So last night I went downtown with my rig and Lily, and spent an hour walking the streets of Greenville and the parade route. Things went great! Lily is more impatient with red lights than many drivers, but after she gets that initial spunk out of her, she does fine.
The new harness is awesome! I think Lily hates having an overcheck line that is actually attached to the harness. It’s great having a harness that fits Lily well and I can have faith in its strength. No pictures, but I’ll for sure have some at the parade tonight.
I did some vocal practice tonight. I’ve been giving Lily vocal commands when I drive her, but up to this point, I was still pretty much driving her through turns and what not. Well tonight, on these roads, I tried a few different times to just give her a vocal, with no reign, and see what she did. She’s got “Haw” down pretty darn good. She also did great with my “straight up” command (which I use when at an intersection and I can see she is thinking she might need to turn). When I would holler that she would cease looking side to side and just settle in and go straight. She’s not the best wagon horse yet, but we’re working on that! J
I know y’all probably get sick of hearing me sing praises to Lily, but I have to one more time. After 45 minutes of walking around, I came upon a light, and proceeded to halt Lily. The road was going down hill a bit. Well I noticed the wagon kept rolling towards her when she stopped. I knew what happened instantly. Somehow one or both holdback lines had come unhooked. Since we were on a decline, my options were to make her move and run the red light, risking being hit, or brace for impact. Instantly I started calling for her to “woah” and be “easy”. The wagon smacked her right in the butt, and the shaft/single tree hit her rear legs. This all happened in just a few seconds, but I was very VERY concerned. I know a guy who had this same thing happen, and his result was that the horse spooked, took off causing the guy to bail from the wagon, and they found the wagon 1 mile and 4 fences later, turned over, and a horse with some serious wounds. With that in my mind I was probably the most “scared” (if you can call it that) that I’ve been. Fortunately my motorcycle riding has taught me how to put the panic away, and do what I have to do to ready myself for a situation.
After I called out to Lily and the wagon hit her, she took one step forward and then stopped good. I kept telling her to “whoa” as I handed the reigns to my friend, and I jumped down and grabbed Lily’s halter. Whew! Crisis adverted! I just cannot say how wonderful it is to have a horse that is so layed back, and so trusting of me. I really and truthfully thought we were going to have a rodeo for a bit, but nothing happened. What a wonderful horse!!!
The holdback lines I use are just chains with caribeaners on either side. One side hooks to the breeching strap ring, and the other hooks to the metal shaft ring. I do this because it makes adjustments very easy, and it is very stout. Both holdback lines were disconnected from the shafts. Nothing was broken or anything. All I can figure is that somehow I must’ve connected them with some twist in the chain so that they were pressured to turn and just popped off. How the spring loaded caribeaner actually opened and slid off is still a mystery to me. I’m going to get some locking caribeaners today so that doesn’t happen again.
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