Quzqo Drives!

Sun Mar 18, 2007

WE DID IT!!! HooHAH!!!

With the help of one of the other boarders at the barn, and only after Himself was seriously tired out from being free-lunged
for 20 minutes (the little booger GALLOPED circles for 10 of those minutes...he'd been in his stall ALL day due to the farrier being there today), then he got ridden for an hour with lots of cantering and trotting, THEN he got his feet trimmed (going to try keeping him barefoot this summer), THEN he got harnessed up and ground-driven for about half an hour until the arena cleared out (the Barn Owner's daughter's boyfriend was playing Cowboy with a young horse in the round pen, I didn't want to try hitching Himself up with some young QH bucking and rearing in the round pen).

We got him hitched to the cart okay, though he was a little fidgity compared to last time with the Barn Owner's pony cart (which WAS in the evening when he was worn out). Wasn't quite sure on the adjustment of the shafts, it seemed the ends would be digging into his shoulders, but being the stupid monkeys we are, we went on ahead and started leading him around. After the first turn he started fussing and protesting and balking and carrying on...by the 2nd set of corners he finally balked and refused to move and refused to move, and started to swerve and lean back on his haunches...we got him straightened out and figured the ends of the shafts WERE causing him distress, so we unbuckled everything we could, shortened up the traces, moved the shafts and cart forward until the ends were level with the points of his shoulder, then re-buckled everything and tried again.

He moved forward tentatively, like he was expecting something to jab him in the shoulder, but no, with the shafts in the correct position, the cart moved WITH him, and we made the corners neatly....halfway down the arena side he let go a HUGE sigh, and we knew we were all right, LOL!

I got into the cart, with my friend still holding the lead, and we walked around the arena, but with me actually driving...she was just the safety spotter so to speak....after that, I shooed her away and we went solo!

He did GREAT!!! I was worried it'd be difficult, but you DO get "in the zone" even when you're driving, and become one with the horse, even though you're sitting 3-4 feet behind him!! Granted, we just walked but he did SO good!!!

My friend got a few minutes of video with my digital, and I'll upload it to YouTube tomorrow from work (cable modem), but in the meantime, here's a pic of us before the maiden voyage. Damned straight I wore my helmet, LOL!

Really looking forward to what adventures await!

LOL, Bob showed up about halfway through our driving around, so he probably will try to get me to pay him more money for the horse now, LOL! (he's been trying for the past 2+ years...I just threaten to hand him a bill for the training!!)

I love my horsie!

The Cart IS cool...but amusingly...remember at first all they said was that they had GREEN carts, no black, then suddenly she "found" a black one in stock? Turns out the metal seat frame at least WAS green, and PAINTED black, LOL...some of the paint got scraped off...and green is beneath it! Well, at least I know I could touch it up with some black Rustoleum probably

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8hRi_WGcE