With everything set up properly, it was time to let the driving commence. I started them off, and they did very well. I guess I should say, as well as Lily pulling Pam around. Pam was okay though, and she kept her head about a head's length behind Lily at first. Lily was actually doing more steering of pam, then pulling. I had a grin from ear to ear. It was amazing to be ground driving a team.
I kept right around the house at first. Since I'm doing this alone, I wanted to at least be in site of the house so maybe my mother-in-law could see me if something bad were to happen. The girls did fine though. After 15 minutes of this, I decided to venture out through the pasture.
This is when the difference in the horses came through. Lily did what she does best. She knew what her job was, so she broke into her slow trot that Belgians have that looks so beautiful. She was in beautiful form. Pam on the other hand, was a lazy butt and was taking as big a step as possible to keep up with Lily. Lily was basically dragging Pam. I kept after Pam to step it up, but it's hard since she's untrained. I didn't want to slap her on the butt with reins, because that is very bad form in the teamster world.
If I had to describe what it looked like, I would have to say it looked like a small child dragging their tired mother around. Lily was in her happy spot, trotting foreward, and Pam was reluctantly moving as fast as she could without being dragged.
We spent another 15 minutes out in the pasture. There was one point where I crossed some water, and Pam really spooked. She tried to run forward, but then the bit hit her, and she acted like she might want to rear up. Queue Lily the wonderhorse. She didn't even act phased. She just kept at her pace, and Pam had to move with her. Soooo awesome!
I'm still grinning about it. It was amazing. Now I'm really excited to get some farm equipment and use them both to work for me. Pam will have to learn to step up though and do her job!!
I think the best part is, now that I know I can do this successfully, I can really do it more often. Pam will come alone nicely if I can just keep doing this. Having Lily train Pam will be great (and giving her some personnal training will help too!).
That's it for now. WOO HOO!!! I drove both my belgians!! I'm happy as a clam. Enjoy the pics!!
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