Driving Activities, Lessons

[goodhors]

Anyone attending the Kentucky Classic this weekend? Saw some of the photographer’s pictures on FB and everyone looked terrific! Hats to die for. You could see your face in the polished metal of carriages and harness! Gleaming horses with flowing tails, about outshining the harness! Wonder if they were up all night polishing things? Ha ha

We have been working the Pair, using lesson suggestions for pole and singletree changes. Longer whip now in use. Also doing the exercises described by the 2nd lesson instructor at the MHDVA Show 2 weeks ago. Husband thinks both sets of lessons from 2 different instructors were helpful, seeing horse responses he wants.

We have 2 more weekend lesson sessions coming up in July, at each end of the week with 2 more different instructors. Will be interesting to see what they focus on, same, similar or totally different points than the first couple lessons. Will be a lot of driving down the road to get there.

There were some spaces left in the Tracy Morgan Clinic, July 16-17-18, in Metamora MI, if anyone is interested. Trish Cecile is the contact person on the Metamora Carriage Driving FB page.

There are also lessons at the Whips and Wheels FB page for people to take at the Hoosier Horse Park. Might also be listed on the ADS calendar. Stacy Giere and I believe a 2nd instructor doing lessons.

Our MHDVA Club has some picnic drives planned with campouts in the fall. Miles of dirt roads to drive on, not much traffic to avoid. Peggy Brown will be doing a Ride and Drive Clinic in August for the Eaton County Special Riders, near Charlotte MI. Lessons available for riding or driving attendees. I believe contacts and date details are listed in the Michigan Horse Drawn Vehicle Association.org calendar. She has been coming up for several years and is very nice to work with.

Things are a bit slow here. LOTS of rain with more predicted until Wed. It seems to be leaving pretty fast, but we are on the high side of the river. About 5 inches in the last 3 days. Dirt here is absorbing water pretty well. Glad to see the rain. Guess our drought is over!

Lots of hay down which will be a loss after 7 days of rain. We held off cutting, only showed 3 clear days and the clover parts would not dry that fast. Need at least 5 nice, windy, sunny days, clover is really thick. So hay will be over ripe for 2nd cutting. Ah, the life of a farmer, weather guessing! I check 5 weather places to average my plans! Ha ha Hope we get more than with first cutting.

[2DogsFarm]

Looking forward to a clinic with Sandy Green hosted by my Club - date: 7/18.
We only need 12 participants & I am taking 2 sessions, but as of today only 6 interested (& I am 2 of them).
C’mon, Members!

Otherwise too hot&humid to want to drive.
My hayguy neighbors got several fields down, baled & on wagons before the drought here ended.
We are now a week into daily rain & things are soggy.
Famine or Feast

[goodhors]

Sandy did an excellent clinic for our club a few years ago! Sure hope you can get some more folks for lessons. Have you opened lessons to other clubs or people? We just did this for a club clinic.

We did NOT cut hay before the rains started Friday. This is our first day with no rain, so far. Looking at next week to try for hay. We need 5 days to dry the thick clover that is invading the hayfield. Lots of other folks did cut hay, but 5 or more rainy days have made it mush. Not worth baling. Ground is saturated, hay equipment is too heavy to even try baling at the moment, even with a few good days.

Horses are pretty tired even with reduced works. Mostly walking on the road with a few trot sessions, then back to walking. Takes more effort to cool them with all the humidity. I foresee body clipping if this heat and humidity continue.

[2DogsFarm]

Clinic is open to non- members.
Unfortunately the new Club President & VP are not great organizers.
Outgoing VP was instrumental.in having Sandy here 2yrs ago.
New Regime has pushed him away & does not appear capable of doing without.
We can get the required # of participants.

Same here for hay standing in fields now too wet for equipment.
We need at least a weeklong return to the drought we had prior to the deluge!

[SLW]

I’m doing a driving clinic this weekend with Michael Scott and so looking forward to a tune up! It’s been 4 years since I attended one of his clinics.

Fitting up my equine for one ADS coming up in August and depending on how that goes might do another one in September. Funny how with driving I do better with a show for a goal whereas I just ride my horse, never show.

[goodhors]

Reporting back in our lessons a week ago. The first two they canceled the clinic because of bad weather coming, after a week of heavy rain. No indoor, ground was saturated. Hoping they can reschedule him later.

Second set of lessons with Tracy Morgan were good. Used the indoor for the first one, buckets of rain falling. Horses were a bit subdued, not used to being inside. She recommended some rein handling changes, pushing the outside horse more forward to free the inside horse and allow better neck bending. Do it in both directions so both horses understand your request. Lots of bitty changes, working towards the main goal, arc in the entire spine length of both animals.

Other lesson was outside on a great, DRY day, in the Dressage arena built on a sand hill. No mud! With better bending we progressed to learning arcs/loops sizes needed to make turnbacks for cones. Too sharp make you lose time and rhythm in the gait. Round and round we went! She kept cones moving, changing routes to prevent horses getting automatic. Great exercises, no horses trying to speed up, lots of standing to discuss success or not working as she wanted. Good for the horses, cones no longer mean “Go fast!” to them. She gave him homework too.

Sure glad we could go. Very helpful to have trained eyes on you, good suggestions for improving. Horses were fit enough to do as requested, not exhausted when finished, even with plenty of trot work.

So it was a good time! He has been practicing those things since, sees horse improvement.

Sent in our entries for the Metamora CDE in August. Ordered new protective vests for marathon. Got the Tipperary driving models which arrived today. Nice fit, shorter tails to prevent the “turtle effect” when seated. My visiting Aunt has to leave before the competition, she wants to watch us go. She enjoyed watching the lessons, could see the difference in the horses. She had horses as a kid, looks great in the old pictures, always enjoys a carriage ride during a visit. We actually need to start consolidating things needed to compete. Hard to believe August is almost here!