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