I have a question for all those experienced with harness training and driving horses. Why blinkers?
Almost every time I have seen harness driving, the horses are wearing blinkers. I have asked maybe 20 harness people why they fit blinkers to their horses, and they have all given me the same answer. It’s to keep a horse from being distracted and to only look straight ahead.
Michèle and I went to a farm day on the weekend. There were many steam-driven farm machines, which were interesting, and I learned a great deal. There were also demonstrations of horse-driven plowing. I asked one of the fellows at the plowing demonstration about why the horses were wearing blinkers, and I got the same answer - focus!
I have not had a lot of experience with driving horses. However, when I was a young fellow living on a rural property, I taught my horse, Luke, to pull a sled around the paddocks so that I could pick up kindling and firewood. I would stand on the sled while Luke towed me around the paddocks. He would stop and wait for me to load the sled with wood, then we would drive to the next pile to be collected. That’s almost the sum total of my experience of training horses in harness.
The harness gear I used was borrowed from a friend. Included in the gear was a set of blinkers. He told me they would help Luke learn to go straight and not be distracted. I never used them on Luke during the training. I never found a need for them. Luke was an excellent harness horse. But when I think about it, Luke was excellent at everything. He was such a showoff.
Talking to people about blinkers, I get the impression that the main reason for their use is tradition. It seems logical that if improving focus were the primary purpose for blinkers, why don’t people use them on riding horses? And if focus is not the main reason for using blinkers, I’d like to know what is, and whether they fulfil their purpose.
I’d appreciate it if you could help me better understand the use of blinkers and whether harness horses really need them, or if they are merely a substitute for a lack of better training.