Regarding the Horses in our lives...

[perchie.girl]

Here is a picture of the last time I drove before the accident.... Litterally



This was about 2005 in my lower driveway. We had just finished a drive around a loop in the desert along easements. And finishing up on a Jeep trail that cut across the adjacent property.... something the Border patrol made

Here is a picture of my land from a satellite


My driveway forms a loop in front of the house we took the picture down near where the driveway meets the road. our journey went to the right which is east and around the ridge of rocks that forms the top of the property. then comes around along that very clear sharp narrow jeep road to home.

Up at the top of the road near the loop is a graded out area that was supposed to be an arena.... come to find out its the perfect place to land a Heliocopter.

Near the corral I have cross ties. There is where I would hitch her myself and climb up over the weels into the basket. The order of hitching is important and the most dangerous part of being on the ground with a harness horse. Shes a good girl but has very very strong flight instinct... and why she has a home with me for life. She is a bolter. I knew this Know this but ignored it because I was chatting with my neighbor.

I was un hitching her and ignored the fact that we were facing the wrong direction... down hill. Normally we hitch and un hitch facing up hill that way if the cart rolls it rolls away from the horse..... This time it rolled forward... She was half unhitched at the time and she knocked me Behind over Teakettle and pulled the cart through the cross ties over me and then she jumped two piles of brush before the cart broke free completely.... Of course I was knocked out before that so someone had to tell me.

I woke up and Tom was running back up to me from his house.
I said.. "What happened..."
He said "Dont worry I called 911 You stay here" and he started going back home
I said... "What happened"
"dont worry I called..." and he headed back to his house
So I sat there in 105 degree heat... thought a minute then moved to sitting on a hay bale... still too hot... move to the horse trailer to sit on the step.... Still too hot...

So I moved up to my house and sat on the ever shaded front porch.... Ahh cooolness. I felt fine... just didnt know hwat had happened and no one told me.... I was sitting there hoping the crazy lady down the way caught her and put her in one of her corrals....

The fire truck was there pretty quick after that... they asked me what happened.... Danged if I knew... So the Heliocopter came and landed on the Landing pad

and it too four of them to put a neck brace on me and strap me down.... Just then the Crazy lady come screeching to a stop and started yelling at me because i hadnt brought my horse down to use her round pen.... "um.... we had already been out for a drive...." She then realized what else was going on and left... but I got the gist that she had Caught Katee...um er opened the gate and she went in... so she was safe.

Now I am a big gal... Laying on my back is not something I can do for long.... In the heliocopter I complained that I couldnt breathe.... He thought I wasbeing hysterical and threatened to strap me down.... So I compromised with them letting me hang on to the neck brace....

seventy miles away at the ER the doc said "I have good news.... I have bad news..." Good news is its a mild concussion... bad news I couldnt find a brain..." Ha ha very funny I was told not to drive.... I didnt tell them I was going to drive back home to find my horse.

I got home by drving the grandmas in the minivan.... My son went along too he was about fourteen at the time. Went and got my truck and then went to the crazy ladys house.... She had a pile of Katees gear.... We had already found the rest scattered along the road.... I brought Katees halter and I tied her to a ring on the side of the truck... Drove home with her happily walking along side the truck.... Good to know info for some day...

So.... I found out my insurance would only pay for x amount of a helicopter ride.... What I was left with was a 4000 dollar bill. Still paying it off....

Note to self I can say no to heliocopter rides.... I found out later.

All because Tom wouldnt tell me what had happened.... I have had my bell rung before....

deb

 

[casportpony]

Wow, how scary! How did you teach her to drive and how long did it take?

-Kathy

Edited to add: And how tall are the wheels on your cart?

 

[perchie.girl]

If you have ever long lined you start that way.... Long lining with a surcingle. Doning all sorts of things from circles to figure eights spirals in spirals out... All the same things you do to train a riding horse. Even in hand work..... I used some lines I made for that.... I even was able to have her do shoulders in along the rail all within the curve she would make around my body.

With harness training normally you dont do canter work.... But I went a head... because Gosh you have to use all the muscles for good physiology. my intention was to do all the ground work then hire a trainer to start her with a vehicle.... but I snapped my ACL before I got to that point.

I did train my half arab Marc to driving.....so what you do with the horse after they are totally confident with long lines. is start draging stuff behind you making nois like a sack full of cans .... Something you can pull and drop if something gets out of hand. I also dragged the cans in the arena with the horse loose and let them follow you.... Its important they can see what the heck is making that noise....

After that I build a travoise out of two stout pieces of PVC.... the grey kind that is at least schedual 40. At first I fastened them to the harness traces with a quick release knot and banged them gently long her sides.... No biggie. Ok then I made the cross piece to fasten the two ends of the travois together like a capitol H with the h being about two feet from the end then hitched the traces to the cross piece.

The purpose of the travois is it doesnt roll it skids.... when the horse stops it stops wehn the horse goes it goes... When th ehorse backs up it stops them dead in their tracks... You dont want them to learn to back up just yet.... Going forward is to be encouraged...

Then hitching comes with a roebust vehicle in a smallish arena TWo people on either side of the horse with lead ropes for security.... and the driver always always goes in the cart. NEVER drive a hitched horse from the ground.... Safer for both of you. After the first couple of times then you can just let your helpers walk along side... then you are off and running for the miles you need to put on to have a safe horse.

Katee doesnt have enough miles even though she has been drivin since 2001....

By the end of training the accomplished horse will be able to turn a cart and leave a dinnerplate sized ring on the arena floor.... Back up through an ell.... bring one wheel between two boards and not touch a board.... maneuver between cones that have tennis balls on top without knocking one off....

STand perfectly still while being hitched and un hitched as well as when you have to get out or in...

Believe it or not a horse that has been trained to ride and has the right temperament for driving can be hitched the first time within a month.... I helped my friend carol do just that.

deb

 

[Bunnylady]

It's kind of funny, what you said about normally not doing canter work with harness horses. I've heard at least one other person who has trained driving horses say something along those lines, but she said she does it anyway. She said she does it so that, just in case the horse does break into a canter while being driven, it won't get rattled and spooky, but be kinda "been here, done this already" about it.

People think it's funny when I tell them that the most important thing you will ever teach a horse is "whoa." but it's the truth, isn't it?

I don't seem to have any pics of my "bigs" anywhere on the computer (odd, need to change that!) but here are the minis:

Betsy, ready to give a little person a ride (with her short legs, she's kinda bumpy, so she's not really popular for this)



Syd, dressed for a Christmas parade




Blondie, doing her impression of a little girl's dream pony

 

[casportpony]

If you have ever long lined you start that way.... Long lining with a surcingle. Doning all sorts of things from circles to figure eights spirals in spirals out... All the same things you do to train a riding horse. Even in hand work..... I used some lines I made for that.... I even was able to have her do shoulders in along the rail all within the curve she would make around my body.

With harness training normally you dont do canter work.... But I went a head... because Gosh you have to use all the muscles for good physiology. my intention was to do all the ground work then hire a trainer to start her with a vehicle.... but I snapped my ACL before I got to that point.

I did train my half arab Marc to driving.....so what you do with the horse after they are totally confident with long lines. is start draging stuff behind you making nois like a sack full of cans .... Something you can pull and drop if something gets out of hand. I also dragged the cans in the arena with the horse loose and let them follow you.... Its important they can see what the heck is making that noise....

After that I build a travoise out of two stout pieces of PVC.... the grey kind that is at least schedual 40. At first I fastened them to the harness traces with a quick release knot and banged them gently long her sides.... No biggie. Ok then I made the cross piece to fasten the two ends of the travois together like a capitol H with the h being about two feet from the end then hitched the traces to the cross piece.

The purpose of the travois is it doesnt roll it skids.... when the horse stops it stops wehn the horse goes it goes... When th ehorse backs up it stops them dead in their tracks... You dont want them to learn to back up just yet.... Going forward is to be encouraged...

Then hitching comes with a roebust vehicle in a smallish arena TWo people on either side of the horse with lead ropes for security.... and the driver always always goes in the cart. NEVER drive a hitched horse from the ground.... Safer for both of you. After the first couple of times then you can just let your helpers walk along side... then you are off and running for the miles you need to put on to have a safe horse.

Katee doesnt have enough miles even though she has been drivin since 2001....

By the end of training the accomplished horse will be able to turn a cart and leave a dinnerplate sized ring on the arena floor.... Back up through an ell.... bring one wheel between two boards and not touch a board.... maneuver between cones that have tennis balls on top without knocking one off....

STand perfectly still while being hitched and un hitched as well as when you have to get out or in...

Believe it or not a horse that has been trained to ride and has the right temperament for driving can be hitched the first time within a month.... I helped my friend carol do just that.

deb

Thanks for putting all of that together! I asked because one of the things I want to do is teach some of the ponies to drive as well as ride. Got one now that's going really well under saddle that I've had in had in harness pulling the travois that Mike made.

My only actual driving experience was when I was a kid... God looks after fools and babies, lol! Bought cart and harness for my first pony (a crazy gymkhana pony mare) with money I had saved up, put harness on pony, hooked up cart and went driving. It never accured to me that I should long line and drag stuff, lol. She was fine, but I know better now.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

It's kind of funny, what you said about normally not doing canter work with harness horses. I've heard at least one other person who has trained driving horses say something along those lines, but she said she does it anyway. She said she does it so that, just in case the horse does break into a canter while being driven, it won't get rattled and spooky, but be kinda "been here, done this already" about it.

People think it's funny when I tell them that the most important thing you will ever teach a horse is "whoa." but it's the truth, isn't it?

I don't seem to have any pics of my "bigs" anywhere on the computer (odd, need to change that!) but here are the minis:

Betsy, ready to give a little person a ride (with her short legs, she's kinda bumpy, so she's not really popular for this)



Syd, dressed for a Christmas parade




Blondie, doing her impression of a little girl's dream pony

They are sooooo cute!

-Kathy

 

[Peaches Lee]

Awesome photos everyone! Perchie Girl--your mare looks like a Friesian! I have very little experience driving, and prefer riding but I do love being the groom to the driver and weight in the carriage when you're going around curves and such, that is exciting!

 

[casportpony]

Here are a couple of one of our Welsh Mountain Pony mares, Ceulan Lena

Here she is at the Royal Welsh Show in Wales


Here she is in Santa Barbara


-Kathy

 

[perchie.girl]

It's kind of funny, what you said about normally not doing canter work with harness horses. I've heard at least one other person who has trained driving horses say something along those lines, but she said she does it anyway. She said she does it so that, just in case the horse does break into a canter while being driven, it won't get rattled and spooky, but be kinda "been here, done this already" about it.

People think it's funny when I tell them that the most important thing you will ever teach a horse is "whoa." but it's the truth, isn't it?

I don't seem to have any pics of my "bigs" anywhere on the computer (odd, need to change that!) but here are the minis:

Betsy, ready to give a little person a ride (with her short legs, she's kinda bumpy, so she's not really popular for this)



Syd, dressed for a Christmas parade




Blondie, doing her impression of a little girl's dream pony

Oh what Wittle Cute stuffs are they.... Minis make excellent harness horses.... so do Mules of any kind. They love a job all of them do. The interesting part about driving is if you as a driver knows their stuff you can balance the cart so there is no more than twenty pounds on their backs.... Or you can go to a four wheeled vehicle and there is no weight on their backs.

When I had my Arab gelding Marc I used to make halloween costumes for the halloween fun shows... soo much fun... He was a goof ball too and did just about everything I wanted.

Oh and thats a big yep about cantering in harness... EVERYTHING sounds different at the canter than at the trot....
deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Awesome photos everyone! Perchie Girl--your mare looks like a Friesian! I have very little experience driving, and prefer riding but I do love being the groom to the driver and weight in the carriage when you're going around curves and such, that is exciting!

Thank you for the complement. When she was under ten and fit she was around 1500 pounds. And her Canadian bloodlines give her more feather than many Percherons... Plus she doesn't have a docked tail... one of my requirements when I went looking. I have a funny story about that for later.

You know I took one of the stable owners for a drive once.... she was a reining and cutting horse person.... and had never been in a cart or carriage..... At the time I had a Sears and Roebuck cart. And I had trained my horse Marc in it.... From the time he was a long One year old.... so he kind of grew into the cart... I didnt realize it wasnt big enough for him by a smidge. He was used to it though.

So when I offered to give her a ride she was kind of hesitant... Here she was this cutting horse person who rode her stallion all the time sitting with me in this weenie little cart and her knuckles were white as she gripped the side of the seat.... it took her two times around the arena before she let her breath out.... but she never let go of the seat. Marc was a good boy... And she really complimented him.... but I could never coax her into the cart again.... Its that whole long distance communication thing and being sooo close to the "dangerous end" in a cart.

So What kind of horse do you have and what kind of riding do you do?

deb