Your Drive Day

To follow-up on my earlier post, this weekend I took Mikey to a clinic on "Intro to Combined Driving" put on by Equestrian's Institute. We had an awesome time, learned a LOT, and go to try out driving a short cones course and also a shortened Marathon course (only a little over 2 kilometers).

Sadly, we didn't get a lot of pictures as I was driving all the time and my friend was helping and also getting rides with other drivers. It was interesting to see that his usual impatience was greatly curtailed with all the other activity in the area. He was a little apprehensive about the big white and red cards at eye level but got used to them quickly. He still isn't too happy with mud and puddles and there was LOTS of that to work with this weekend.

I'm hoping to go back at the end of May for another event, "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" which has 3 days of schooling and events. If I do I'll try to get more picutres!

That sounds awesome!

Had a great drive with Mikey yesterday. He's come such a long way and is doing great on standing still when asked. He's also stopped his little antics when he didn't want to go (rearing and backing up). After the driving clinic we went to last week and his behavior yesterday I think we've finally turned the corner and he's getting the hang of driving and having fun!
Here's a picture of my friend driving him...he's mostly shed out now and looks like horse

Love reading everyone's driving posts!

I took Rowdy to town again today. The last two times have been pretty terrible. He's more experienced now, though, and he did very well in town. It isn't traffic or dogs or obstacles that get him worked up; I think it is just the general excitement of a new surrounding. But he was a good boy today.

I think he would love CDE work. I need to set up cones again and challenge him with that, now that he is comfortable in harness.

Marsha Cassada said:

I think he would love CDE work. I need to set up cones again and challenge him with that, now that he is comfortable in harness.

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I found this to be true with Mikey when we went to the Intro to CDE clinic. There was so much new stuff going on and so many other horses that he was on his best behavior.

I finally get to join the ranks of those actually driving their minis! Son and I took Clementine out today. It was a beautiful day and son really wanted to drive his horse. So we brushed her out, harnessed her up, and hitched her to our cart. She stood so well today. Still like a statue. She's learning!!!

Anyway... after we got across the busy highway son sat in front of me on the seat and I handed him the lines. I kept the ends lose in my hands just in case but I let him do all the driving. He was so good to keep bringing her down gently to a walk, steering her around obstacles, and whoa-ing her like a pro. He also got her to do a very nice pivot turn. Son just turned 6 years old and is looking forward to showing his horse in a couple years. We've got a couple open shows fairly local.

Looking forward to much more driving and getting Major going.

I drove on Sunday, life has been nuts lately so I haven't been getting out to the barn as much as I'd like. I still am so impressed with Hercules every time I go out there. He hadn't been touched (other than to be turned in and out) for a week. I went out, ground drove for maybe 5 mins to warm up (he was a little spicy!) and then hooked him up and he was great!!! He did spook at something, which is the first time he has EVER spooked since I have known him, but all the other horses were spooking at the same thing and they are all seasoned horses. We put out some cones and did some of the cone drills Patty told me about, I realized I hadn't done them in a while, it's time I get back to them. My whole show month of May is gone, I am judging a show (big horse show) the weekend of the 14th, then I will be in Montana for the next show the end of May, so its a good month to go back to the basics and tune those up a bit.

Yesterday it was pretty warm, so it was a good day to lunge and sweat his little fat neck.... hahaha with him still being a stallion his throatlatch is thickening making it harder for him to bridle up and collect, so he gets to get sweated now a couple times a week...poor guy. He honestly doesn't care. Love this horse's mind!!!

Did i just boast about charlie? well , here i go again. we went for a drive last evening, on the way home i was singing to him and all of a sudden i looked up and here comes my other mini ..... running full out right at us. ahhhhhhh, im going to die. i whoaed charlie and got out of the cart (fast). Rosco runs up to us and charlie started to dance with Rosco. i just hung on to the reins. my cart, my cart i was thinking, then they settled down and Rosco took off. charlie lunged a litttle and i said whoa. HE STOPPED!!!!! WATCHED ROSCO GO AND COMEBACK. rosco stopped and checked out the cart and then just stood there. I bravely got back in the cart and charlie walked and rosco followed us back to the barn. Am i lucky or what . i thought for sure i was dead.

jeanniecogan said:

Did i just boast about charlie? well , here i go again. we went for a drive last evening, on the way home i was singing to him and all of a sudden i looked up and here comes my other mini ..... running full out right at us. ahhhhhhh, im going to die. i whoaed charlie and got out of the cart (fast). Rosco runs up to us and charlie started to dance with Rosco. i just hung on to the reins. my cart, my cart i was thinking, then they settled down and Rosco took off. charlie lunged a litttle and i said whoa. HE STOPPED!!!!! WATCHED ROSCO GO AND COMEBACK. rosco stopped and checked out the cart and then just stood there. I bravely got back in the cart and charlie walked and rosco followed us back to the barn. Am i lucky or what . i thought for sure i was dead.

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All's well that ends well! Everyone survived. So glad you got home safely.

Gah! We are going on almost 2 straight weeks of rain. We did drive (posted above) briefly last week but that's it. You can only clean your gear so many times.... Hopefully things will dry out later this week. I have a riding horse to get legged up, Clementine to get back into shape, and Major to get started ground driving. I'm already one month behind. With such a short season up here I'm running out of time!

It's usually me that is talking about how much rain we've had. I hope it clears up soon for you!

I had a good drive last weekend with Mikey. We did a bit of dressage work in the arena and then went out on the track for a few laps. It's up to me now to keep him in shape as his trainer just left for the summer to work on Mackinac Island with their horses.

Luckily we've been having great weather though it is supposed to rain all weekend. I'm going to need to get out to the barn during the week after work to at least do some time in the arena!

Went out this morning. It's been a week since a drive, though I've taken him for two good walks, practicing different things. Also tried to work every day even for a few minutes on Stand, side-passing, and some of his tricks. He had no tantrums today. I believe we are both getting more comfortable with each other.

Marsha Cassada said:

Went out this morning. It's been a week since a drive, though I've taken him for two good walks, practicing different things. Also tried to work every day even for a few minutes on Stand, side-passing, and some of his tricks. He had no tantrums today. I believe we are both getting more comfortable with each other.

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No tantrums is a good day for sure!

Where can I find info on various driving classes? Clem isn't AMHR or AMHA registered (she's wcmhr... doesn't do much for us) so I can't show her in anything but open shows but I'd like to work towards something during our drives. I enjoy driving her just for fun but I'd also like to understand her movement better and improve our communication by fine tuning both of our skills. Does this make any sense? She's my first driving horse so we're learning together.

I'm thinking the same thing about Rowdy. He is not registered, either. I have zero driving events in my area. The best I could probably do is enter some of the obstacle classes at big horse shows. They wouldn't be driving classes, but probably I could do them in a cart.

You can probably get both of them registered pinto, I know that seems weird. Pinto now has 'Solid' classes and the organization is trying to get more mini's and ponies competing. You can also do CDE's with unregistered horses. What kind of classes are you wanting to learn about?

To my knowledge there are no pinto shows near me, but it might be something to look in to as Rowdy is a colorful pinto.

Check out the American Driving Society for clubs that might be near you. There are quite a few though most tend to be in the Eastern US.

I wish we had more things available out here in the NW myself!

I'm kind of wanting to learn the basics of each class then decide which would best fit Clementine and I. We'll never be super flashy but maybe we could do obstacles or basic driving courses?? See, I know so very little...

The big horse group had an obstacle class set up this weekend. I was all excited to take Rowdy! Then a storm came through and they had to cancel. Boo! There were some fun things: brush to wade through, noodles to go under, dragging something, a bridge. Backing wouldn't have been good for us; we need to work on that. I've been so focused on getting him to go forward well I haven't started on backing much yet.