Take aways

Someone asked me the other day- what are some of the things I have either discovered or remember from the early part of training my pony to drive as I was learning the game myself?

Your flaws and mistakes in riding can and often DO carry over. Waaaay back in the days at one of the Arabian horse farms I worked at, the trainer asked me one day if I had ever ridden a bicycle? I had a tendancy to hold the horse with both hands. I asked for the turn with one hand, but didn't release the other hand allowing the horse to turn. I thought I had fixed it, but figured out I was doing it again with driving, just before our first clinic in the driving club.

I can remember doing BIG circles in the beginning. Lots of big circles in both directions. At one of the CDE's I believe, I was standing around near the dressage arena and remember hearing one of the upper level trainers say how much harder it is to do big circles than it is to do the smaller ones. I thought he was crazy. We had done a Lot of big circles. They seemed easy to me. Big circles is one of the things I feel helped me to win the reinsmanship class at our first driving show. Moving up a level, I always made sure to work on all size circles.

The value of ground driving and long line work is priceless. It is an art form in and of itself. I figured that once I put Kat to the cart, we didn't need to do anymore long line work. Ever. I could not have been more wrong on this. At one of our first ADT's I think it was, the woman who was consistantly beating us in dressage and then in turn the outcome of the day, told me that she probably does more work in long lines without the cart than she does with the cart and actually driving. She was beating us so there had to be something to it, right?

Although Kat is smart and tolerant beyond all means, while I have been treating him as a 'Point & Shoot' pony for the most part, he needs me for guidance a lot more than I have been there for him. At one of our last ADT's I realized that I may set him up for a cone, but usually we are a ways off. I line him up and expect it to happen. Seriously. Kat doesn't know his numbers, the pattern of the cones or probably that red cones are supposed to be on the right. But I expected him to perform and do the job, given half the information of where to go.

Trust is key. He trusts me to keep him safe, show him where to go and allow him to do his job. In turn I trust him not to do anything crazy, to behave himself and to listen to me as I try to be the herd leader he needs and respects. Sometimes one of us doesn't trust the other enough and things start to fall apart....... Like at a couple of the ADT's at different times, places and always in the hazards. Little man doesn't think I'm making the right choice on where or how to navigate a gate. For a moment or two it's a battle of wills to decide who wins. This usually ends with him almost doing a faceplant or smacking into a pole or something. You know, we just come really close to crashing into something. Next time around? Little man is submissive and relents, puts it all in MY hands to not blow it. He doesn't want to get hurt having a wreck. Neither do I, so we agree on that.

Things on Pause

Since the move out of state, I haven't really gotten a lot of time to drive Katman and working my tb mare towards getting her going in harness has been shelfed again for a while.

When the kids were in school, I had a bit of time during the day to work horses and help them settle in. But then school was out for the summer and the kids are out on break. Although they do help out at the barn and have gotten to ride more lately, their riding has meant Kat learned a few things I need to work on and un-do.

Its all good and nothing major, just little things that can be easily fixed. I put a snaffle bridle on Kat for the girls to ride him. He was on a lunge line and they learned to steer him, but being partial to me, he didn't always want to walk away from me so he began putting his tongue over the bit again. Not a big deal with the kids riding at awalk, on the line in the round pen, but when I drove him again soon after that- even with the mullen mouth butterfly he was doing it and not responding like he should.

With the summer off, he will need some conditioning work before being put to the cart and driven more, so that will be a good time to long line him and get it all back on track. He's been enjoying his time off by grazing in front of the stall while I clean it. He doesn't wander off so why not? He's also gotten a hog as a next door neighbor and a sheep the other side of that, so he's getting used to the farm life pretty well. Funny thing is, there's a larger pen down back with about 6-8 wild pigs in it. First time he seen them move and heard the grunts coming from that direction- he was on HIGH alert. He was NOT going near them, didn't like going towards them. Didn't like going away from them with his back turned their direction and was just. Freaked. Out. The hog next to him? Doesn't bother him a bit.

Go figure!

Out with the old

While the whole issue with my now ex, has a lot more backstory to it (and let's face it, there's always a lot more to stories like his), for now I would like to wish everyone has had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and a safe and fun 2015. With the new year coming up, there's sure to be changes, new things, chances to revisit old things and experiences to gain.

A friend of mine from the driving club has asked if we will be showing in AJ in a couple months. Not sure what's going on with that yet, but we'll see what happens.

Happy New Year!

Clear the air...

Since I posted about a year ago with our Dressage scores from the ADT's at Dale Creek and had mentioned that someone else had claimed to training my pony For me and what a total load of crap it was, I thought I would clear the air about the who said what and all of that.

In the comments of the post titled Dressage Scores from back in November of last year, in the comments Kaede had mentioned how it sounded like someone trying to start crap between me and another person.

In my post the following January, "All things considered" I elaborated on it all a bit more. How this person had told me on more than one occasion "Driving just isn't my thing", and then turning around and being all butt hurt because he didn't get to show my pony in only but a few classes the first year, then none at all the second year at the Pleasure Driving show.

The second year, I had told him it was coming up, printed out the entry form, handed it to him and told him when the closing dates were... fees per class, post entry fees, lunch costs, etc. and all that good stuff were right there on the form. When the day of the show came, he was pissed off because he wasn't showing at all. Ok but he had told me "Driving just isn't my thing." So what the hell??? Besides that, him being a trainer and all, he should know how to fill out entry forms, who has to sign them where and all of that happy crap that comes with showing horses. Am I right?

That folks, was none other than my so called husband Johnnie Rotten. This is only a small part of the crap handed down by him. It's amazing he didn't break his arm, while reaching around to pat himself on the back for a job not done. Surprise, surprise.... but not really. The horse world is a small one and people love to talk. As the song "Take It On The Run" by REO Speedwagon says, "Talk is cheap when the story is good, and the tale grows taller on down the line..." Only in this case the tales didn't need to grow at all. I couldn't have made this shit up if I tried and why would I want to anyways? And how fitting that it's a song about cheating. Apparently there was that going on too...

This and that

Last time I posted was about the last time I drove Little Man. I pulled him out the other day and hooked him up. We went for a cruise around the hood and he seemed happy to be getting out and having something to do. It cracks me up how many people slow down, wave, make comments about how much fun that looks and watch almost in amazement as we go by.

Recently a house on the corner had a whole bunch of motorcycles and some cars & trucks gathered there. Seems they were honoring a friend who had passed on. As Kat and I went past, there were plenty of eyes on us and a lot of the bikers were looking on as if they wanted to try it. It's cool, because I was looking at their bikes much the same way. And Katman just trucked along, never missing a beat.

I may pull him out again soon and cruise the 'hood. He's such a fun pony to drive. I'd also like to get my TB mare going in harness. I just need the time... the cart... the harness.... LOL! For what its worth though, so far she is showing great promise as a driving horse. When I put the fake shafts on her, she went from Go! and not wanting to stop or walk, to NO! and didn't want to move at all.

Pic's or it didn't happen!

I recently received a photo via text of a fellow blogger, from the back of her horse. She sent the message, Pic's or it didn't happen. It was good to 'see' her in the saddle again.

Since I had a bit of spare time and some daylight left that day, I harnessed up Kat, put him to and we took off down the road. I got a few pic's to send back to her and said the same thing.

I managed to control Kat who suddenly thought we were wound for sound and everything was out to get him. He spooked all over the place as we trucked down the road, cruising thru the 'hood. A few times it felt like he was going to break into a canter/gallop at any time. To his credit though, Kat was able to maintain his brain and kept it at a trot the whole time. A rather quick pace and very forward trot at times, but it was still a trot. I swear I need to get him out more.

Give a little back

ADT #2 was a lot of fun. I didn't compete, but I volunteered instead. As a competitor it is a good idea to volunteer once in a while to gain some inside knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes as well as what goes into putting on one of the events we enjoy. Besides all of that, you get to see everyone. The newbies in the sport, the in-between-ers like me and the people who have been at this longer than you have.

I worked the 'gate' in dressage at 'A'. As everyone went in I wished them Good luck. As they came out I told them Great job. These are things that can help settle your nerves and help you relax. A couple of people went off pattern. One woman as they came out said "That was all me." I told her "Honey, We've ALL been there. Welcome to the club. You're in Great company!" She really is.

We have ALL f'ed something up at some point. We have all made mistakes starting out. Some of us still make them now, just different kinds. lol

After dressage and cones we had a short lunch break. Then when it came time for hazards, I was elected to run the starting 'gate'. There were a few people who thought we actually did it in the order posted. Yeah, not so much. Jim was helping me out, meaning he brought the gator and somewhere to sit... He was also doing the safety checks. Some from afar, others closer in, but each present and accounted for. I learned some new faces to go with familiar names, new names and faces and familiar parts of both. Why is it in the horse world, we know people more often by their horse? You know, the woman who drives the chestnut with the big blaze... or the grey mini with black points... Yeah, her! I know who you mean now.

It was fun and I learned how to 'read' when to send the next horse in a way to keep things rolling smoothly. When it was all over and the last horse had gone, I talked Jim into driving the course on the gator. I am SUCH a bad influence! He acted like he was a bit hesitant, then he said to buckle the screen/net/door... I put the seatbelt on too. I radioed ahead that there was one more to go as we cruised towards hazard #1. We went thru the "In" gate and had NO CLUE where A was. Both of us looked around, seen it and Jim went into the Kokopelli Pipes to go thru it. We wound around to B, then C and decided we were doing Intermediate level so we finished up with D and E... As we came towards the "Out" gate, my friend Sharan was giving us the signal of shut it down- hand back and forth across the neck. Jim stopped just before the gate and she told us we went thru A the wrong way. We had E'ed out. Then the woman with the stop watch told us time was still ticking because we hadn't left the hazard yet. We bombed out in a BIG way!

So you can all see by that, there is FUN to be had at these events, whether you're competing or not. Sometimes it is more fun Not competing. The stress levels are waaaaay down. And the driving club folks? We take Really, REALLY Good care of our volunteers. Lunch, gift bags and a raffle for fun prizes, just for being there? Booyah! Sometimes you also get a T-shirt.