Ground Driving

I've decided to take up ground driving! Why? Cherry and I desperately need something new to do. We're bored, quite frankly, and when Cherry is bored, bad things happen. Also I need a way to get her moving that doesn't involve me sitting on her. Lunging is out, since circling does nothing for her joints, and it bores me.

So ground driving it is!

I don't think I'm ever going to hitch her to anything, though the thought is sorely tempting. How cute would Cherry be as a cart pony?!?!?! Damn adorable. Buuuuuuuut I know nothing of driving, short of the fact that there's these leather strap things that somehow connect to poles that are attached to the cart. Yeeah. Maybe I shouldn't be driving.

I might, might, get her used to something dragging behind her just for fun this winter. The log drag is notoriously Cherry's least favorite event on the obstacle trail courses. While never resulting in blind panic, she usually hops sideways up the trail while keeping a bugged-out eye on the evil log pursuing her, snorting and blowing the whole time. Fuuuuun.

Anyway, the point of ground driving is not to advance to "real" driving, but as a new thing to do for both of us. She walks, I walk, and hopefully we both get a bit of exercise.

So far I've done this twice, and had a pretty good time doing it. I do need actual lines, though. Right now I'm using two roping reins clipped together and a lunge line. They do not weight the same or feel the same in my hands. I'm thinking of making some lines out of rope from the hardware store. They really just need to match and be long enough.

Cherry seems to have taken to driving pretty well. Of course, she's old and broke, and thus will pretty much do whatever inane thing you ask to the best of her ability, whether she totally understands you or not.

So far we've only had a few communication mix-ups. The first one was when I asked her to back up for the first time. I guess she was afraid she was going to run into me or something, because she backed up like she was negotiating a rocky trail on the edge of a bottomless abyss. One step. Look. Really, Mom? Back up? Okaaaay. Two steps. Look. Are you sure? We got over it, though. I did have to stand to the side so she could see that she was not in fact going to run me over.

The second communication fail was all my fault. I asked her to turn right, but I didn't turn right with her, I just kind of long lined her around the turn. Long story short, line got wrapped around her butt and she ended up confusedly backing up from the pressure on both reins. But I learned something! Now I know that I have to follow her through turns so the pressure on the lines remains even and doesn't start pulling on her face. Poor pony, she looked at me like she had no idea what I wanted, but she was doing the only thing she could think of.

And I've learned something else. Driving is kind of hard! In the saddle you have so many aides available. Hands, seat, legs, weight, voice, but driving you only have two: hands and voice. It's hard to get your point across when you only have the reins and voice commands. You can't back them up with shifting your weight or applying leg. It's far easier to confuse your horse with such little actual contact with him. In a way that's good though, it's a new challenge for us!