Missy the Driving Horse

 Well that escalated quickly. Missy is officially a driving horse!

So proud of my perfect Miss mare.

It took about 2 and a half weeks for her to go from her first time wearing the harness to being "put to" (hooked up to the cart) and then to pulling me around in the cart. While we have ground driven over our (13+) years together, I'm still pinching myself over how smoothly starting her in driving has gone. 

Pretty mare

She really took to working in the blinders. Since she no longer saw the whip behind her, which she previously interpreted as pressure to go forward, she ground drove in a very relaxed and focused manner. She happily went through her paces (as I struggled to keep up behind her). 

She seemed to really like it! Tessa was happy to be involved too.

Harnessing and unharnessing drove home that she was content and willing. Her ground tying skills are a lot more advanced than Pyro's currently, and she stood in the aisle with nothing on her head, okay with whatever new silliness I was going to expose her to. I thought to myself several times that I was making the right choice exploring this new sport with Missy before trying to introduce Pyro to anything beyond ground driving.

"Of course I won't wander out that open door. I'm far too dignified for that."

"Well this is weird, but okay."

I happened to have the cart in the indoor arena (sheltering from hail/wind) one evening when I was ground driving her. It was the perfect opportunity to introduce her to the sights and sounds of the cart.

*queenly mare inspection*

Me: You're a good girl.
Missy: I know.

I let her inspect it from all angles, then showed her it could move. She definitely gave it a Look, but was happy to go to work when I ground drove her around it. 

"It moves??"

"Oh, okay then."

"Keep up! I'm TROTTING here!"

I kept slowly progressing to more and more "spooky" interactions with the cart, and she was completely unfazed. 

Watching it roll away from her, with plenty of slack in the leadline if she wanted more space.

You can't hear my heavy breathing, but trust me, I was feeling how out of shape I am.

Listening to the cart roll behind her as I fumbled through steering one handed.

Again, these were a non-issue, so I pushed the boundary a little further, slowly working on bringing the cart into position behind her and letting her feel the shafts on either side.

Don't ask me why some of my videos were mirrored. Pivo does what it wants.

While I kept the reins in hand at all times, she was happy to ground tie.

While it's a big no-no in the driving world to put to without a helper standing at the horse's head, I know I'll likely be working Missy alone a lot of the time and am willing to fudge the rules a little (as a lot of people do) while not in public and therefore not presenting a risk to others' safety. To do this, I need to be able to 100% trust her to ground tie through the process of putting to. 

Whoa means don't move a foot until asked to do something else. It reminds me of training a dog to stay. 

As I did several repetitions of bringing the cart up behind her, I'd assess her willingness to stand, take a little break to ground drive a lap of the arena, then come back and try bringing the shafts further up her sides. In surprisingly little time, the cart was fully in place, resting in the shaft tugs.

Eaaaasy Missy, looking a little wild and wooly there...~

Well, okay then. We made it this far with zero issues... why not actually hook everything up?

I'm pretty sure Miss took a nap...

...even through me hulking out on the trace, trying to get it on the sword end of the tree. 

My Pivo of course died at this point, but I called it a night after getting her put to and successfully driving her around as I walked behind the cart.

Like so

It was at this time the driving bug had truly started to nibble at me. Lucky for me, the next time I decided to work Missy I had Jen present as my On Hand 911 Dialer. That meant I felt confident asking Missy for the next step: pulling the cart AND me.

After warming up with some plain ol' ground driving, she stood for the embarrassingly long 10 minutes it took me to put to. 

10 minutes condensed into 4 seconds

We revisited her pulling the cart as I walked behind, then I took a leap of faith and straddled the seat, so she was pulling me while I had an easy emergency dismount route.

Was it hella awkward? You betcha. Did it bother Missy at all? Of course not. 

The biggest reaction I got out of Missy was tensing her topline and taking a couple quick steps the first time I asked her to trot with my weight in the cart. A gentle half halt had her immediately settling, even before I could reassure her with my voice. 

Big Girl Panties: On

I put her through her paces: walk, trot, changes of direction, halting, circles in both gaits. She readily responded to my verbal cues for both up and down transitions and seemed to innately understand pushing into the shafts to turn. So, I swung my other leg over the seat, and we were driving!

What a mare!

My smile says it all <3

It's official. My ass has been bitten by the driving bug. 

Also, I'm the proud owner of the world's best, smartest, most patient mare. 

There are definitely some adjustments to the fit of harness and cart that I want to make (including lowering the shaft tugs so the seat of the cart sits more level), and I need to work on my application of aids (particularly my whip handling), but all I can think is what fun it will be!