It was COLD today and I had second thoughts about going to the barn. But, once I got done cleaning Marie's stall, I hand warmed up a bit and decided to go. Today I decided I would try hooking Louie to a drag. He does real well with ground driving and I figured it was time to move to the next level. I got my evener out of the barn. I had to dig my tire drag out of the snow as I never put it away after the last time I used it. But, I did find it and headed to the barn.
When Wendy, the barn owner, saw me she told me I was crazy, it was too cold to work with the horses. But, it wasn't bad in the arena and I'd be doing a lot of walking with the ground driving so knew I'd be warm enough. I asked Wendy if she mined if I used a drag in the arena and she said it was fine. No one else was around so it was a good time. Louie came up to the barn nice and quite but once on the cross ties he was very anxious and was very fidgity. I got him harnessed up and took him into the arena. Once there, he quieted down. I ground drove him for a while and he was very good. Nice and light on the reins and stopping immediately when asked to whoa. So, I grabbed the rope on the drag and pulled it while driving Louie to see if the sound bothered him. He did not react to it at all. So, after a few minutes, I hooked Louie to the drag. I held my breath and asked him to walk out. And he did just fine. He didn't seem to mind pulling the drag at all. I drove him around the arena for about 10 minutes and he was just as good and quite as you could want. Then, as we were walking along the outside wall of the arena, some ice came off the roof with a crash outside. And Louie was off like a race horse out of the starting gate. I held him for all of about two seconds and had to let him go. He did about 15 laps of that arena each lap faster then the last. The tired finally hit one of the big I beam supports and broke free of the evener. Luckily, I had lengthened the traces so the evener was well behind him. And though it was bouncing, it was not hitting him, just scaring the poo out of him. Finally he came to a stop by the door. I went and got him and just worked on getting him relaxed again. I unhooked the evener, bounced it around him, dropped it behind him a few times with no reaction from him. So, not wanting to end on a bad note, I hooked him up again. And again, he was just fine about the drag. About 5 minutes into getting him going again, Wendy drives by in her truck and the truck tires make all kinds of crunching sounds on the snow and ice and Louie was off to the races once again. AGH! He only made about 5 laps the second time and then came right to me. At this point I know I will NOT be hooking him to any cart any time soon. I went back to driving him like nothing had happened and once again he was quiet and good. After about 5 minutes of him walking quietly and whoaing very well, I quite before something else could come off the roof or drive by. I needed to end on a good note. I was a bit dissappointed as he has heard these sounds of ice falling and tires crunching on snow lots of time while being ridden in the arena and has not been spooked by it like that. On the upside, he did not mind pulling and in all the running he did, he never bucked or kicked out.
So, I guess I have a lot more work ahead of me to make him a harness mule. Unless someone is looking for a mule for a chuck wagon or chariott racing team.........Cause by golly he is all trained up good now for racing in harness.......
No comments:
Post a Comment