My girls pull their first wagon together!

I have been pretty busy working horses this weekend.  Saturday morning I got up with the sun (6AM) and harnessed up the girls.  I then loaded them both, and went over to my friend Pat Chases house.  Pat has been doing this longer then me, and I find him to have some very useful insight and knowledge.  We decided working in the morning would be a good thing, and he told me that if I wanted to bring my girls, I could, or we could just work his.

My goal was just to work my horses on his sled.  His sled has a pole on it for team work, and it's great at getting horses used to having that pole between them.  I had the girls together in no time, and I tried to ground drive the girls into position over the pole like the pros do.  This almost worked, but not quite.  I got their front feet in the right spot, but I couldn't coax the rear ends into position without moving the front.  The girls had no problem scooting over though.

I think I surprised Pat when I hooked them to the sled.  When I ground drive and hook to the wagon, I have been very lucky to teach them to stand perfectly still when they hear the tug chains moving.  I haven't yet had one get fidgety while doing that (knock on wood).  I hitched the girls to the sled without tieing them to the fence nearby.  I think Pat was impressed.

Next, we got down to business.  It was great.  Pat's sled has a Pioneer single implement seat on it.  It's a nice cushy ride!  I worked the girls for about 45 minutes.  Turning, moving, stopping, and even trotting.  Pat's property is awesome for this kind of thing.  His field is sloped, so taking them up hill is quite a workout.  Poor Rachel was sweating pretty quick, while Pam didn't seem to be bothered at all.

Pam is still very cautious while doing this stuff, but she responds great to commands.  When I step them off, she was the first to move, and she seemed to always put her shoulders into the pull.  I had to get after Rachel a bit to step up and match Pam.  They did awesome though!  No rodeos, or funny business.  I was so happy, that I had to get some pictures.  I asked Pat to take them around the field once so I could get some pictures of them working, and he could drive them and tell me what he thought.

After Pat parked the sled on a 45 with the fence, he told me that he thought we should try the girls on his wagon.  I thought this would be a good thing too.  The girls had the initial edge worn off them and they were in a working mood.  The wagon was parked 90 degrees with the fence, and so the girls would have to step over the pole to get in position.  I asked Pat to show me how it is done.  Pat is awesome on the lines!!!  Under his hands, he had the girls perfectly in position on the first try.  He's really good!

So next thing you know, the girls are hitched up to the wagon.  Pat took the picture of me and my boy getting set to drive them with a wagon for the first time.  I then drove them on the wagon for another 30 minutes.  They did amazing.  No problems at all.  Pam is still a little cautious, but she's getting better every time I work her.

While I was doing all this, Pat had pulled his team up and had them harnessed.  I decided the girls had earned a rest, and so I unhooked them from the wagon and tied them.  Pat took his mares, with each of their colts in tow, and began having them pull the sled.

After a few minutes of this, Pat had an idea.  He asked me to drive my team in the field with him.  he wanted to see how they all reacted working in the same field together.  I thought this was worth a shot, and so I agreed.  I felt bad for the girls for how much they'd worked for their first real day as a team, so I opted to ground drive them.  I started off just following Pat, and I'm convinced that horses have a parade mode that they just go into.  Following Pats girls on the sled, my girls just walked perfectly behind them.  No input on the lines needed.  They did awesome.  Then I went in parallel and then lead with my team.  It was a good experience.
 

After that we did a few more things.  Pat has an orphan colt that thinks he is a human.  :)  He leads fine on halter, but since he has no momma, he hasn't had the opportunity to go along while his momma is being worked under harness.  I decided to try and give him the chance.  While my girls were tied, I walked the colt up to my girls to see how they reacted.  Buddy (the orphan colt) had no interested in them, and they didn't care he was there at all.  Because of this, I tied him to the side of Rachel, and ground drove them with Buddy in tow.  That poor colt got drug all over the field.  LOL.  He will follow a human fine, but he did NOT want to follow another horse.  It was a great experience for him to have.  That went awesome, and we'll probably do it again.  It was really cool to think that we had 7 horses working at one time (Pat's team + babies, my team + buddy the orphan).  :)

The only slight problem we had involved the other 2 colts.  Those two colts know they are boys, and they know my horses are not their mothers, and they know that one of my mares (Rachel) is open and in season.  After those 2 colts had been tied to their mommas for about 20 minutes, Pat unhooked them so they could nurse, and also so they could relax a bit.  They were great, till my girls were within 50 feet.  Ace (Pat's gorgeous colt) saw my mares and ran right up to them full speed.  He started clicking his teeth on Pam, and Pam (who is bred) shook her head in disgust and tried to stomp a front foot at him.  I am trying to ground drive while this is happening.  Ace then tried to ride Pam's back and was rewarded with a kick to the side.  After that, he ran to the front of both girls and tried to kick them.  From there he really took an interest in Rachel, to her disgust as well.  So I spent the next few minutes doing circles away from Ace, while Pat drove his mares back up to the barn.  Ace soon followed his momma.  Lesson learned!  From now on, we don't drive my girls in the same pasture with those babies loose.

This also got me to thinking, and I think this kind of behavior is exactly why some people think geldings are the best horses to drive.  I can see a scenario where a fella could be driving a perfectly behaved set of mares, but if one is in season, and a stallion happened to be nearby, you might be up for an uninvited situation!  What would you even do in that situation?  Carry a gun?  That just seems scary to me!

Great weekend!  I'm still grinning from it.  If you're reading this, you made it to the end of this lengthy blog.  Congrats!  :)  More sled work to come.  I'm really pleased with the progress Pam and Rachel are making.  Wonderful horses! 

Patch's Ace

My friend Pat has a phenominal colt this year. His name is Ace, and he's really well put together. I beleive Pat is going to show him. I'm not an expert on conformation, but this guy looks great. 2 months old in this picture.

Time to kick up my feet

I don't know what's gotten into me lately.  For some reason, I've been really motivated to work outside.  This morning was no exception.  I have been working outside on the horse stuff.  I built the bench seat for the sled.  It's not attached yet, but it's built and just needs to be bolted on.  I also prepped the wagon so that I can finish staining it.  The main body is already stained, but I've added a few things to it since then.  Time to get rid of that raw wood look.  I'm also going to stain the sled since it's out.  The stain I have is one of those combo stain/sealer deals.  It seems to work alright.  I'm sure it would be better with an actual coat of sealer, but since I cover the wagon when it's not in use, I'm not too concerned.

I've also been working on my horse fencing.  I have a small pasture/pen that my son's 30 year old quarter horse stays in and then the main pasture that I keep the drafts in.  If you recall a previous blog, I made a stall type thing so that I could feed this old quarter horse in a way that the big girls wouldn't run him off and steal his food (Link Here).  Well it just so happens, that the water trough in the old horses pen is great.  It's on an automatic waterer and I don't have to do anything for it.

The water for the draft horses is a different story.  I have to run a hose out to them.  I tried putting that on an automatic watering deal, but the pressure in the water line is too much for the automatic valvue, and it causes water to constantly seep (making a muddy mess).  Well now that summer is out in full force, the girls are going through water like I go through Dr. Pepper.  I got to thinking, and decided that if I joined the pens together, all the horses could drink off the good source, and I wouldn't have to constantly and manually  fill a barrell for the drafts.  So I changed the fencing a tad to accomodate it.  So far so good.  I actually feel good for this old horse.  He's out in the main pasture now, hanging out with the girls.  Since horses are herd animals, it makes me feel better to know that he can be next to other horses if he wants to.

I'm such a nerd that I drew up a nice MS paint sketch of the new fencing configuation.  Enjoy.

I've been working so hard, that I'm going to do another fun activity right now.  Me and my son are going to head over to fellow teamster Pat Chases house.  Are we going to play with horses???  Probably not.  We're just going to relax at the pool and kick our feet up.  After all the work I've been putting in this week, I feel I deserve it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Reached my Goal!!!!!

So, I've been working hard for the past few months to get my girls ready to drive as a team.  It's taken lots of time working with the girls and slowly accumulating the gear, but tonight, I got to taste the sweet taste of success.  Tonight I drove my team for the first time!!

At first I harnessed them both up.  This was my first time putting Pam in her newly restored leather team harness, so it took me a bit to get her harness all adjusted and fitted to her.

Once the girls were all all harnessed up, I attached the yoke between the front of them, and then attached their rear breeching straps together.  I found the coolest thing to do this at the local co-op.  I use a bungee trailer tie.  It has a bull snap on one end, and a different kind of snap on the other, and it's a bungee cord.  I used this between the girls breeching straps and it worked awesome!  I then got the team lines hooked up, using my new stainless spreaders, and my new heart line drop.  I had bought these items a months ago to help keep me motivated to finish the harnesses.

I started with some ground driving.  To my surprise, Pam stepped right in line and did great.  I thought Rachel might have to drag her a bit, but all those hours ground driving her has paid off.  The girls did amazing.  I was only planning on ground driving tonight, but since they did so well, I decided it would be a shame not to challenge them.  (It would also be a shame to let that new sled sit there gathering dust!)  :)

I hooked the double tree up to the sled, and backed the girls into position.  I was surprised at how well they backed together.  I thought that would be a train wreck the first time, but they did very well.  They stood great while I hooked everything up, and next thing I knew, I was ready to go.

I asked the girls to step off, and they did.  They were a little unsure at first, and you could see them feeling out how much work they were doing and how the other horse was moving.  They got comfortable pretty quick though, and had no problem pulling the sled.

Ahhh ... the sled.  It was so awesome to stand on the sled, and not have to walk ... for the first 30 seconds anyway.  After 30 seconds these old legs of mine were burning from having to balance on the sled.  Maybe that's a sign that I need to get in better shape.  I just view it as a sign that I need a seat on the sled!  :)

After doing a few small laps up by the house, I went out in the pasture and started to walk the property line.  After walking half the way, I stopped them and let them have a break.  I LOVE THE SLED!!!  You can tell the girls were working.  When I stopped and let them rest, I could see breathing heavy.  Not blowing, but breathing a little labored.  They stood and didn't try to move at all.  So awesome.  I then had them walk another 1/2 mile, and gave them another rest.  I snapped a picture at this point showing my view.  I LOVE that teamster view!  So cool.

About this time, my friend Chuck came over.  Chuck is a teamster, and the first harness I used on LIly was borrowed from him.  I had called him and let him know I was hitching the girls tonight, so he stopped by to see how it was going.  It was awesome to have some company while working the girls.  Chuck followed me back up the pasture and took a few pictures of me driving the horses on the sled.  I got them back up to the house and did a few more laps near the house.  About this time, daylight was ending, so I decided to call it a night.

Wow, just wow.  Tonight I reached my goal!  I drove my girls together as a team.  Such an awesome feeling.  They need a lot more work, but I am very very pleased with them.  They each got an extra big scoop of food tonight after I brushed them down as a thank you.  What a night ... what a night.

Small Sled is built

Tonight's accomplishment was to pretty much finish the small sled I've been working on.  I'm pretty happy with it.  The runners are cedar 4x8's (actually, 2 cedar 2x8s nailed and glued together).  I used treated 4x4s as the cross timbers between the runners.  I just planked it with a bunch of leftover 2x6's I had from building something else around the house.  All the planking on the bottom is 4 foot wide.  I think this is going to work out pretty nice.

Does anyone have any idea's on the seat?  I was thinking of using an old bus bench, but it sits so low on the sled, that I'd have to somehow raise it 2 feet.  I'd love to have an old tractor seat or something, but have no idea where you even find something like that.  Anyone have any ideas?  I'm even okay with just having something to lean back on.

I'm going to stain the wood red like my wagon, and then seal it just to keep the wood in good shape.

Now instead of dragging a tire, I'll get to stand on a sled.  Woo Hoo for that!

Working Rachel as part of a team

What a fabulous night!  I'll have to post more pictures later since my phone is not sending them to me in a timely manner.  My apologies up front for the low quality of the pictures as well.

So tonight I decided to take Rachel over to my friend Pats.  I got there, and spent the first few minutes looking at his awesome colts.  Pat has 3 colts this year, and they are all phenominal.  One particular colt, Ace, is amazing!  I also got to see Pats new tie stalls he has made for his girls.  They are awesome and I think I need to make some similar stalls for my girls.

First things first, we got to fit Rachel with a new collar.  A 24 inch collar fit her perfect, and since he didn't have any used ones, I got a brand new one for Rachel.  It fits her very well.  I harnessed her up next.  Pat and I determined that we were going to drive Rachel and his mare Cathy (a mare he bought last year from an Amish farm) as a team.  I ground drove Rachel a bit and worked the anxieties out of her and then we tied Rachel and Cathy next to each other at a fence,and began to harness them up and hook them together.  Rachel did fine with this.  As soon as Cathy's colt saw Rachel, he ran up to her and started clicking his teeth away.  This colt may be 2 months old, but he's definitley a boy.  Rachel was very annoyed with him.

After hooking the horses together, Pat tied Cathy's colt to her side with a halter.  Then we tried them out.  They worked so awesome together.  They made it look easy.  The colt was rather annoying (as colts can be) but after a bit he fell in line better and followed his momma. 

After good success in ground driving, we decided to try them out on a 2 wheeled cart.  It was very easy to hook up the cart, and after a few starts and stops to adjust tugs, we were doing great.  Rachel and Cathy were doing very nicely together.  It was a great thing to watch.

Pat and I took turns driving, and I have to say, it was awesome.  Rachel is a pro.  She handled this like she had done it a million times before.

What an amazing night!  Pat loaned me a double tree and yoke for use with my own team.  Now I have all the parts I need to work Pam and Rachel together.  Hooray for that!  Keep your eyes on this blog for some amazing pictures of the girls hitched together as a team for the first time.

(sorry for the crappy quality of the pictures tonight.  I sure didn't get any good ones.)
In the picture of the horses, Rachel is on the left; Cathy and her colt are on the right.  The other shot is me driving the horses.

Here is a video clip of Pat ground driving the girls.  Sorry again for the crappy quality.
Click here

Harnesses complete, small sled started.

No pictures yet, but I'll get some soon.

Harness restoration project = COMPLETE!!!  I ended up ordering all the miscellanious hardware parts I needed from shipshewana harness.  They had a great online inventory and were very good to work with.  I was impressed with the quality of the snaps and leather loops.  I would recommend them.

With the receipt of the package from them, it only took me 2 hours to finish all the harnesses.  This means that both breast straps are done, and I am ready to fit Pam with her harness.  The only thing I'm lacking, is a 24 inch collar.  This week I am going to try to head over to my friend Pats and make the purchase.  Once I get that collar, I'll harness both girls and post pictures.  Very exciting.  Pat also has a doubletree and yoke that I can use till I get my own.

Another thing I started this past week, was the construction of my first horse sled.  I have been wanting to make one for a while, but couldn't decide on how to build it.  On one hand, I wanted a big heavy one to break the team to, but I also wanted one lightweight enough that I could use it with a single horse.  My solution was to build 2 sleds.  I am halfway through building my first one which is the small lightweight one (4x5).  I'll post a blog on exactly what I build and show some pics of it in use, as well with the pro's and con's I find from it.  The second sled will be made out of 2 8 foot telephone poles and will be roughly 4x8.  The second one will be purely for the team, and will be a great aid in teaching them to pull, and also to appreciate a nice break and stand well with a "woah".

Rachel is doing well and I think the abscess has run it's course.  If all goes well, I'll be posting pictures of the girls within the next few days in their harnesses.  Very exciting!

One harness complete and in use!

Today I assembled one of the harnesses and fit it to Rachel.  She did pretty good while I took the time to adjust all the straps.  I think the pictures will show that she is a pretty good harness model.  Maybe I should sign her up at some modeling agency.  ;)

These bridles came with twisted snaffle type bits.  I usually like to use the liverpool straight bit for driving, but I figured I'd give these a try.  Rachel likes it a lot better, however, she's not as responsive with it.  She's not bad by any means, just not as light as I'm used to with her.  I think it will work well for the farm type application that these harnesses will be used for.

I should note that these harnesses are plain work harnesses.  I hope no one was expecting fancy spotted ones with how excited I've been about them.  :)  I am thrilled with them, and very glad to have them!!

After making sure everything fit, I did some ground driving with Rachel dragging the tire.  It was a nice night.  Now I just need to get a few parts so I can assemble the other harness, and I need to pick up another 24" collar from my friend Pat.  (If anyone in the NE Texas area is interested in where to buy collars, my friend Pat sells them out of his barn in Sulphur Springs TX, and he charges a VERY reasonable price.  Much cheaper than online, and you can take your horse and fit check so you know you're getting the right size.  Nothing like trying it on before you buy!!)

Pat also put me in touch with a Mule skinner north of Sulphur Springs who sells all kinds of hitch stuff.  I talked to him, and he says he has what I'm looking for as far as a yoke and double tree go.  I'm going to go and take a look.  I really like the idea of being able to see and handle a double tree and yoke before I commit to buy it.  This guys prices are basically what you can get online, only I don't have to pay shipping for picking them up, so in the end it's cheaper.

That's it for now.  What a night!

Only the bridles to go!

I just got done cleaning up the last strap on the set of team harnesses that I've been working on.  I'm so excited.  I still have the bridles to do, but the harnesses themselves are hung up to dry.  Once they dry, I can start re-assembling them.  I have a few pieces of hardware I need to buy, but it should be minimal.  Can't wait to start working both the girls together!!!

Also, I have been trying to find the best place to buy a yoke and a double tree.  So far, I've found that Big Black Horse has the best deal on them.  My options are wood, or metal.  I was going to go with metal, since it would last longer and I could leave it outside, however, then I realized that I will be using this on my wagon, and I've learned that metal tree's make a lot of noise when clanking on a wagon.  I'm going to buy a set of wood ones.  48" wide.  The last decision I need to make, is whether to stick with natural wood stain, or red painted.  My wagon is stained red, so the red may be cool, but you can't go wrong with the normal wood look.  Anyone have any opinions?

My friend Roger went to a draft sale in Missouri this weekend.  I had him look for a yoke and tree for me, and I found that the guys at that sale had their stuff marked up a ton!  Big Black Horse beat every price he got for me.  Kinda funny that harness and tack was marked way high, but horses were dirt cheap.  Roger told me that he watched perfectly broke/matched teams of belgians and percherons go for as little as 150 per horse.  I tell ya ... if you want to get a horse that is broke ... you really ought to hit up one of the draft horse auctions listed in the draft horse journal.  Great deals on wonderfully broke horses!!

That's it for now ... hopefully I'll have some pictures of both my mares in harness soon!  :)

My hoof stand

Here is the quickly thrown together hoof stand I made.  I threw this together in all of 15 minutes.  I think it's a tad too tall, so I will probably take 2 inches off it.  It works pretty good.  It would be better if there was a little more weight on the bottom of it, but I found that stepping on it while working takes care of that.  Also,  the landscape timber I used for the vertical part is awesome.  The rounded edges work very nice with a hoof.  If I ever find some carpet or some kind of cushion, I might wrap the top, but for now, it worked fine as is.

Supplies:
3 - 15" 2x4s
2 - ~6" 2x4s
1 - ~16" landscape timber
16 - 16 penny nails.

Abscess after 5 days

Here is a picture I took of the abscess tonight.  This is looking at the heel of her back left foot.  The area that blew out from the absess is in black, right near my finger.  There is an inch long area, and then the small black dot it blew too.  Just thought I would show what it is I'm dealing with.  I'm halfway through the recommended 2 a day soaks.  Rachel is becoming quite the spoiled horse.

Also ... just a note ... Farrier work is HARD WORK!!!  Rachel's hooves are growing too fast and they are about to split bad.  I bought a rasp so that I could try my hand at filing them down.  I built a stand out of wood to hold the hoof up and I gave it my best.  THAT IS HARD WORK!!!  I had to take a break after each hoof.  My nippers will be here next week, and those will make a great difference.  Since I don't have any, I had to file and file and file.  I think I successfully located a group of muscles that I don't have.  Hopefully I did enough to keep them from splitting.

How do you know when you've spent too much time with a horse?

The answer?  See the picture.  Last night while soaking Rachel's foot, I got bored, so I decided to see how I am at braiding.  Being a  manly man and all, with no daughters, I had an idea of how the mechanics of it work, but had never actually done it.  Not too shabby for a first time.  LOL.  Rachel seems to like it.  I think it's much cooler on her (temperature wise, and maybe cool looking too in some circles).  :)  Who knows how long I'll leave them in.

Hoof abscesses and ground driving

Things have been super busy at work for me, so I haven't had much time to play with the horses.  This has kind of been a blessing in disguise as far as Rachel goes.

A week ago I noticed that Rachel was limping on her rear left foot.  This is the same hoof that the farrier found an abscess in when he was out a month ago.  I picked the hoof out real good, but nothing seemed out of place.  Just for good measure, I had my vet out, and he looked it over as well.  The only soft part of the hoof we found turned out to be a section below where the old abscess used to be.  The vet took pliers and pinched and prodded everywhere, looking for any sign from Rachel that she was tender.  We didn't find anything.  I started giving her a few ounces of Bute a day, and watched her.  She was up and down for 4 days, then saturday she took a turn for the worse.

When I called her up, she could barely walk.  She would take one step, then rest, then another, and rest.  All the while, never putting any pressure on that hoof.  I slowly walked her into the pen closest to the house, and I once again picked our her hoof.  She didn't want me to touch it, but once again, I didn't find any part that was sensitive.  I called the vet and sunday he came out.  When I walked Rachel out for the vet to examine, we saw a good sign.  A big ol' abscess had blown out of the back of her hoof along the coronary band line.  It blew right on the very corner of the heel of the hoof.  That was why we couldn't locate it by squeezing anywhere.  The vet dug it out as much as she would let us, and then she got a good soak in an Epson salt and Betadine solution.

I have been soaking twice a day now.  She is already feeling better.  Today she was running around her pen, and was actually running away from me when I tried to snap the lead rope on her halter.  However, just like in all those old 80 horror movies, I used my psycho killer moves and just slowly walked after her till she wore herself out and stopped running.  :)

She is really a dream of a horse to work with.  She will let me hold her hoof however I need to and for as long as I need.  She will then also let me set her hoof in the bucket of solution and she'll leave it right where I put it.  You can see how this is working in the picture above.  I really can't say enough about what a sweetheart she is.  I'm hoping this heals up quick so I can begin working with her again.  I've been just brushing her and such since her foot has been bad.  If you look at the picture close, you can also see an issue I've been dealing with on her other hooves.  Hard to beleive I just had her trimmed a month ago.  I have her on a lots of nutrients, and so her hooves are growing at a very rapid pace.  I think I need to have my farrier come out every 3 weeks to file her hooves down so they don't crack like they have been.

I got done with my Rachel time, and found that I still had plenty of daylight. I decided that Pam was going to get some attention. She seemed happy to come up for a brushing. Too bad it wasn't cuz of me. She just wanted to be near Rachel. :)

Next thing you know Pam has the harness on. Now here's the funny part. The second the harness came out and was getting put on Pam, Rachel started hollering from her pen. She got VERY vocal. I glanced over at her to see what the ruckus was, and she was just pacing the closest section of fence to us. I think she was jealous that Pam was in the harness. :)

So I started with just some ground driving. Pam did great at that and did it all in a trot. (I don't mind this, cuz it helps me stay in shape) :) After she got at ease, I decided to try hooking her up to something. I've never done this with Pam, so I knew it would be an experience.

Pam did awesome at standing still while I hooked up the single tree and the tractor tire. Then came the moment of truth. The first call for her to step up.

This is where I noticed the difference between a well broke horse like Lily or Rachel, and a green horse like Pam. With Lily and Rachel, they took to dragging a tire with no problems. It wasn't even a noteworthy event. They just went to work, and they acted the same dragging something, as they did not dragging something.

Pam ... was nothing like this. The minute she felt those tugs get tight, she stopped. Her head started going side to side to try and see what was going on. I used the lines to keep her straight forward though. It took some coaxing, but eventually, she stepped into it and started pulling the tire. After 4 or 5 steps she seemed to relax a bit. Then came time to turn.

As soon as she started to come around and the outside tug began rubbing on her leg she came unglued. I was ready for it, and kept her right where I wanted her, but she nearly started bucking. With some nice words I calmed her down and kept her going. Once we started going straight again, she calmed down again. Then I turned the other direction and once again, a rodeo almost broke out. I did the same thing as before though, and she made it through that other turn. I kept doing this and the more I did it, the easier she handled it.

Then I decided to let her hear some sounds. I drove her over my driveway. The second the tire hit the driveway, she once again came unglued. That noise really spooked her good, but with firm line control and nice words, she made it through it. Then I crossed it again, with the same results. I kept doing this over and over till she got more at ease. Then I had her walk directly down the road with the tire dragging in the gravel/dirt the whole way. She did not like this at all, but she knew that I was in control, so she did it.

I drove her around with that tire for about 45 minutes. It was great for a first time, and I'm really proud of her. She obeyed and did it my way, even though she didn't want to. Once again, she stood like a lady while I unhooked the single tree.

The thing that this experience really drove home to me was that Pam is not a safe horse for this kind of thing yet. She is very green, and very prone to spooking. Lily and Rachel pulled this same tire and didn't even seem to react to anything it did. Pam is very green, and this experience really reminded me that I should not rush her into things. Safety first! Without safety, nobody has a good time!!