My first Wedding, Driving A Horse

So this past Saturday was a huge day.  I provided a horse and carriage for my friends wedding.  I'd never done this, so I really got exposed to all that goes into this kind of event.  I had my wife and son along as help, and it was greatly appreciated.  Also, my wife decided that she was going to let my son be the photographer, so most of the shots are from him.

Saturday morning was spent making Rachael pretty.  She got a nice bath, and I even applied a nice coat of show shine to her.  Her hair was flowing magnificently!  :)  I used clippers to trim her beard and nose hairs/whiskers.  I also trimmed her bridle path short.  She was looking really nice.  Want proof?  Queue the first picture:


Riley picking some small leaves off Rachael

I unloaded Rachael and tied her to the trailer.  Riley then started brushing her, and getting her ready for me to harness.  While he did that, I unloaded the carriage from the trailer.

Attaching the shafts to the carriage

Once the carriage was ready to go, I turned my attention back to Rachel.  Time to get her harness on.  This went fast, and in no time, she was ready to go.

Harnessing the horse, with the help of my son

Putting the bridle on Rachael, with a view of the carriage

Rachael, ready to get some pictures taken of her

The carriage.  Loaned to me by my good friend Roger.  It's very nice!

Once Rachael was ready, the bride came over, and they took pictures with Rachael.  The bride even got brave, and wanted to sit on Rachael.  Rachael did not object to this.  A normal horse may spook to a woman wearing a dress puffed up the size of a small car, but not a draft horse. :)  Rachael did very good.  She was very laid back today, which I was very grateful for.  (the night before at the practice, she was pretty antsy, so I was happy she was being easy).

Once the bride had all the pictures she wanted, it was time for me to work the wiggles out of Rachael.  I hooked her up, and off we went.  We drove about 15 minutes down the road, and I had her in a nice trot.  She comes to work so easy, that it makes me very grateful for her.  We turned around, and then headed back.  The way back was a gentle rise the whole way, which put a nice load on Rachael.  When we got back to the wedding, she was more than willing to stand.

I'd like to take a moment to say how AWESOME Rachael did with shoes.  She was a different horse.  She wasn't timid on the road, or cautious.  She stepped out real nice, just like she does in the field.  I'm very grateful to my friend Cody for taking on the job, and helping me out.  Also, I noticed that shoes with drilltech applied to them do not make a clip clop sound on the road.  You can actually hear that drilltech grinding into the road.  No chance of slippage on these things! 

After a nice ride down the road, its time to begin the process of waiting

One back to the wedding, I tied her to a tree, and I changed into my wedding duds.  This was a country wedding, so I dressed for the occasion; white shirt, and black wranglers.

Me and Rachael, in my wedding clothes.

Once I was changed, then came the next part.  WAITING.  We stood in that one spot and waited, for 30 minutes.  I wasn't really excited about this, but, I figure you gotta roll with the punches on this kind of stuff.  Wedding was supposed to start at 4PM, I was supposed to be there to pick up the bride at 3:55PM.  I actually picked up the bride at 4:30PM.  Good thing Rachael didn't mind standing.

Still waiting.  :)

After the wait, we finally got the wedding on the go.  The bride came out, and she, her father, and her son hopped in the carriage.  Then we headed off to the wedding.  It was a nice peaceful drive there.

This wedding was set up in the middle of a 5 acre field.  In the center of the field, was a single, HUGE, pecan tree.  The hitching post, and all chairs were set up in the shade of the tree.  It was beautiful.  We drove out to the place, and it was so pretty.



Waiting during the ceremony

 I dropped the bride off, and then, once she had exited the carriage, I hopped down, and held Rachael's lead rope.

I should take a minute to brag on Rachael.  I was very nervous to see what her reaction would be to the crowd.  I figured when they all stood for the bride, she may spook a little.  To my surprise, this didn't bother her at all.  She really didn't care one bit.  She stood like a lady, and was very well behaved (besides relieving her bladder during the ring ceremony)  LOL.  The only time she got a little cautious, was when the applause came right after the wedding.  She wasn't too sure about that.  I had to keep reassuring her that it was okay.  She didn't spook enough to move the carriage though.  Her head was as high as it can get, and she was looking at the crowd as they cheered.

We loaded up the happy couple, and we went for a loop around the pasture.  It was awesome.  I then brought them back to the crowd.  Instead of having a reception where they stand in a line to greet everyone, they dismissed the audience by row, greeting each person who came.  I thought this was kind of a cool idea, and saved the couple from standing in a boring line during the reception.

The next thing on my list, was to load up the happy couple, and take them up and give them a grand entrance to the reception.  They neglected to tell me there would be 45 minutes of picture taking between that time though.  I passed the time by talking with people who came to admire the horse.  Lots of kids came over, and loved all over Rachael.  One of my favorite parts about doing this kind of stuff is letting kids pet the horse.  They are so excited, and just have this look of awe.  I love it.

After the pictures were done, I loaded up the happy couple, and away we went.  I dropped them off at the reception, to some more applause, and then I headed to my trailer.

In no time at all, everything was unhitched, and loaded back onto/into the trailers.

This was a very cool experience.  I really had a good time.  All the preparations I took paid off big time.  Rachael is awesome in shoes, and she performed perfectly.  I wouldn't mind doing more of these!  I'll try to post some actual pictures of us driving if I get some from the bride and groom.  As you can tell, my 7 year old photographer kind of crapped out on me.  Guess I should've given him a bag of skittles or something.  :)

Speaking of my camera man, something funny happened at the wedding.  At the reception, a friend noted the margarita machine, and tells my son that they are serving "slushies".  So my son gets all excited and he seriously started burning the sugar from it before it even entered his body.  We then, had to be the mean parents, and try to explain to him that he couldn't have one of those adult "slushies".  The following picture is the aftermath.  LOL

Wedding Practice

Here's a picture taken tonight at the wedding rehearsal.  Tomorrow should be fun!

Rachael Gets Shoes

The blog today is going to be a bit different.  Instead of a formal write up, I'm just going to do a picture story.  Enjoy!

Here is the front left hoof, before anything was done.

Starting off, trimming the feet.  See how bad the sidewalls are?

Cody, shaping the first shoe

Both feet after the trip, before the shoes.

Cody burned on the shoes.  This is him fitting the front right after this was done.

Nailing the first shoe on.

Cody had to really do some work because of all the sidewall that was missing.

Fitting the front left shoe.

Once the shoes were nailed on, he fletched the nails (bent the ends downward)

Front feet finished

Cody shaping the rear shoes

A great shot of burning the shoe on.  That smoke stinks!

Fitting the rear left shoe

Rear left with the shoe on

Fitting the rear right

Final step of filing down the hoof and nails.

Got my drilltech shoes for Rachael

I got my new shoes for Rachael in the mail today.  I chatted with Bob Skelding (the wagonteamster) about the shoes he uses.  He recommended drilltech shoes, and referred me to Graber Steel & Fab.  THey are in Oden, IN and took my credit card over the phone and shipped UPS.  I'm very happy with them.  Now I just need to get these shoes nailed onto Rachael.

Here's a pic of the size 7 fronts.  The Drilltech is the stuff that is welded onto the toe and heel.  Very good traction, and very long life!

More pics from last saturday

Roger sent me some great pics from last saturday, so I figured I'd share them.  Thanks Roger!

Also ... does anyone know a good farrier that shoes drafts in NE Texas?  Looking for someone who's good and knows their way with a draft hoof, not just someone who can tack on a shoe.  All help is appreciated.

Do you think this boy is having a good time?

He had to take some pretty big steps to keep up.

Me and my team.

Driving 3 up

Jerry driving 3 up.

Jerry kept them pretty straight.

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!

Rachel = Owl Ridge Rachael; a nice trail ride

Last friday I got something awesome in the mail.  A previous owner of Rachael, actually sent me all the info on her, including a copy of her papers.  It was awesome to get these papers and find out what her bloodlines are.

Another thing I learned is that she is a 1994 model.  That puts her at 16 years old, which is about 4 years older than I thought.  So good to know this information.  :)  I'm going to try to contact the people at Owl Ridge to let them know what a supurb mare they produced.

I took Rachael out for a trail ride yesterday with my son and sister-in-law, and it was great.  Rachael doesn't respond at all to heel pressure, but tell her to "step up" and she knows exactly what to do.  LOL.

Below are some pictures from the ride.

Here's Rachel.  Ready to ride.

My boy on his horse QH Duncan.



What a group of trail riders.  My boy, Me, the Featherstone's, and my SIL Ann.




After the trail ride, we got home and Ann wanted to try riding a big horse.  Rachel was great for her, and Ann was all smiles.



A Transformation is happening

My oat/wheat seed is on the ground in the pasture, I just need to disk it in now.  So today I got home at 3PM, and I figured I'd be able to get my small field done before I had to go to Riley's football practice.  I ended up doing that and then some.  Right as I started disking, a cold front came through, making it nice and cool.  Then, as I got the last harness off, it started sprinkling.  Can't have better timing than that.  :) 

I'm seeing a change in things between me and the horses with all this farm work, and I figured I'd post some of the things I'm seeing now that I'm hitching and working them every other day for the past week.

#1 - Willingness to work.  After a good work out, the girls used to be very skittish the next day, meaning, the next day if you walked towards them with a halter, they'd say "like hell we're doing anything today" and they would do the slow walk away from you type thing.  Ever since I've been working them in the field, this has stopped.  It's really surprised me.  They are way laid back about everything now, and have a laid back "OK, whatever" type attitude.  It's awesome!!!

#2 - Time till we're ready to work.  I'm getting fast!  Today I looked at my watch when I haltered the girls.  I then looked again when the last bridle was on.  18 minutes.  18 minutes to harness 2 horses.  The speed in which I can do this, helps me spend less time out in the field, and more time washing/brushing at the end (which, by the way, they love!)

#3 - Get the work done attitude.  The girls have developed a no nonsense attitude when we're working.  They step out right away, and go till I tell them to stop.  They are also getting really good at walking in straight lines.  This seems like nothing to a normal person, but once you start driving, you realize how  awesome it is to have a horse that will walk a straight line without any input.  Rachel has also figured out my patterns.  When we reach the end of the row, she just starts turning, following the line of freshly turned ground on her side.  They also enjoy their breaks.  "Whoa" has become a welcome treat to be savored and enjoyed, not an annoyance till they start moving again.  It's awesome!!!

#4 - Voice response.  The girls are getting much better at responding to my voice commands without any input on the lines.  It's really really neat to watch them just start turning left when I say the word Gee.  Same for Haw.

I'm watching all these things happen and it's awesome.  I know this is a common knowledge type thing.  If you spend time with your horse, working your horse, you will see improvements like this.  Every horse person knows this and says this.  But how many have actually done it?  Life has a way of getting busy, and keeping us from getting to our horses, but I tell ya, the difference it is making in my girls is awesome.

I have my big field left to disk again, then I'm done with the hard work.  Hopefully I can finish that up Thursday night.

I'm on cloud nine right now.  The only thing I'm not liking, is how dirty the harness is getting.  ;)  Gonna have to saddle soap the harness again soon.  I tell ya ... the feeling of accomplishment I'm feeling is tremendous.  I've done my goal.  I've improved my fields, using my horses.  Makes me even more excited to get a sickle mower and rake, and use them to hay the field. 

Disking done, ready for seed

Work in progress

Today I woke up at 6AM.  It was still dark outside, and my body sure didn't feel like getting up.  I fought my bodies desire for a few more hours of sleep, and thew on some clothes and wiped the sleepers out of my eyes.  This must be what it was like to live on a real farm.  My goal today was 2 parts:  Pasture cleanup and disking.

First things first though.  First thing to do was to call the horses up and give them a big scoop of oats.  The girls loved this part of their morning.  With the girls up eating, and the gate closed to keep them in my small "paddock" type area, it was time to clean the pasture up a bit.

I had a few areas on the fenceline where tree's had fallen.  I made a full sweep of the fencline of my 3 acre pasture with my truck and flatbed trailer.  As I went along, I took the time to cut out a few small mesquite tree's that were starting to grow near the fencline.  Most my time was spent cutting down some limbs off a HUGE bodark tree.  I really hate these trees.  They're hard as rocks, and so it takes some serious effort with a sharp saw to remove them.  My chainsaw died, so I was left working with a hand saw and pruning shears.  This tree is in my neighbors field.  It used to be about 3-4 feet in diameter, but last year, after a severe wind storm, it split in 2.  One part, came over the fence and was probably hanging 20 feet into my pasture.  Luckily, it didn't take out the fence.  I expected the tree to die and slowly fall to pieces, but instead this tree showed it's hardy nature, and is thriving.  I trimmed it back so that I could get access to more of my pasture with the disk.  I didn't think I had much to clean up, but I ended up with a full trailer.

When I got back from cleanup, it was about 7:30.  I took a quick breather, and then it was time to get the horses ready.  I figured they were going to be difficult to catch today.  2 days ago, I worked them harder than I ever have, and so I figured they would be leery of me.  Boy was I surprised.  I walked in the pasture, and called them, and they both just looked at me with "what the crap are those halter's for" looks.  I stuck out my empty hand and made a few kisses and Rachel walked right over.  I was quite surprised.  Once she was haltered, I turned to Pam, and she had retreated to the far corner of the paddock.  I took a few steps towards here, with my hand out and she came right to me.  Wow ... things were off to a great start!

Sometimes, when working horses, you have a small victory that means a lot to you.  I love these.  Just small things that only you know about, but that mean a ton to you.  I have been working with Pam for a long time on just letting me push the collar over her head.  Rachel lets me do this and it's just so much easier then messing with the dang buckle.  I've been taking Pam's collar off this way, but putting it on by unlatching the strap, and putting it on that way.  Well this morning, after I slid Rachel's collar over her head, I looked at Pam and she was watching us.  So I asked her if she wanted to try that, and I pushed the collar up over her nose.  I then positioned myself right in front of her nose, so that she could see me through the collar.  I then slowly pushed it up, talking sweet to her the whole time.  I was prepared for her to jerk her head back, like usual, but she didn't today.  She kept her head still, and as it covered her eyes, I was fully prepared for her to jerk back, but she didn't.  So I used my hands to stretch the collar so it would squeeze less and she actually let me slide it up and over her head.  WOW!  I love little victories like this.  Things were definitely off to a good start!

Harnessing the girls went with no problems.  While harnessing Rachel, I noticed that she had an area right on her rump where the speider had rubbed off some of her fur.  I was almost proud of her.  She's showing harness wear!  She's a work horse for sure now!!!  :)

To hitch the girls, I did something different today.  Keep in mind, that I do all this stuff my by myself.  I had parked the disk at an angle against a fence and so I was going to just tie the girls to the fence in the same place and hitch them up from there.  Usually, I actually put their bridles on, and then drive the girls over and then work them into position.  For some reason, I didn't feel like doing that today.  Instead, I threw the bridles over their hames, threw the lines over Rachel's hames as well, and then I led them both over.  I had a horse in each hand, holding the lead line right at the connector.  I walked them in just like I drive them in, and asked Rachel to step over the pole.  She did this great.  Then I tied them, put their bridles on, put the lines on, and then hitched them up.  This went great, and I had no problems.

After they were hitched and ready to go, I ran back inside for a minute to get myself ready.  I had my straw hat on, I got my bandana wet with cold water and tied it around my neck, and then I put on my camelback.  I had filled the camelback with ice water.  I was getting ready for a long disking session.

A Teamster's view:  this was my view while disking

Then we were off.  Things went awesome.  I started off doing clockwise circles around the pasture.  This went so well.  Rachel is a pro and she does turns like any teamsters dream.  Since she is on the right, going clockwise basically has her pulling pam around the corners by the pole strap.  It was so easy to drive them doing this.  I also found that I was a bit better at keeping my tension good.  Also, Pam was actually stepping out and matching Rachel.  It was awesome.  Stepping out and Geeing was nearly perfect.  But what about those Haws?

I decided that it would be good to change directions and let Pam work on her coming around skills.  I swapped directions and started going counter-clockwise.  Ummmm ... yeah ... Pam was not happy about this new direction.  She does a gentle left turn wonderful, but the minute she needs to start side stepping, she get's a little clumsy.  Rachel, who was all about working today, ended up just pushing pam around with the pole.  It was pretty neat to watch.  It was great experience for Pam, and a few more good sessions and I expect her to really get the hang of it.

SUCCESS!  3 hours after we started, I was unhitching the girls.  They were very happy to head back towards the house.  I think they were even more relieved that the disks were straight and so it was easier for them to pull the disk.  :)  The rest of the event went without a hitch.

So now my fields are disked.  Tomorrow I hope to get my seed and fertilizer mixed at the co-op, and then I'll use one of their buggy's to spread the seed.  After the seed is spread, then I just need to disk things one more time to really disk the seeds into the ground and cover them a bit.  If I didn't know better, I'd think I sounded like a full blown farmer.  :)

I think I have an official team now.  If the rest of the disking goes without a problem, I may have to invest in a nice set of team harnesses for them to look pretty in.