driving buddy.
HDP Cloud is generally quite tolerant of this, but Dursley was very fond of playing with things like Cloud's mane, bridle, blinkers, reins or anything else he could get his mouth around! (Apparently he's quite the same at home with zips on coats etc.!) Wearing a nagging line made it less easy for him to bring his head across to touch Cloud - and also as a safety feature prevented him bringing his head so far around that he could hook his muzzle around the crossing of their reins, which can be a bit of a problem as it makes steering very difficult until they're untangled! Cloud doesn't really need one, but is wearing one so that he is less likely to react to or encourage Dursley in any way. He also has a habit of playing with the pole head with his lips to entertain himself when he's so relaxed he's almost bored and although it's quite cute to see, he does risk bumping his teeth if he does it whilst we're going along and the other horse suddenly does something out of the ordinary like slow, try to stop or spook.

[@cawrighty]

@@barryhook2 really appreciate your detailed reply thank you! 🙂

[@johnmichael7425]

@@cawrighty How was your day

[@janedmunds4218]

Such a beautiful area where you live

[@johnmichael7425]

How was your day

[@susanbrown2909]

That was a bit close barry with the lorry ..

[@barryhook2]

Some do get a bit close, but just so long as they don't hit us, it's all good training!

[@Timberns]

I’ve always believed that you should have a horse so well conditioned that they could go blinker less… I’m wondering if you start them blinker less, will they have a lot of trouble transitioning to blinkers should you find yourself in an environment like a show where they’re required

[@barryhook2]

Some horses we do start blinkerless and have no trouble with the transition. Some it takes a little bit of work, but generally they accept it well. We will always train them to accept blinkers - in case of situations as you said above - but some will always prefer blinkerless where possible. However, most we start with blinkers and then transition to blinkerless if required - mostly because we train a lot of youngsters, who tend to be very curious about everything and having no blinkers leaves them with more to look at and be distracted by! I call it 'looking for butterflies' haha - Rhi