“There are no shortcuts,” proclaims Doc. “Or should I say, there are no good shortcuts.” He’s conducting a four-day driving clinic at the Natural Gait (www.thenaturalgait.com) outside Harper’s Ferry in northeastern Iowa. The students are mostly older Midwest baby boomers, either renewing their acquaintance with horses or first-time horse owners at last satisfying their desire for a horse. Their reasons for wanting to learn to drive range from the romance of it, to rounding out their horse’s education, to fine-tuning their driving skills. The horses they have brought to the clinic range from a 200-pound miniature to 2,000-pound Brabant crosses.

Doc’s stepfather Tom Triplett joins him for this clinic. Tom spent 30 years packing mules into the wilderness and driving teams for the forest service.

The two men approach training a horse or mule to drive using a method that is non-violent and less forceful than many traditional ways. Doc believes in first training the human. “It’s up to us, with our reasoning abilities, to learn how they learn. Our horses should trust us and respect us, but allow us to be their leader.”

Doc teaches how to interact and communicate with another intelligent being, rather than offering a list of rules. Your relationship with your horse is the greatest insurance of your safety. Intimidation works only as long as the intimidation is greater than the horse’s fear of other things.

Communication is much different in driving than in riding, where you have body contact. In driving you have only two ways to communicate­through voice and through line contact. You therefore need to communicate your desires through effectively using your voice with volume, speed, tone, rhythm, and inflection. Doc recommends the use of a stick or wand to reassure and caress the horse.

Concurrently, you need to communicate effectively through the lines. Doc teaches a rhythm method of driving using pressure release alternating left and right. He uses a mechanical team on which students can practice this technique before moving on to a real team. They also take turns driving each other around, so each can feel not only what the driver feels, but also the communication—or lack of it—transmitted through the lines.

In the afternoon students get to bring their horses into the teaching to learn about proper collar and harness fitting. Having so many different animals, each with its own harness, gives students many examples of how to make proper adjustments.

Should we use blinders or not? “Let the horse decide,” Doc advises. “All horses should be desensitized enough to not need blinders.” He recommends training both ways, then make an educated choice.

All parts of Doc’s clinic are hands-on for participants, who learn to first build a foundation. Given the tools, the techniques, and the time you can correctly build a relationship with your horses. When you get a new horse, trained or not, start from scratch to build your relationship with this particular animal. Let your horse decided the pace of the lessons.

Bethany A. Caskey lives in Albia, Iowa. Doc Hammill demonstrates his training methods on a series of DVDs available from the Rural Bookstore.