Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Nov 26, 2007

Jingle All The Way!

Although my horse is neither bob-tailed nor lean and lank, Coos and I had a GREAT time Sunday driving up and down the roads, showing off our new SLEIGH BELLS!

I'd ordered a set of brass shaft bells from Smucker's Harness Shop. & they arrived last week. I've got them zip-tied to the front of my cart, and I also ordered a bright RED fleecy saddle pad for the harness saddle, so not only did we sound great, we looked snappy too!

Coos got introduced to the potentially scary bells last week, he got to sniff them and enjoyed peppermints. I walked around him & behind him, ringing the bells, & he kept an ear on them but didn't worry, just one more strange thing his monkey is up to!

By yesterday the roads were dry pavement, most of the weekend's snow had melted, and the shoulders were mostly bare dirt with some slushy snow, no ice. Of course it was coldern' a well-digger's boot bottoms out, but oh well.

He was SOOOO mellow, I'd have sworn Bob was lacing the hay with marijuana. And he was in a very friendly, cuddly mood (for once), probably grateful I wasn't accompanied by half a dozen screaming kids! Heck, he even let me put the (warmed) crupper on without clamping his tail between his butt-cheeks and accepted the bit with a minimum of fuss!

Got the cart on him without much trouble, even with the bells chiming behind him as I did so. Lead him out the barn and up the icy hill to the side yard and thought I could get in the cart there. HA! As soon as I left his head and walked back to the cart (still holding the reins of course) the little shit started walking off and turning back towards the barn! I had to rush back to his head and grab the reins and turn him back AWAY from the barn, and lead him down the hill to the outdoor arena. I had him pointing away from the barn & this time managed to get in the cart, and he actually stood still for a few seconds before starting to back up and attempt to turn (towards the barn). He got reins slapped on his butt for his trouble but I think all that thick fur muffled the impact, and he crouched back in the traces like he was going to rear up. This time I popped him on the butt with the whip and gave him a loud "WALK!" and he did, off into the side pasture. I figured to do a little warm-up and equipment check there, to make sure everything was adjusted & buckled.

Thankfully that was uneventful & we soon headed out onto the road. Sunday afternoon is usually slow traffic-wise, and yesterday even moreso, probably due to it being November (no tourist traffic!).

It was SO cool to be driving down the road, listening to "jingle jingle dingle jingle" & "clip clop clip clop" "Snorrrrt", LOL! Couldn't hear much else because we had 10-20mph winds and the wind in the pine trees was deafening...hard to hear traffic coming up behind us, but even when a car or truck did whiz by, Coos didn't give it a second thought!

We got onto the secondary residential road with almost NO traffic, and since it was residential, little worry about deer hunters. Okay, yes, I was also kind of hoping little children would be playing and hear the jingle bells and come running thinking Santa was on the road, LOL, but no, that didn't happen. We did set off a pack of St. Bernards barking in their kennels though, and freaked out the small herd of TWHs down the road. I got Coos trotting a few times and boy, did THAT make a racket, LOL, but a nice jingly racket!

He spooked at a blowing leaf, and coming back he spooked dramatically at a wet spot on the pavement, but other than that he was gooder than gold!

On the return trip one of the St. Bernards had gotten loose and started running across the lawn towards us...oh shit...I had my 6 foot long driving whip & I know that's how you deal with dogs, but thankfully he stopped about 100 feet from us and turned back. I was ready for him, lol!

Mercy it was freakin' COLD though, especially coming back as we were driving INto the wind! I tried to pull over and stop so I could button my coat, but nope, SOMEbody felt the slack in the reins and started walking off and turning south on his own, the little shit, so I forgot about buttoning the coat & had to steer the horse back on to our side of the road! I can see what we're going to have to work on; stopping! He didn't want to stop at the intersection where we had to make a left turn, and started crouching in the traces again. Thankfully no cars were coming, so we were able to continue, but I'm going to have to work on that as well. He's really developed some attitudes during his "vacation" this summer as he's like that under saddle as well.

By the time we got back to the barn I was chilled to the bone, even going into the unheated barn felt "warm" since it was out of that damned wind! Coos was yawwwning as I untacked him, & I tucked him into his stall with a huge WARM bran mash (with carrots and apples and dried molasses!), one happy horse!

During the winter there'll be days where it'll be clear and bright and the roads will be dry, so it's kind of nice to know that on those days I could just take him for a drive to get "out", no matter if the trails are under 3 feet of snow! Looking forward to that, though I might figure out something to use for a lap robe! There's a reason those old-timey sleigh riders used 'em! You get COLD down there, especially when you're trotting! Major wind chill, lol!