Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

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.
 
Barbara
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 4:32 PM
Subject: [RC] My endurance/buggy horse !!!!

Hello Ridecampers !!!
 
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")
And Aries....the REAL buggy horse.


Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.