Driving 2 and 3 up in Paris, TX

Saturday was awesome!  At our house, the bottom had fallen out of the clouds, and it was raining hard.  However, up in Paris, TX, at Rogers house, it was nice and overcast with no mud.  So Riley and I loaded up the horses, and headed up to Rogers.  I had only one goal ... drive the girls on the road from Rogers wagonette.  I really wanted to see how Pam did on the road.  I wanted to see how she handled road trash, passing cars, and all that kind of stuff.

We got to Rogers, and soon after, some good friends, Jerry and Sheila Brandon and their 2 girls, showed up.  Jerry bought a horse from Roger a while back, and he joined the yahoo group I belong to.  I met he and his family for the first time when they came to my driving clinic back in July.  They are good people and I really enjoy them.  (also, a big thank you to them for all the pictures and video that are on the blog today)

Rachael and Pam did awesome!

Fist item of business, hitch up my team.  We hitched up and hit the road.  The girls did well, however, I noticed that Rachel wasn't getting into the pull at all.  She was hanging back, and letting Pam do all the work.  This was pretty uncharacteristic of Rachael.  We rode for about a mile out on the roads, and soon it looked to me like Rachael was not walking normal on her front feet.  We got back to Rogers, and I checked her feet.  Rachel's sidewalls have all chipped, and she is basically walking on the soles and frogs of her feet.  This is why she'll pull her heart out in the dirt field, but is very tender on hard surfaces.  I am going to have to get an expert draft farrier to possibly put shoes on her.  Her sidewalls just are not strong and need to grow out.  Not the news I wanted, but still, I accomplished my goal.  Pam did great, and didn't spook at all on the road.  I'm very pleased with her.

I tell ya, you get 3 teamsters together, and you can't help but have a fun time.  Roger, Jerry, and I had a ball just talking horses, and deciding what we were going to do.  Good times for sure!  I have pictures of the day that I'll post.  I'll just say a few words about working Rogers horses, then you can just follow the pictures.

After we worked my girls, I tied them, and then we decided to work some of Rogers new horses.  Last week, Roger went to a draft sale in Missouri, and came home with 3 new belgians; a team of geldings and a mare.  Roger has a gelding named Jack, that is a true 19 hand Belgian.  Bud, one of the geldings he bought, is about 18-2/3 hands.  Roger had a glimmer in his eye that Jack and Bud were going to be team mates.  We decided that the rest of the day we'd work towards that.

Introducing Jack(19 hands) and Bud(18-2/3 hands) to each other.  We ground drove them individually, right next to each other.  They did great.

Now, Jack and Bud had not been around each other very long, and thus they were none to nice to each other.  We decided to try ground driving each horse next to each other to see how they'd act when working.  True to their laid back, work nature, once working, these horses didn't mind being next to each other at all.  Soon they had been ground driven, and then hitched up to the wagonette.  Next thing we knew, we were on the road, driving this team of behemoths.  It was awesome.  They're a really good match.

Ground driving Jack and Bud as a team.

Bud on the left, Jack on the right.

One highlight of my day, was letting my son drive this team of ~19 hand horses.  Riley decided he wanted to give it a go.  We were so impressed with the horses and their work manners, that we let him at it.  There's a great picture of my 6 year old boy driving these gentle giants.

My son, ground driving for the first time.  Of course it would have to be the biggest horses around.  :)

We also had some fun driving 3 up using the other gelding Roger bought.  Great times for sure.  Enjoy the video of that.  If you pay attention, Roger shows off his skills.  He did a 3 point turn with the 3 up and we were all very impressed with his ability to command and control horses.  I watch guys like Roger, and Pat drive horses, and I can't help but be so impressed.  They just have a way with the horses, and they get them to do exactly what they want.  I want to be like that!

Enjoy the pictures and video!

Jack, Bud, Ryan, and Rog driving

Tim driving 3 up

Jerry taking his turn driving 3 up

Jerry did real good!

(Remember ... you can click on the pictures to see a bigger view of the picture)

Driving 3 up was awesome.  We did it with one set of team lines, and a single set of driving lines for the left most horse.  This was the first time I'd ever driven with 2 sets of lines.  I did okay.  It's definitley not an easy thing to keep all the tension right.  So much fun!  Also, the ground seemed to shake when each of these big horses stepped at the same time.  Very cool!