Driving Me Buggy 2019 Hours!!!

[MindySchroder]

Drove Zorro for 120 minutes today. I had a friend come over with her mini to drive too! She bought my easy entry cart and wanted to try it out. We had a lovely 1 mile drive on my track and then went out on the road. We did lots of walking as her mare hasn't been driven much yet this year. Fun day!!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Drove Zorro for 120 minutes today. I had a friend come over with her mini to drive too! She bought my easy entry cart and wanted to try it out. We had a lovely 1 mile drive on my track and then went out on the road. We did lots of walking as her mare hasn't been driven much yet this year. Fun day!!

Now that she has a cart, maybe you can drive more often. I do more walking when I'm with another driver. We talk a lot (about horses). When I'm driving alone I'm more inclined to trot. Walking is supposed to actually be a better exercise than trotting, as far as muscle tone.

 

[MindySchroder]

Now that she has a cart, maybe you can drive more often. I do more walking when I'm with another driver. We talk a lot (about horses). When I'm driving alone I'm more inclined to trot. Walking is supposed to actually be a better exercise than trotting, as far as muscle tone.

She lives a bit of a ways away and doesn't have a harness yet. She borrowed one of mine to do the drive yesterday My pony and I spend a lot of time walking as I have a classical dressage background and having a good walk was drilled into my mind for years and years! LOL!

Today I drove Zorro for 40 minutes. I did a Go Pro video of most of the drive!
YouTube Video

 

[Cayuse]

Enjoyed the "backing" part of the video, oddly enough I have been doing the exact same thing with Cappy during my last few drives. He can be rather!resistant and then bingo, he softens and he's got it . He is such a stiff little man. Very bracey. We are gently working on the stiffness and his body issues.
I noticed near the end of your video Zorro's back swinging along. Nice and loose! I am aimimg for a little of that with Cap.

20 minutes ground driving Peanut 7/18
15 minutes ground driving Cappy 7/18
20 minutes driving Cappy 7/19
15 minutes driving Cappy 7/20. Too hot to do any longer and that was at 9am. Hazy, Hot and HUMID.

 

[MindySchroder]

Enjoyed the "backing" part of the video, oddly enough I have been doing the exact same thing with Cappy during my last few drives. He can be rather!resistant and then bingo, he softens and he's got it . He is such a stiff little man. Very bracey. We are gently working on the stiffness and his body issues.
I noticed near the end of your video Zorro's back swinging along. Nice and loose! I am aimimg for a little of that with Cap.

It's a wonderful feeling when the relaxation finally comes for sure!

Zorro and I went on a camping trip with the Ten Mile Drivers last weekend. Our minutes were:
Friday night (a night drive!) 60 minutes
Saturday morning 180 minutes.

Saturday's drive did not go as planned. Here is the link to the blog about it!
Camping Trip

Today Zorro and I drove for 40 minutes in our pastures. I now have two big tracks and we drove around them each 2 times which was equal to 2 miles! Pretty cool


AND I have decided to just put the time in and re-start Sky, Zorro's mom. She was one of our main driving horses when she was younger. I re-started her 3 years ago and she was a bit of a basket case. I mistakenly thought she would get better with more miles but she just got worse and worse. So now I'm going to re-start her with 100% focus on relaxation and calmness. If she isn't relaxed and calm most of the time we won't progress. I'm going to think about her more as an unstarted older horse than a re-start.



Sky is 17 years old this year. We've had her since she was about 8 months old Sky had 30 minutes of ground driving tonight!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

That is true; we think what some of them need is just need more miles, but what they really need sometimes is stepping back for basics.
Your photos show why Montana is called Big Sky Country!

 

[MajorClementine]

Everyone is all caught up on hours. I've got a deposit down with Patty's Pony Place for a new cart and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also headed to the Colorado CDE at the end of August to volunteer and see what CDE is all about.

Looks like everyone is enjoying their summer!

Second quarter combined hours were 155h 15m

 

[Marsha Cassada]

40 minutes ground driving Midnight today.
Thank you so much, MaCl! Sure appreciate your work. Very exciting about your new vehicle!!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

2.11 miles and 34 minutes for Dapper Dan.
.55 miles and 12 minutes for Midnight today.
Cool front came through and it was a lovely morning to drive.

 

[Cayuse]

30 minutes driving Cappy on Monday, I think that was the 23rd
25 minutes driving Cap today. Hardly no bugs this evening!

His Easy Boots were a fail. I am back to the Cavallos.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

30 minutes driving Cappy on Monday, I think that was the 23rd
25 minutes driving Cap today. Hardly no bugs this evening!

His Easy Boots were a fail. I am back to the Cavallos.

I'm surprised the Easy Boots didn't work out. Is it the shape of the hooves?

 

[Cayuse]

I don't know exactly what is wrong with the fit. The rubbed his heels badly and made him sore. I tried them on Peanut, who has a completely different shaped hoof and I think they are going to rub the same way on him, too. I have not used them except once for a short turn out with Peanut, so I am hoping my suspicions are wrong. But when I took the boots off Peanut, he had his fur on his heel bulbs ruffled and that is how it started with Cappy.
Cappy did not get raw, just rubbed hairless and sore.
I may try socks with Peanut.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

DD went 2.37 miles in 39 minutes. Midnight was ponied. She saw her first cow.
20 minutes ground driving Midnight.

 

[MajorClementine]

I don't know exactly what is wrong with the fit. The rubbed his heels badly and made him sore. I tried them on Peanut, who has a completely different shaped hoof and I think they are going to rub the same way on him, too. I have not used them except once for a short turn out with Peanut, so I am hoping my suspicions are wrong. But when I took the boots off Peanut, he had his fur on his heel bulbs ruffled and that is how it started with Cappy.
Cappy did not get raw, just rubbed hairless and sore.
I may try socks with Peanut.

Easy Boot (in my experience) has great customer service and is very likely to allow you to return the boots for a full refund if they aren't working for you. So sorry they didn't work out. I had a similar problem with them on my riding horse and was able to return them. My parents both use them and LOVE them but for my horse something wasn't working. They were great about it.

Times all caught up. Heading out to work with Clementine today. The weather is perfect. It rained last night so our dry lot isn't so dusty. She's been a handful so I think we'll do some ground driving

 

[MajorClementine]

40 min ground driving Clementine.

I've had the hardest time getting her to bend into the bit and lengthen so I pulled out my 'Carriage Driving' book and decided to give Sliding Sidereins a try. What a difference! I only made them tight enough that if she leveled out her head the pressure was off. It was like she had power steering all of the sudden. She had to fight herself on the bit instead of fighting me. She did figure out if she dropped her head she could get out of it but she couldn't do that when we moved into the trot. And boy did she have a nice easy trot with power steering again. I'm thinking this is a wonderful teaching tool for both of us. It was one of the best lessons we've had.

 

[Cayuse]

Thanks for the heads up on the Easy Boot customer service. may have to gve them a call.
30 mnutes drvng Peanut today
15 mnutes drvng Peanut yesterday.
Hubby drove Cappy today. He sort of lkes to partcpate wth us n the drvng hours. usng hs computer and lost a letter, seems stuck!
Here's Dan and Cappy.

 

[Cayuse]

Marsha, what dd she thnk of the cow?

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Marsha, what dd she thnk of the cow?

She freaked out. she was ponying and dd did not even notice the cows so he just towed her past them. my sister has a 300 pound bottle calf. what do you think of the idea of putting Midnight in with the calf for a few days?

 

[Cayuse]

Back to my ipad. Now I can write.
I had to chuckle at the visual I had of Dapper Dan just trucking along past the cow with Midnight tied to the cart and not having much say in the matter.
I would think putting her in with the calf might help.
One of the show grounds we go to has cows pastured off to the side. Peanut lost his mind when one wandered out from behind a barn. He did get over it, he came from a farm that had cows, but it sure did surprise him at first.
What is it with cows?

MajorClem, How did you attach the sliding side reins?

 

[MindySchroder]

Ground drove Zorro for 30 minutes today! Finally had the chance. We have been building a hay shed/tack shed and then today our neighbor came down and pounded some posts so I can re-build my track system for the ponies. So exciting!! Things are going to look pretty good around here soon.

Zorro was feeling quite sassy today. He and Sky have been locked in a small pen for about 2 weeks and they are going stir crazy. Hopefully we will have the track back up by the end of tomorrow! They will be so happy to move around more