Line adjustment and coming around

My girls.  Notice the letters I added to their blinders.

This last saturday, I got up at 5:45 AM and worked the girls for the first few hours of daylight.  This is the only way to beat the summer heat.  It was still 80 degrees, but at least it wasn't 100.  If you recall my previous blog, I was looking into line adjustment.  I found an article on rural heritage that talked about how to adjust your team lines.  (Link Here)  It basically said that for a 36 inch tree you should adjust your team lines so that your check line is 8 inches shorter than the outside line.  He said that for a 42 inch tree, you should adjust the checkline out one more hole on the line.  I got out a tape measure and did this.  Turns out that for 8 inches of difference, I was on the hole closest to me.  My tree is 42 inches, so I adjusted it out one more.  I was pretty happy with this.  Pam and Rachel did very well on it, so I was very pleased.

When I posted about what driving commands I use, Jim asked a very good question that I hadn't thought of.  How do you train a horse to come around?  It is a sidepassing motion, but not completely.  The movement is more like the horse is the minute hand on a clock, and the wagon stays right in the middle.  So how do you train this?  I tried on both Rachel and Pam both individually, and it's a tough on.  Both girls did not want to move their back end, they wanted to pivot on their rear feet and just turn the front end.  What I was doing was giving a little more pressure on the inside of the turn, and keeping tension on the outside line as well.  I was trying to communicate that I wanted them to turn, but that I didn't want them walking forward to do it.  They were slightly catching on, but the most I could get was one step on the rear end, and that was from Pam.  Rachel struggled grasping the concept.

There has to be a better way to teach that.  My friend Pat has some Cathy Zahm vhs movies, and I'm going to borrow them.  He says she covers it pretty well.  In the meantime Jim, I'm not sure what the answer is.  I'm definitley going to figure it out though.  I haven't done that manuever since I had Lily, and she was already trained so that the minute you said "come around" she just did it.  She was trained so well!  Remembering this kind of thing really strikes the heart strings for me and makes me remember the wonderful things I miss on my wonderful horse.

I should also note that the farrier I use is AWESOME!  His trim on Rachel's rear foot is doing a perfect job.  She is carrying her weight on her frog like he wanted.  This means that her tender sole and hoof wall where the abscess was is growing out great.  I'm very happy with it and hopefully Rachel will be crossing rock roads without wincing in pain soon!

After I worked the girls, I hosed them down and let them dry, then I fly sprayed them.  I actually got a few pics, so enjoy.

A shimmering wet Rachel

A nice clean Pam