Your Drive Day

[Marsha Cassada]

Another good drive today. That is FOUR steps forward! Even if we have to take two back tomorrow it is still progress.

 

[paintponylvr]

Another good drive today. That is FOUR steps forward! Even if we have to take two back tomorrow it is still progress.

That is AWESOME!! I love those days...

 

[paintponylvr]

StrangeAddiction -

What makes him a country pleasure horse? From pics you've posted I would have said he was a pleasure horse... BUT I don't fully understand how they decide and I may have the two divisions confused.

I always thought of the country pleasure horse as having less action and the pleasure horse having more action (higher - both front and back) and better balanced front to rear (which your guy has).

Like I said, maybe I'm confusing it with Arabs and the Classic Shetlands.

 

[Strangeaddiction]

AMHA and AMHR divide the driving horses into 3 categories, classic, country and single pleasure.

Classic is more of your hunter under saddle looking mini, 50-50 weight distribution, no action, ground covering, sweeping stride. Some shows have a western pleasure class too where the horses are less ground covering and "jog"

This is what AMHA's classification of a classic pleasure driving horse looks like (Samis Vegas Knight).

Country pleasure is more of the "saddle seat" or country horses on the Arab circuit. They have more of their weight distributed back on their haunches and have more action, usually below horizontal leg action, they have more energy than a classic but less than a single pleasure horse.

The above shows country pleasure vs. Single pleasure (I think the horse photo example for country is pushing it, that horse should probably be in single pleasure, but a lot of amateurs will take an older single pleasure and show them in country pleasure, found this on IAMRanch's blog).

Single pleasure is like the park horse category in Arab's, very high stepping, above level action and even more weight distributed back. These horses are hot and less of their "manners" are looked at in the class and more of their movement and talent is looked at (ex, if a horse doesn't walk well, if transitions aren't smooth, that doesn't tend to matter as much).

You can youtube videos of some good horse examples. Samis Vegas Knight is my favorite classic pleasure driving horse (I also have gotten to drive him many times and is a ton of fun!). 2B Patsy Cline is one of the greatest Single pleasure horses living, she is now owned by a gal in Sweden but she is still showing and WINNING! I don't have a favorite country pleasure horse yet, but you can just put amha country pleasure driving in the search and there are great videos

Hope I helped!

 

[MajorClementine]

You learn something new every day! ^^

We had planned to drive this weekend but my weather app lied and it rained rained rained. Now I'm dealing with a minor case of "rain rot" on Major's withers. Using some Spur's Big Fix to clear it up. He gets a much thicker winter coat than Clementine and he always seems to come into spring with some small skin issue.

We are leaving for a cruise for the first part of April so looks like any driving will have to wait till after. In the meantime I'm loving keeping up on all the driving updates here!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I bought a new driving bridle for my new horse and did not like the blinders. Yesterday I took that part to a tack shop to be remade. The wire in the new bridle blinder was very thin, maybe a mere 20 gauge (no wonder I couldn't get it to hold a shape). I took my old bridle to show the leather guy. The wire in its blinders is heavy, about like baling wire. He is going to resew the blinders with the thicker wire and lengthen the strap that buckles on the headstall, as it was too short and drew the blinders up against the eyes. Another thing we noticed about the old/new blinders: the old one has the wired piece attached to the outer edge of the blinder and the new one is sewn about 1/2" in. Not really sure what effect that has on fit.

Anyway, I was embarrassed that my old bridle leather needed cleaning, so when I got home I cleaned and oiled the bridle and harness!

 

[Strangeaddiction]

Show prep this week. Hercules has picked up a bad habit of course the week of the show. Going to the left at our strong trot he likes to canter a step when turning at the each end. No idea why or how he's picked this up.... have been trying to work on that. Other than that our drive yesterday felt fabulous! He is getting more comfortable in the cart so he is starting to really drive with his hind end and get more energy when asked (he's still a lazy sucker lol!!). I can't wait for him to start maturing and come further along! I am pretty proud of how far we've gotten on our own, I am sure I have done things "wrong" but so far they are working haha!!

We are just hoping for a nice easy show, just to get him out and about and see how he does in a show environment. I, of course, feel very unprepared for the show!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Very best of luck to you! Win or lose you will learn alot and meet some great horse folk. But I hope you get a ribbon!

 

[MajorClementine]

I can''t get over what a nice looking house Hercules is. Good luck at your show!

@Marsha : I feel ya, I seem to clean my gear after I have to show it to someone else. It's not until then that I notice how truly dirty it is. I need to start wiping it down better after each drive. I'm guilty of only wiping the sweaty parts...

 

[Strangeaddiction]

Thank you guys so much! I had a friend come the second day of the show and she took pictures and I couldn't believe how good he looked! As promised here are some pictures! A friend of ours only came the second day and we only had one class so she just took some pictures in the warm up pen. I am SUPER proud of how well he did this weekend! For being a 3 yr old stallion surrounded by mares all weekend, his first show and he's only been going in the card a couple months maybe. He was a gentleman and we beat horses 3-4x his age and ended up reserve highpoint mini A

Results

Pleasure Driving- 5th-5th-5th-2nd

Disciplined Rail- 2nd-2nd-2nd-4th

Hunter in Hand- 3rd-3rd-4th-4th

Halter Obstacle-6th

Driving Obstacle-2nd-4th-5th-6th

The classes had 10-12 minis in them and going in the hunter and obstacle classes was a last minute thing, we worked on hunter maybe a handful of times as well as obstacle. The only thing that got us in halter obstacle was the bridge, it was a good 5" off the ground we got on fine, we jumped off though haha! I was super proud of driving obstacle, he did everything perfect, but he decided to back into the chute crooked so that's what got us.

 

[jeanniecogan]

Well, i haad three driving days and feel like the world lifted off my shoulders. my friend susan and i decided we couldn't take it anymore and the weather predicted dry. so we packed up our trailers with food minis and carts and went to wranglers. we had a great time and drove morning and evening.

my son is bringing my team wagon that he bought for me this weekend. wish me luck.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Sounds like a super show for you both!! Thanks for sharing. We non-showers can attend vicariously.

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

Had a lovely drive with my mare today she is such a star. I wish i had a flat paddock i could really practice on rather than this hill on tarmac which is the biggest area i have

 

[dalvers63]

Looks like you had nice weather for a drive Rocklone. Your mare looks great.

I was able to get out to the barn and have a drive with my gelding last Friday. We practiced a bit on standing still, especially when just starting out. He's definitely got "GO" down well but gets impatient if we don't move off right away. There were quite a few times where we went halfway around the track and then stopped for a few minutes until he relaxed.

I was also able to do a basic cones practice run with him. He loves them as much as I do! When I had my friend drive him the cones course is what hooked her on wanting a driving horse (she's done endurance riding for years) and doing CDEs.

I don't think I'll get much driving in this week but we will be going to a CDE clinic this weekend and will get to do some practice there.

 

[paintponylvr]

OOOO, please tell us (maybe in it's own thread?) how the driving clinic goes!!

 

[dalvers63]

OOOO, please tell us (maybe in it's own thread?) how the driving clinic goes!!

Will do! I think another thread would be good. I'll have my friend take pictures, too

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Rowdy and I are getting more comfortable with each other. He still offers a little tantrum but they are less passionate. Today he forgot to have one. He is so good with traffic. His main problem is giving up his own opinion, but we are closer to being on the same page. I need to get a new photo since clipping.

 

[Cayuse]

Well, I'm going to hop on this thread since I've enjoyed reading all about everyone's "drive days." I had my first driving lesson this weekend and followed it up with a practice session the next day. It was the first time Peanut was hitched this year and it was not without a few antics, but he settled down nicely. I enjoyed the lesson and got a lot of pointers I can put to good use. The biggest one being to instill some patience in him, harness him up and let him stand on the crossties for awhile while I do something else (while keeping an eye on him still). I did this a couple of times and noticed he was quicker to "chill" each time. So I'm happy with that.

 

[dalvers63]

The biggest one being to instill some patience in him, harness him up and let him stand on the crossties for awhile while I do something else (while keeping an eye on him still). I did this a couple of times and noticed he was quicker to "chill" each time. So I'm happy with that.

I have the same issues with Mikey. He is a "let's get going" mini and standing still isn't one of his best traits. The last time I drove him we did a lot of standing around until he relaxed. You'll find the more you practice the faster Peanut will calm down and be patient. Glad to hear you're making progress!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Our grand daughter is here for a few days. Yesterday she rode the bicycle and I drove Rowdy. I didn't know how he would react to the strange vehicle. He looked askance at the bike at first, then seemed to enjoy it. He averaged about 7 mph on our 2 mile route; didn't like to push him too much as it was a paved road, for fear of slipping. Our side roads are still impassable due to recent rain.