I decided that for my parade and wagon rides this holiday season, I'd like to see about getting some sleigh bells. I began searching for bells, and I found that real brass bells are pricey! I was looking for the bands that go around the girth of the horses. They were upwards of 100 dollars a piece for the nice ones and $300 a pop for the REALLY nice ones.
I did more searching and found some made by Weaver. They are black leather, 72" long, and just nickel plated bells. Probably not as nice sounding as the others, but they were 22 dollars a piece. I decided that for that price I'd give them a try.
Last Saturday I got Rachael and Pam out. After I tied them to get them ready for harnesses, I walked over with one set of bells around my neck. Rachael was completely relaxed and didn't mind the bells. Pam had her head set very high, and her ears were tipped a little back. She was concerned. I talked sweet to her, and let her check them out while I brushed them out. I then put one strand around each horse and left them tied for a bit. Neither cared at that point.
I then harnessed them up and off we went to my pal Pat Chase's house. I needed to visit Pat for a variety of reasons: 1) it's been a while since I've hung out with my friend, 2) I needed to do some upgrading of hames at the Pat Chase Tack Shop, 3) I needed to borrow the hay wagon that I'm going to use in the Greenville Christmas Parade.
As always, it was great to be out at Pats. I was surprised to see him working his 2 year old gelding. It's been a while since I've seen him, but wow has he grown. It was awesome to see him harnessed and pulling a sled. Pat has done awesome work with him. He's nearly 17 hands tall and is going to be an amazing horse. This summer Pat learned some great training tricks from Cathy Zahm, and he explained them to me. Very cool!
For those who may not know, Pat keeps a bit of harness stuff at his place for sale/trade. He has collars, hames, and other things. For the past 6 months, my new harnesses have needed smaller hames. The harnesses were originally used on bigger horses, and the hames just didn't fit my 24 inch collars very well. Not only does Pat have the gear, he has the know how. He quickly measured, and told me I needed 26" hames to go with my 24" collars (2 inches bigger is the rule). In no time, I had new hames that fit my collars perfectly for a very reasonable price and trade-in.
We then worked horses for a bit, and went for a wagon ride. It was great to just relax and hang out with my friend. My horses did very well with the bells on their harnesses. I ground drove them all around Pat's place. Unfortunately we couldn't hook them up to Pat's other wagon, so we only took Pat's horses and wagon out on the ride.
After the wagon ride, I had to get home, so I loaded my horses and off I went, with a hay wagon being pulled behind the horse trailer. I had to keep it under 45, but I made it home just fine.
Looking forward to getting the girls shoe'd over this Thanksgiving break. Then I'll start hitting the roads a little more often and working those muscles back into shape. I don't want the girls to go from Summer Vacation to 3 hours of work a night all at once.
I hope everyone out there enjoys Thanksgiving and finds something to be thankful for. There's plenty of reasons for all of us if we look close enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment