Get Hitched! 2025 Driving hours

[MajorClementine]

Happy New Year fellow drivers. In an effort to help me keep track of everyone's time please put the horse driven and time driven at the top of your post. That way I can easily find your times.

Then feel free to tell us all about your driving day, or just your day in general. Rather than have two threads let's just keep our discussion here with the hours. We all like to chat here so it'll be easier to have it all in one place. BONUS POINTS for pictures!

Also, I assume most of us use Strava or other tracking apps for driving? Do we want to keep track of miles this year as well? Let me know. Happy hitching!

 

[Standards Equine]

45 minutes in the cold with Falcor yesterday!
I got my first drive of 2025 in! I think I beat last year by more than a week. It had warmed up recently to a balmy -15 C (5 F) so we went out. Falcor felt just a bit jumpy and reactive while harnessing so I went ahead and lunged him a bit, as much as he decided he needed. He decided he didn't need much. We hitched and he waited on his own for me to get seated before getting the cue to move off. He felt just a bit spicy when we walked out to the field but he settled in just fine and was happy to walk the entire loop. I got cold, but that's ok. I had the thought "what's better than a pony who can canter out in the field? One who will happily just walk the entire field!"
I've also registered and paid deposit for the annual High Country Driving Bonanza held annually at the historic Millarville Racetrack, Alberta. It's going to be about 5 hours for us to drive down there, but it's a 3-day clinic with international instructors. It will run Monday through Wednesday in July. Following that, there's a 3-day HDT running an hour closer to home. I'm going to take Falcor (and maybe Phillippe the donkey for fun) and see what we can learn. Time to get ready for adventures in 2025!!

 

[1roadtoad]

Standards Equine that all sounds great. I'm still struggling with getting my boys harnesses on properly! Just a bit of ground driving so far. I hope to get up my nerve at some point to actually get a cart and drive them.