Article and photos by Pam Gamble
Tom O’ Carroll returned to Bob Martin’s Split Tree Farm near Rossville, TN March 23-25 to teach his “Good Hands” approach of driving to Nashoba Carriage Association members and guests.
In Tom’s lecture, he spoke about his earliest experiences with horses. He realized early on that he was able to communicate with horses in a way that most other people could not. Even the most difficult or problem horses became gentle around Tom. His reputation grew after he convinced a horse that normally could not be shod to stand quietly for the farrier. People began to challenge him with increasingly difficult horses, and it took Tom only, “a short time to straighten out a bad horse.” Tom became convinced that most horse problems were really people problems.
In 1960, Tom moved to the United States, where he earned recognition driving everything from singles to six-horse hitches, including teams of mules. Tom currently calls Navasota, Texas his home, and he has introduced Combined Driving Events to many people in his state. He has been on TV and been a horse expert for several movies.
Tom’s school nameis “Good Hands” and his philosophy with a horse is to ask once softly, ask again, and then tell. An example of this would be to use a couple of half halts leading to a full stop. The half halts communicate a nice, easy downward transition. Tom explained how to make good behavior easy and bad behavior hard work.
Wanda Chancellor’s Welsh Pony, Uppity, or Rollingwoods Movin On Up, was a return student from last year to Tom’s clinic. In fact, Tom started Uppity as a three-year-old at his farm in Texas, giving Uppity his initial 90 days training.
Wanda commented on Uppity’s latest lesson with Tom, “He was immediately forward and round for Tom, so we worked on a more detail-oriented lesson. We worked on our walk, since it counts X2 in the dressage arena, and also our transitions in and out of the walk.”
Even though Uppity is still young, he shows great promise, especially in the dressage portion of a Combined Driving Event (CDE). Wanda’s competitive nature and Uppity’s talent take her on the road to compete in CDEs across the area.
Brenda Ranchor brought her daughter’s ex-eventing horse, an Anglo-Trakehner, whom she is hoping to teach to drive. Her horse is not green, but he has never been hitched. The horse showed great promise as Tom put side reins on him to lunge. Tom made sure that the horse knew to move away from the pressure of each rein, as he used the reins independently to ask the horse to yield his hind-quarters.
Nashoba President Bob Martin hooked his four Friesians, something that he has done rarely in the past year. The flash and feathers of this showy four-in-hand hitch brought smiles to everyone present. Bob usually shows a team of two at the Germantown Charity Horse Show and the fall Nashoba show, but he is considering showing four this year.
Many types and sizes of horses showed up for the clinic lessons. Driving shows have classes for all horses from the VSE (minis) to Draft size. The local Nashoba Association has horses that represent all these types of horses.
Clinic participants ranged from beginner to novice, and included seasoned competitors, each benefitting from Tom’s knowledge to reach their training goals. Tom O’Carroll reminds us “to approach your horse with gentleness, but don’t be afraid to ask for more. Make the instructions very clear and driver and horse will succeed.” More information may be obtained from Tom’s website at www.tocarroll.com .
Tom O’ Carroll returned to Bob Martin’s Split Tree Farm near Rossville, TN March 23-25 to teach his “Good Hands” approach of driving to Nashoba Carriage Association members and guests.
In Tom’s lecture, he spoke about his earliest experiences with horses. He realized early on that he was able to communicate with horses in a way that most other people could not. Even the most difficult or problem horses became gentle around Tom. His reputation grew after he convinced a horse that normally could not be shod to stand quietly for the farrier. People began to challenge him with increasingly difficult horses, and it took Tom only, “a short time to straighten out a bad horse.” Tom became convinced that most horse problems were really people problems.
In 1960, Tom moved to the United States, where he earned recognition driving everything from singles to six-horse hitches, including teams of mules. Tom currently calls Navasota, Texas his home, and he has introduced Combined Driving Events to many people in his state. He has been on TV and been a horse expert for several movies.
Tom’s school nameis “Good Hands” and his philosophy with a horse is to ask once softly, ask again, and then tell. An example of this would be to use a couple of half halts leading to a full stop. The half halts communicate a nice, easy downward transition. Tom explained how to make good behavior easy and bad behavior hard work.
Wanda Chancellor’s Welsh Pony, Uppity, or Rollingwoods Movin On Up, was a return student from last year to Tom’s clinic. In fact, Tom started Uppity as a three-year-old at his farm in Texas, giving Uppity his initial 90 days training.
Wanda commented on Uppity’s latest lesson with Tom, “He was immediately forward and round for Tom, so we worked on a more detail-oriented lesson. We worked on our walk, since it counts X2 in the dressage arena, and also our transitions in and out of the walk.”
Even though Uppity is still young, he shows great promise, especially in the dressage portion of a Combined Driving Event (CDE). Wanda’s competitive nature and Uppity’s talent take her on the road to compete in CDEs across the area.
Brenda Ranchor brought her daughter’s ex-eventing horse, an Anglo-Trakehner, whom she is hoping to teach to drive. Her horse is not green, but he has never been hitched. The horse showed great promise as Tom put side reins on him to lunge. Tom made sure that the horse knew to move away from the pressure of each rein, as he used the reins independently to ask the horse to yield his hind-quarters.
Nashoba President Bob Martin hooked his four Friesians, something that he has done rarely in the past year. The flash and feathers of this showy four-in-hand hitch brought smiles to everyone present. Bob usually shows a team of two at the Germantown Charity Horse Show and the fall Nashoba show, but he is considering showing four this year.
Many types and sizes of horses showed up for the clinic lessons. Driving shows have classes for all horses from the VSE (minis) to Draft size. The local Nashoba Association has horses that represent all these types of horses.
Clinic participants ranged from beginner to novice, and included seasoned competitors, each benefitting from Tom’s knowledge to reach their training goals. Tom O’Carroll reminds us “to approach your horse with gentleness, but don’t be afraid to ask for more. Make the instructions very clear and driver and horse will succeed.” More information may be obtained from Tom’s website at www.tocarroll.com .
