Awesome Saturday Part 1: Nellie drives!

Yesterday I had planned on spending the day over at my friend Pat's house.  He has a few fields of wheat/oats/rye that he is going to cut.  We're going to use the horses to rake it, and haul it.  Due to the recent storm activity, he didn't get to cut last week.  We decided to still have a day of horse fun though.

It's been a while since I really had a good work session with Nellie.  This kind of eats at me.  She's got a ton of potential, and is just needing me to spend some time working her.  I decided that I was going to take all 3 horses over to Pat's.  This way I could work Nellie first, then Pat and I planned on going for a wagon ride in the country where Pat lives.

Got all the horses loaded without any problems.  I arrived at Pat's at around 9:30 or so.  It took me a half hour or so to get all the horses harness up.  Pam took the longest.  She was wearing her new biothane harness for the first time, so I had to adjust everything to make sure it fit her right.  I love these harnesses so much.  So pretty, and so much lighter than the leather ones.  They also don't make your hand completely dirty when you touch them.  Biothane is the stuff!

Nellie in a nylon harness, ready to be worked with

If y'all recall, I've worked Nellie once under harness.  That time she let me put the harness and bridle on with no problem.  She chewed at the bit once it was in, but she was very laid back at the harnessing process.  I ground drove her that time.  It took me about 10 minutes or so to teach her to step off right.  Eventually we did a few good loops though.

Once at Pats, we talked it over, and decided to hitch she and Rachael together.  This was the same way I trained Pam, and it worked very well.  Everything went well, and I learned a new trick complements of Pat.  When ground driving a team for the first time, it's nice to hook their rear ends together.  This keeps them from "Y"ing out.  In the past, I have used a trailer tie between the inside breeching rings on each horse.  This worked fine, but if they really tried to separate, it can pull hard and slide the spieder down and the breeching on the opposite sides up.  Well, Pat showed me the coolest trick.  I took a picture of it just to show it off.  Basically, you take the outside tug on each horse, bring it up under the breeching strap, and then hook the horses tugs together.  This is so simple, and so awesome.  Using the tugs for this, eliminates the chance that the spieder is going to get drug into center.  It was a cool little trick.  Thanks Pat!

Rachael on the left, Nellie on the right, rear end hooked together with tugs!  Awesome trick!

I was completely surprised and blown away by Nellie.  It took us a few starts and stops to make sure she understood how to step off and stop, but she took to the bit pressure right away.  I drove them around, starting and stopping in some giant figure 8s.  I could not believe how well Nellie was doing.

Nellie and Rachael ground driving

Rachael and Nellie.  This is what all teamster POV pictures look like. :)

That's me with the lines in hand.

After a bit of that, Pat and I discussed how well things went, and decided to hook them both up to the sled.  Now ... normally, I always pull a tire behind a horse before hooking them up to anything.  When that tug rubs on the rear leg it can give the horse quite a spook if they aren't used to it.  Rachael and Nellie worked so well together, AND Nellie showed no signs of being scared of anything touching her (as demonstrated by letting us harness her with no complaints); so we decided it was doable.

They were all hitched up, and I told them to step off, and they did.  It was soooo awesome.  Nellie acted like she'd been there and done it before.  I was so happy for her.  She and rachael pulled really evenly, and it was great.  I drove them for quite a while on the sled.  It was just so much fun to see Nellie, with all her hair, doing what she was bred to do.  She looked fabulous in my nylon harness, and she moved so well.

Nellie and Rachael on the sled.  My son rode along.

Stepping off.

Working well!

After I unhitched her, she got to continue her tying lessons.  I tied her up to the side of my trailer fully harnessed.  Normally I will take the bridles off, but for her I didn't.  I want her to get used to a bit in her mouth, so I kept her bridle on while she stood.  We then got the other horses and went for a wagon ride for about 3-4 hours.  It was really good practice for her to stand while we left.  I think I'm going to take her with me over there and do this same thing every time.  It just worked out wonderfully.

This was the end of the day, after the wagon ride when I finally removed her bridle.