Your Drive Day

[MajorClementine]

What a fun drive with Midnight. You've come a long way with her. I love that you took her through a drive through. We used to do that on our riding horses before town got so big. Thanks to the winter Olympics held in Utah our quiet little valley is now full of wealthy big city folk who wanted to live in the cute farm town. Since then they have successfully forced the dairys to shut down and almost run the horse people out completely.

I don't know how I missed your comment on your milage on the sulky. That's a lot of miles! I might have to look into getting one of those. Not that I drive that many miles but it would be fun to keep track.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Midnight gets a little nervous still. She left a pile in the neighborhood street. I am thinking I will take a trash bag with me next time and clean up, if I can. Doesn't hurt to be considerate. Dapper Dan never goes while he is working; hopefully Midnight will get better. She did wait till she got home onto the grass to urinate, instead of doing it in the trailer. Thank you, Midnight!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I don't know how I missed your comment on your milage on the sulky. That's a lot of miles! I might have to look into getting one of those. Not that I drive that many miles but it would be fun to keep track.[/QUOTE]
You can attach the Cat's Eye to any vehicle. I've thought of getting another one for my regular cart. I'm not digitally savvy, so the mechanical Cat's Eye suits me so I have not downloaded an app; plus, some areas where I drive have no cell service, so I'm not sure the GPS would work.
I've had the sulky for almost 20 years; I wonder how many miles I've put on it? Just installed the Cat's Eye less than a year ago.

 

[Cayuse]

Marsha, would a "bun bag" work on your cart? That way you wouldn't have to get out and shovel up a mess. I think MajorClem has one on her cart. I bet you could make one, you are handy like that.

 

[MajorClementine]

I do run bags on all my vehicles (or I attach them right to the harness if attaching to the vehicle is tricky like with a sulky) because fancy neighborhoods have grown in all the fields around me ( I miss when they used to grow hay) and people don't seem to like the piles of free fertilizer that I leave. Go figure...

 

[Cayuse]

My hubby drove Cappy today. They have an understanding . I wish Cappy was bigger so he could do more with him. Dan mostly just walks him around so they do OK together but I am so tempted to look for a larger pony. I think maybe I'm the one who wants a larger pony....

 

[Willow Flats]

Was such a fun drive day! My little 12 year old friend got to come back to drive today. Her parents wanted us to wear masks because of the Covid thing, so we looked like a couple of outlaws. There was tons going on! We had a little wind and the pastures around me had all manner of opportunities to see Annie's progress. One neighbor has a huge willow tree that borders my property and he had a guy in a lift with a chainsaw cutting huge limbs off his willow tree which were crashing to the ground. The woman in the back with the cows was checking her fencing on her quad. the people with the tree had visitors which all walked out to their back pasture and were holding up their phone at me facetiming their grandkid so she could see the pony pulling the cart, while their dog is going nuts. Annie did really well. I was driving and trying to wait out the activities before giving the reins to my little friend. The tree cutting was all done and she had fun driving over the bridge. Then towards the end the guy drove a noisy, rattling trailer full of the cuttings out into his back pasture and Annie did spook just a little by breaking into a trot. But I was really proud of her.

Things are opening up here again. There was an HDT here locally last weekend. Because of everything going on there were only 16 entries on Saturday and I am not sure about Sunday. Almost all of the minis were brought to it from Southern California by one trainer down there who is going to be relocating to Texas, so it is really going to change things here as far as minis at our CDEs and HDT's. However, I met two women with minis that were competing and live in the next town, and one is starting to train driving horses. And the Play days I was going to are starting up again. You used to be able to just roll in the first Saturday of every month, but now because of our government's social distancing rules they are only taking so many people and you have to reserve your spot. I got Annie on the roster for June 6th!

 

[Cayuse]

Annie is making great progress! June 6th will be here before you know it! We still have no shows here and I don't think I'll be going even when they restart as I am in a high risk group. I might, but I'll probably skip this year. I miss it so much. We had the entire season planned out and then, Kaput! The countdown is on for next year already, 10 months and 2 weeks!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Oklahoma is hosting their first show the end of June. I don't compete, but I'm glad things are beginning to function again. The local riding clubs have begun their play days again, but doubt I will go as the arenas are too deep for Midnight. If I check into it, I will have to see what medical is required for the horses. And i don't really think they would welcome a miniature at their events. At least we don't have to wear masks outdoors here.

 

[MajorClementine]

We have zero shows in this state and the closest ones in neighboring states are an 8 hour drive...

I'm glad to see things starting to operate in states that have shows though. Even if they are asking people to wear masks or keep their distance from each other. You can still visit in a mask or 6-10' apart. We don't have to wear masks outside here but have been asked to please wear them in public buildings.

My son's 4H riding club has started up and they meet at the outdoor arena every Tuesday night. I'm going to take a mini and cart on the nights my hubby can go with us and drive around the fair grounds. There is lots and lots of room to drive around down there.

 

[Cayuse]

Going to the fair grounds to drive sounds like a great idea. Does your son bring his horse to the 4-H meetings? If your bringing one you may as well bring two (or three!)

 

[Willow Flats]

The guy that holds the play days said he is only taking 8 turnouts and has marked spaces for trailer parking at wide distances where you hitch your horses and once in our carts we are always at a distance anyway. He didn't mention masks.
I'm really looking forward to it!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We have zero shows in this state and the closest ones in neighboring states are an 8 hour drive...

I'm glad to see things starting to operate in states that have shows though. Even if they are asking people to wear masks or keep their distance from each other. You can still visit in a mask or 6-10' apart. We don't have to wear masks outside here but have been asked to please wear them in public buildings.

My son's 4H riding club has started up and they meet at the outdoor arena every Tuesday night. I'm going to take a mini and cart on the nights my hubby can go with us and drive around the fair grounds. There is lots and lots of room to drive around down there.

Shows are about 4 hours from me. I've done it a couple of times and learned a lot. If it were more convenient I would do it sometimes, as it really motivates one to work with one's horse.

 

[MajorClementine]

Going to the fair grounds to drive sounds like a great idea. Does your son bring his horse to the 4-H meetings? If your bringing one you may as well bring two (or three!)

Yes my son rides one of our Fjords for 4H. He's not a fine tuned arena horse but he's the best 4H horse I could ask for my beginner son. Very first time to the arena with horses everywhere and he was quiet and steady. Even when the other horses got upset about the roping steers from rodeo club getting loose. Ferb just stood there with a hind leg cocked watching all the cows and other horses run around upset. My son and Ferb have come a long way after just one year. I had never had any experience with 4H and after last year I'm a huge supporter of the program.

Anyway... yes to bringing extra horses. We have a 2 horse trailer that we take so that means Ferb in one side and up to 3 minis in the other. My sulky will fit in the bed of the truck!

This week my parents will be visiting so we're going to hitch the Fjords (Phineas and Ferb) to the wagonette and drive them to 4H then unhitch Ferb and saddle up for 4H, then drive them home. I'm wondering if any of my minis are in good enough shape to make the 5 mile trek there and the uphill 5 miles home....

 

[Marsha Cassada]

The last two times I drove Midnight, we were with another horse. Yesterday we went out alone. She was not comfortable with it, but did all right. My toes did curl up in my shoes a couple of times. I asked her to walk quite a bit but the walk was pretty fast. We tacked back and forth across the road some. Did whoa and stand some. But she was pretty hyper. We went 2.3 miles in 30 minutes, if that tells you how fast she was walking.
We almost fell into a ditch once because the wheel got too close to the edge and for some reason she would not move over. Luckily I was in the sulky so I just stood up and braked (like the Flintstones). If I had been in the cart I would have had to just go down into the ditch and figure it out from there. I had just been bragging about her that afternoon to a woman who used to help me train: Midnight is doing so well! Midnight is so sweet!

Last night I got out the old cones and we cut some pvc to stick through the cones to make poles. (I just cannot do cones; they are too low for me to get a visual reference.) I'm going to ground drive Midnight for a while, working on being more responsive. When we are out on a walk, I work on moving her back and forth and in figure 8s. On ground work, we work on giving to pressure with the lead. But out on the road in harness she isn't as responsive.

 

[MajorClementine]

Isn't it interesting how much confidence they get from being with another horse. Sounds like she was still a pretty good girl for her first time out by herself. She'll build her confidence I'm sure. And I have used the Flinstone breaking method myself in my sulky.

I love the idea of using the PVC to make the cones taller. That would be a huge help to me as well. The short cones are difficult to navigate sometimes. I end up running them over without realizing it.

I took Wally and Blue to the fairgrounds during my son's 4H practice last night. I had the harnesses all set up for my sulky but when I went to get it the tires were flat. I ended up taking my new EE cart that I picked up from an auction last fall and the traces I brought were too short for it. So I ended up ground driving Wally. He's such a good boy. I asked him to "step up" then we walked along while my mom walked with us. We were just visiting like we were out for a walk while Wally did everything and went anywhere I asked him to. I am driving him in a side check because he dives for anything greenish.

I ended up hitching Blue even though it left the shaft ends sticking out like harpoons. He had to lift his head over the shafts to turn the poor guy. I did have my husband right there just incase we snagged a line or the bridle on the shaft (which we did and he stood there like a good boy while we fixed it). I paid more than I wanted to for Blue but he's proving to be worth it.

 

[Willow Flats]

I ground drove Annie today and we had a really good training session. My neighbors on the other side had workers cutting shrubs, trees and weeds back because they want to replace some of the fencing. They had a chainsaw going and a weed eater and my husband was home working in his shop using the table saw and chop saw, and the whole front of his shop was open. So we ground drove near all of it. She had a couple of spooks, but she was able to overcome her fears and eventually stand relaxed near each of those things and I got a whole lot of exercise.

 

[Cayuse]

Sounds like everyone is keeping busy and making progress.

MC I sure wish you lived closer, I'd move Blue into my barn when Dan wasn't looking

Willow, Annie sounds a lot like Cappy. He always has a bit of a spook in him when we first start out. His spooks are getting smaller, but they are something he feels the need to hang on to.

Marsha, you made me giggle with the "toes curling". I'm glad you missed the ditch. Midnight is a good girl, she's come so far in a year. Just don't let her know when you've been bragging about her and you'll be fine!

 

[Willow Flats]

So my young friend came this morning to drive. We are going to make it every Friday. I set up a cones course to challenge her and she did pretty good. I want to make some numbers because I am always switching things up. I know you can buy them, but I was thinking I'd just make some on card stock and laminate them. I think I'll punch a hole on each side and make a loop with a cord and just slide them over the cones. Right after I wash them all off. The birds like to perch on them and poop!

Our weather is so crazy! We were having a heat wave and it dropped 20 degrees from yesterday and we are going to have thunder showers tomorrow so it will be a good day to make my numbers.

 

[Cayuse]

WHooo weee! Drove Cappy in the field two days ago. Hubby drove him first. What a sight to see. He was amped up and looked like a miniature Park Harness Horse. I was standing in the middle saying "easy, easy, easy" and every once in awhile I threw in a Hail Mary. Cappy had one ear on Dan and one eye on me and really did his best to keep himself together. Seeing him like that is something I will always remember. I drove him afterwards and had a great drive. He was a bit quieter by then thankfully . Today we drove him and had a nice drive.
I drove Peanut yesterday and he was HAPPY and very willing.