Re: [RC] My endurance/buggy horse !!!! - Barbara McCrary
How exciting for you!!! Please don't think that
every horse will behave this way, because we know differently. Our first
driving horse was a QH/TB cross and he was very intelligent. He drove off
the first time we tried. "Fools walk in where angels fear to tread."
However, we have had some nasty wrecks with our attempts to train other horses
to drive. Our experience tells us that it is a far more dangerous
wreck with a driving horse than it is with a saddle horse. You were just
very lucky, as we were with our first attempt. Should you try to train
another horse to drive, please start in from scratch until you find out how the
horse will react. You are lucky your horse didn't wreck your lovely new
fringe-top surrey. Not trying to rain on your parade, but just telling you
from our experience. We drove horses for years and have a collection of
assorted rigs, from fringe-top surreys to buckboards to doctor's buggy to
two-wheeled carts (both single and double.) A good stout 2-wheeled cart is
a good way to start because the horse is much less likely to be able to overturn
it.
I am so excited !!! I have been looking for a carriage for my
horses. I wanted a pretty, 4 wheel carriage to teach my younger horses
to pull. Well, I finally traded for one and it was delivered
today. It is an antique, built in 1894, has the fringe top and is black
with red seats...it's a two seater. Anyway, I had bought the black
leather buggy harness back in the summer. So, the carriage came today,
and of course we thought....who can we hook to this sucker. My back up
horse, Petit Jets Aries....aka Dummy to those in the SE region was the lucky
horse. She is 16 years old and I have known her since birth.
She has never seen a set of harness. But, she is the most "want to
please" horse I have ever owned. She balks at nothing. We put the
gear on her, took her outside. Put in between the shafts, and I
said....lets just let her stand there a minute. Well, to make the story
short. Hooked her up and off she went....like she had done this her
whole life!!! We drove her down the paved road to the country
store 1 mile away...she had dogs bark at her, traffic, roofers working on a
house making all sorts of noise. Not one bobble. She was such a
good girl. So, tomorrow I hope to clean up the carriage some (it
has dust all over it) and take some pics of her pulling it. I will post
them on RC. And it was not horse friendly weather today either....cold,
and the wind was blowing.
Ok, Susan.....I will stop being so mean to Dummy now. I found a
good reason to like her. :)) That's pretty neat when she can win
and BC the Biltmore 100 and 6 months later become a buggy horse !!!!
Jody and Rose ( who says "you will be picking up the splitters for miles
if you hook me to it")
