After not having driven my little man since last May when I pulled him out and dusted him off 2 weeks before a drving event and decided, "Yeah, we could do this....." We pulled it off pretty well in spite of only having a few days of work in between rain and a lot of days slick footing to deal with. Little man wasn't totally on top of his game, but he never disappoints, because, well he just don't have it in him.
In all honesty? I brought my cart home not long after that and haven't driven since. My little man has been living the life of retirement for the most part. I have been working with a friend of mine and her pony at the barn but still loving on him and my mare. But I miss driving, I miss taking my pony out and down the road. He's so easy to deal with and is pretty much 'Point and Shoot'. Obviously by the pic's I put the harness saddle and driving bridle on him the other night and worked him in the lines.
Little man again- did not disappoint. He was Still Rockin' It! And the funny part? When I let him know I was about to ask for the stop, he was right there ON it. Slamming on the brakes, dropping his ass end a little and even sliding into the stop. And while I might like that, I might think it's pretty cool.... In the driving world? No, no, no, no, no! It's frowned upon in a BIG way. If the horse slips and goes down, not only can the horse get hurt but the carriage can slam into them and it all goes south. So that's a pretty big deal of why not to do that.
The funny thing was, there's this new family at the barn and while I was working my ponyman, I had a small audience. The guy was watching us work and noticed how I wasn't yelling "Ho!" repeatedly, (like he does) I wasn't being ignored by my pony (like he is by his horses) and I also wasn't pulling or hauling on the reins/bit to get those awesome stops, (yeah, you know what goes here).
