Quzqo Learns to Drive!

Sat Jan 20, 2007

Ground Drive, that is!

TRIED to introduce him to ground driving the first winter I had him, but he had NO clue what the hell I wanted, so we gave up for then. Couple nights ago I figured why not give it a try again, and attached a pair of draw reins to his bit, ran them through the stirrups of my English saddle, got behind him and urged him forward! After about 15 seconds of confusion, he moved out, and "got it"! I was able to drive him all over the arena, what a good boy!

Of course one of the young boarder girls HAD to immediately get off her horse, unsaddle him, get a couple of long lead ropes, and she was ground-driving her horse, crowing that he was already trained to drive and knew what he was doing! Well, whoop-dee-doo! Grrr, I hate that kid!

ANYway, today I tried again (at least had the barn to myself!), and he did even better! Happily he already knows all the voice commands except "gee" and "haw", but he IS learning those very quickly! Even ground-drove him through an "obstacle course" I'd set up of ground poles and chairs! I think he enjoyed it...something different, and challenging too!

One of the other boarders is bringing in her harness tomorrow, and we're going to try it on Himself, and maybe work with her 3 yr old TWH mare as well...get her started ground driving! The woman is interested in teaching her to drive, because her knees are shot and she doesn't know how much longer she can ride.

I measured Quzqo for his own future harness, guess I'll go with Cob size again. Tezlu HAD a harness, but I sold it at a yard sale years ago when I figured I'd never ever drive him...which is true...I would NOT trust Tezlu with a cart. But Coos is a totally different story. Any horse who can tip over a 5-gallon bucket, and then step IN it and stand there quietly, then step out of it...with me riding him...is a good candidate for harness!


My friend at the barn brought in a training circingle and a set of driving lines...the actual harness circingle wouldn't fit him, it was HUGE!! Heck, he's on the last holes for the training circingle, which is too small for her TWH, LOL! And Coos is FAT with thick winter fur! It really wouldn't fit him in the summer!

Was a GREAT treat to drive him with LONG reins, I was a good 3 feet behind his butt today, and he did SUPER! A little more animated than before, probably because I wasn't literally on his ass like with the short draw reins. But he did very well, he had trouble with the vocal commands because the RADIO WAS ON SO LOUD! But we even did some trotting! He liked that, and he looked SO cute from behind as the trotted!! He was easier to keep up with than when I did that with Tezlu, LOL!

Bob was impressed, and said I could use this jog cart he had in the new section of the barn!!! Alas, it's got 54" shafts and is way too narrow to squeeze fat Quzqo into, so, that's out. Dang. He's got a lovely one-horse carriage that seats 4-6 people, but I don't think Coos could haul all that, ha! BUT, he said I could use any harnesses he has if I like. Considering he uses them for full-size horses and/or haflingers, I kind of doubt they'd fit, but was nice of him to offer. I'll stick with the circingle for now. He definitely needs training, but it's a great start!

Also did some long-lining with him, which is kind of like lungeing with two lunge-lines instead of one, and he did GREAT...really helped him work on his headset and flexibility I noticed. Hm. Good enough for the Spanish Riding School, good enough for Himself!

Bob's wife was there, and she exclaimed "Oh, look, he's a CART HORSE!" I could tell Coos took umbrage at that statement (seriously, he tossed his head when she said it!) I reassured him no, he's following in the proud hoofprints of the magnificent chariot horses in "Ben Hur", who were also Arabian, of course! And then I called him "Antares" for the rest of the lesson.

"Cart Horse" indeed!

Hm, if I could find a little plow...