Spent some time over the weekend going down the road with Pete and Marty. They didn't mind the bells, we got harnessed up fine, and off we went. It all went smooth.
And then ... for the first time ... I think I got to see what an unmatched team looks like.
Let me preface this with a quick note that this team would be perfect for a leisurely hay ride for the family. The both step out well. They respond to pressure on the lines. You could definitely do a lot worse. However, this was the first wagon ride in a long time that I didn't have a good time. I spent the whole time correcting the horses. This was a new experience for me and made me miss my girls.
So what makes an unmatched team?
At the start of this ride, I noticed Pete (the bigger horse) was lagging back. I had noticed this when I worked them on the sled, but Pam can do this too, so I didn't think it was a big deal. Pete is a bigger horse and apparently has a slower pace.
My wagon has chains to each side of the evener so that if one horse is pulling out stronger than the other they will actually end up pulling the weight of the whole wagon. This is a neat little trick to help make a go-getter type horse chill a bit. It also helps keep the double tree from really swinging one way too much and causing problems in the hardware.
So right down the driveway I noticed that Pete was lagging back. I corrected him and he would want to go into a trot. That don't work because his trot is faster than Marty's walk. I found myself in a weird spot. Most horses I've worked have 2 walks: lazy slow walk, and go-getter pulling walk. Usually I can always just give correction and get a horse from Lazy into go-getter. Pete wasn't having it. It was either slow walk, or trot.
Meanwhile, I couldn't get Marty to slow down. He was pulling the full wagon load plus Pete too. This made for a pretty bad wagon ride. Instead of enjoying myself going down the road, I was constantly correcting. Constantly trying to get Pete to match Marty. It was a pretty frustrating experience.
Then half way through the ride, I did our stop and stand routine, where I give them a rest. Pete wouldn't have it. He kept taking two steps forward, then when I'd correct, two steps back. He would not stand at all. And while he was doing this, it started annoying Marty. So now I had two horses that didn't want to stand. I even went and got in front and held their lead ropes, and they were still not wanting to stand still.
Very frustrating ride. I realized that I couldn't do wagon rides to the public if my wagon was moving back and forth as the horses act up while loading/unloading.
So I went back home, put Pete away, and tried Marty alone on the wagon. He did great. I even swapped out the snaffle bit that was on his harness, with a nice Liverpool and he did exactly what I wanted. Did a short test ride and it was great. Maybe I'll have to use Marty alone for wagon rides.
First time ever to try and use a team that just did not work well together. Don't know what it was. the owner was kind of shocked and said that with him it was the exact opposite (Marty was lazy and Pete was the hard worker). Not sure what to do to help them match better. I'll have to ask my teamster friends!
