I had a fabulous weekend. I spent Saturday doing some maintenance on my trailers and then Sunday I took a trip to Ft. Towson, OK.
My buddy Jerry lives up there. He's a great guy and he's really wanting to get his horses working in a hitch. One of his horses is Garth, a big ol' pretty Belgian gelding that sired my horse Buck before he was gelded. Well ol' Garth is a strong guy, and a bit much to handle, and Jerry had mentioned to me that he'd sure appreciate some help getting him going. I had Sunday open, so I called one of my mentors Roger Barnes to see if he could go too. He had nothing going on, and so the plans were set. I looked at this as a great opportunity to accomplish some of my own goals: 1) help my friend with his horse, 2) Try out the new boots I have for Rachel, 3) Work Nellie on the cart for the first time and take her out on the road, 4) pick up a vis-a-vis from Roger for a Prom I have in a few weeks, and 5) Just have fun with Roger and Jerry.
I set up my two trailer rig for this trip. I loaded Rachel and Nellie with all their harness and then I loaded the flatbed 16 foot trailer behind that with my pioneer forecart on it. The new truck had all the power in the world to pull this rig. I was in heaven (even though I only got 8.5 MPG on fuel consumption).
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| The good news is ... the truck pulls it with no problems |
The drive up there was pretty. I kept my speed around 60MPH and just enjoyed the views. The bluebonnets are just poking their heads out here in TX, and Paris, TX is wonderful Blue Bonnet country. Ft. Towson is just over the OK border, and it didn't take me too long to get there.
Once I got there I unhooked the flatbed trailer, and got the girls out of the horse trailer. I brushed them out and harnessed them up (minus the bridles). It took quite a bit to brush them because it is shedding season. Nellie is just a hairy mess. I didn't put the bridles on them because I wanted to work Garth first. I did put the shoes on Rachel though. They fit nicely and she stood just fine in them. I got each horse a haybag and then I went over to Jerry's corral where Garth was.
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| Two pretty girls harnessed and ready for work. |
Garth is a big ol' pretty boy. When I started petting him, I realized that Buck really takes after Garth in his looks. My Buck has his momma's size, but a lot of Garths looks. It was kind of cool and I had some good memories in my head of Lily.
The first thing we did was to start harnessing Garth. He was acting a little skittish, and each part of the harness he acted like it was a giant horse eating monster. It took some foot work and attitude adjusting to get him settled and relaxed. Once the harness was on, we had no problems.
It was during the harnessing that Roger showed up. It's actually been quite a while since I saw Roger face to face, and it was really good to see him. Roger don't mess around when it comes to horses, and I think it took him a whole 3 seconds to get from his car into the corrall with harness in his hands to help harness up Garth.
Once Garth was all harnessed, we went to work ground driving Garth. Roger stepped him off first and started to knock the rust off him. He was a bit reluctant and scared at first, but he listened to Roger well, and you could see him relax more and more as those feet kept moving. After Roger did that for a while, then we had Jerry get in their and ground drive his big boy. Jerry was grinning ear to ear as Garth listened to him and followed his commands. It was a great sight to see.
Once he was moving without hesitation while we ground drove him, we decided to hook him up to Jerry's cart. A while back Jerry worked a logging job hard and with some of the money he made from it, he treated himself to a brand new Pioneer forecart. It's been sitting there unused for some time, and I know it's been killing Jerry. Roger and I made short work of hooking it up to Garth, and then Roger ground drove Garth with the cart attached. Garth was hearing all those new noises and wasn't so sure about it, but as he kept walking, he kept relaxing. After a while Roger sat in the cart and actually had Garth pull him around on the cart. I'm pretty sure this was the first pre-fabbed 2 wheeled cart that Roger has ever ridden in. lol. Roger is a master craftsman and he makes most of his own stuff. He got Garth moving though, and soon Garth was walking without hesitation.
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| Roger Barnes is one of the best teamsters I know. I love watching him work. |
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| Garth's first time hooked to the pioneer forecart |
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| Roger had Garth working well |
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| Kinda looks like ol' Rog is offering a prayer before this first ride on the cart :) |
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| Roger skidding a lot behind the cart just for noise |
Next Jerry got in. Jerry was like a kid in the candy store with a dollar in his pocket. Ear to ear grin as he finally got to try out his new cart. it was great. After Jerry worked Garth for a while, Roger wrapped a chain around a log and hooked it to the cart. the new noises got Garth a tad nervous, but Jerry did great just making him walk it out and relax. It was really good practice for both of them. After that, I got the honors of letting ol' Garth take me for a spin. He did really well and has a really sensitive mouth. It doesn't take much line pressure to get him to respond.
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| Jerry hopping on his cart for the first time |
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| Not sure there is a bigger grin to be seen than this |
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| Jerry doing well with Roger standing by |
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| And here's me. It was really fun driving Garth. |
Garth did so well in the corral that we decided to try out a real life scenario. The gates to the corral were opened and I took Garth down the road. Jerry has a private gravel road through his place so I got ol' Garth on that road and let him here the sound of gravel crunching under the tires. Garth handled it very well. I drove him up and down a few times, then Roger got on. Roger had ol' Garth trotting in control up and down the road in no time. After that, Jerry hopped on and started heading all over the place working his boy.
Here's a video of Roger trotting Garth down the road.
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| Garth worked hard. He was ready for a nice break at the end. |
About this time, I turned my attention to my girls, who had been standing at the trailer being very well behaved (besides the fact that Nellie feels a need to totally destroy any feedback I give her. The small hole is not enough for her, she has to rip the entire bag in half (which makes most the hay fall to the ground where she can't get to it). I walked over and got the bridles on the girls. I then hooked up the yoke and hooked their outside traces together around their butts. Then I drove them over into the corral.
I spent a little time ground driving them. Nellie has pulled a sled before with Rachel at Pats house, but she's still really green with ground driving. I hooked her to Rachel and away we went. It's amazing to me to see how fast a horse learns from another horse. With Rachel doing the right thing, it took Nellie about one turn to get the hang of what we were doing and to fall in line. She did great after that. Her breast strap was hanging way too low, so I had to stop them once and make an adjustment. This is where once again, I am so glad for well behaved horses. They stood like perfect ladies while I made the adjustment. I think Nellie was happy to not have the yoke bouncing off her knees.
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| Nellie on the left, Rachel on the right. Nellie did well. |
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| Nellie wanted to walk much faster than Rachel |
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| Rachel sure looked bigger than Nellie. I wonder if it's the boots. |
After I ground drove them for a bit, I pulled my forecart into the corral and hooked them up. We then did lots of work in the corral. Nellie was struggling to learn the proper way to side step out of the way of the pole. One time the pole nearly took out her rear legs. It is easy for a horse to turn the direction of the pole because they just kind of follow the pole around. It's must more difficult to turn away from the pole, because that pole moves faster at the back of the horse than a horse does naturally. I seasoned horse will do a bit of a side step to keep the pole from hitting their legs. It took some time, but Nellie finally got the hang of that.
After I had done quite a bit of that, I headed down the road. First I took Roger on a ride with me down to the property line and back, then Jerry hopped on and we went out and actually headed down the road. My goal in doing this was to watch Rachel's boots and see how they responded to being worked on pavement. They actually did great. The left hoof was wanting to rotate counter clockwise a bit, but other than that I am happy as can be with the boots. Rachel walked with no hesitation. WOO HOO! This is great news!
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| Tennis shoes for horses. :) |
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| Rachel didn't mind these boots at all |
When we got back to Jerry's, I got the girls unhitched, and tied up. We then had a delicious dinner thanks to Jerry and his family. We sat around and chatted and just had a great time. I hated to leave, but unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.
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| Two tired girls after a day of work. |
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| My pal Roger! He wanted me to title this "3 horses asses" :) |
Roger and I headed down to Paris to load up a vis-a-vis for my prom rides I have coming up. We loaded it up good, but when I started down the road, I didn't like what I was seeing. The flatbed wagon now had some tongue weight, and it was really bouncing up and down. I pulled over and analyzed things, and the entire trailer hitch on the back of the trailer was bending up and down as a pipe flexed. This was bad! Luckily, Roger is awesome, and so we went to his son's house and his son made quick work of welding the pipe to the rest of the wagon. I now have an incredibly stout hitch on the back of the horse trailer.
Fabulous day! I love getting together with my teamster friends. It's always a good time when you have people around you that enjoy the same things you do. Had a great time and can't wait to do it again.
