A carriage drawn by a comet
I thought a few people here might be interested in this- yesterday was the appointed date for my birthday present from herecirm which was a Shire Experience day with Waldburgs Shires. I hadn't realised when I read my promisory note but she had gone the extra mile and got me a day of my own, this is because she is awesome.
I started out by fetching in the horse who would be helping me to learn, the massive and good natured Comet, and giving him a bit of a brush down. It being spring he had plenty of fur to share with me. Once I had brushed him over, straightened out his mane and feathers ( turns out that is not actually a thing one does aside from show days- oops! ) and cleaned his feet, we got started with his harness.
My teacher for the morning was Elspeth "Elf" Ross, one of the proprietors of Waldburgs and she patiently showed me the different parts of the harness as we fitted them on Comet. He calmly tolerated my somewhat inept attempts to get the collar over his head and fitting together the different pieces of leatherwork that make up the harness. I also learned the word "hames" which I plan to use just about as often as the opportunity arises. Elf showed me how to fit the britching and pad, where they should hang on the horse and explained a little of how and why they work.
With Comet harnessed up we put on the bridle - again quite a difference with a heavy horse because the bit is completely unhooked while the bridle is fitted and Elf showed me the different ways that the Liverpool bit operates. Then we went outside and she showed me how to long-rein a shire horse.
I have done long-reining before with a few different horses, but this was quite different partly because we were working largely off voice cues- blinkers mean that the horse has much less to go on visually - and partly because I was learning to hold the reins in a coachman's grip, with the left rein coming through the top of my hand, the right coming through the gap between my second and third fingers. Then my right hand was available to adjust the length of either as necessary. I found this very interesting because it is very similar to the way I have learned to use the reins on western horses and for a similar reason in that one needs to be able to work one-handed.
It took me a while to get the hang of steering and Comet was very happy to let me know if I wasn't doing a good job of it, but after a while doing tight figures of eight around some cones, Elf decided I was ready and we made our way out to the back field, where she showed me how to connect up the chain harrow to the harness and we set about doing some harrowing.
It would be fair to say that we didn't manage to make the straightest lines in our harrowing endeavours. Comet had a few ideas about which way he would like to go and although I got pretty good at catching him I also tended to overcompensate so we marked some somewhat drunken lines around the field. By the end we were more or less straight in a few places, which seemed to me a marked improvement. Once we had parked up and unhitched Comet I tested the weight of the harrow to see what he had been pulling. I couldn't move it.
After a stop for lunch- soup or hay depending on preference - we came out for the afternoon, where my instructor was Dave Lawless, Elf's partner who also has a long pedigree in working with Shires. We brought Comet out again and Dave showed me how to harness him up to the little carriage ( it was a subtype of carriage but I don't recall what kind it was ) and where the shafts need to sit in order to be safe and comfortable for the horse. With everything set up we got on board and Dave steered us out of the gate, and
I started out by fetching in the horse who would be helping me to learn, the massive and good natured Comet, and giving him a bit of a brush down. It being spring he had plenty of fur to share with me. Once I had brushed him over, straightened out his mane and feathers ( turns out that is not actually a thing one does aside from show days- oops! ) and cleaned his feet, we got started with his harness.
My teacher for the morning was Elspeth "Elf" Ross, one of the proprietors of Waldburgs and she patiently showed me the different parts of the harness as we fitted them on Comet. He calmly tolerated my somewhat inept attempts to get the collar over his head and fitting together the different pieces of leatherwork that make up the harness. I also learned the word "hames" which I plan to use just about as often as the opportunity arises. Elf showed me how to fit the britching and pad, where they should hang on the horse and explained a little of how and why they work.
With Comet harnessed up we put on the bridle - again quite a difference with a heavy horse because the bit is completely unhooked while the bridle is fitted and Elf showed me the different ways that the Liverpool bit operates. Then we went outside and she showed me how to long-rein a shire horse.
I have done long-reining before with a few different horses, but this was quite different partly because we were working largely off voice cues- blinkers mean that the horse has much less to go on visually - and partly because I was learning to hold the reins in a coachman's grip, with the left rein coming through the top of my hand, the right coming through the gap between my second and third fingers. Then my right hand was available to adjust the length of either as necessary. I found this very interesting because it is very similar to the way I have learned to use the reins on western horses and for a similar reason in that one needs to be able to work one-handed.
It took me a while to get the hang of steering and Comet was very happy to let me know if I wasn't doing a good job of it, but after a while doing tight figures of eight around some cones, Elf decided I was ready and we made our way out to the back field, where she showed me how to connect up the chain harrow to the harness and we set about doing some harrowing.
It would be fair to say that we didn't manage to make the straightest lines in our harrowing endeavours. Comet had a few ideas about which way he would like to go and although I got pretty good at catching him I also tended to overcompensate so we marked some somewhat drunken lines around the field. By the end we were more or less straight in a few places, which seemed to me a marked improvement. Once we had parked up and unhitched Comet I tested the weight of the harrow to see what he had been pulling. I couldn't move it.
After a stop for lunch- soup or hay depending on preference - we came out for the afternoon, where my instructor was Dave Lawless, Elf's partner who also has a long pedigree in working with Shires. We brought Comet out again and Dave showed me how to harness him up to the little carriage ( it was a subtype of carriage but I don't recall what kind it was ) and where the shafts need to sit in order to be safe and comfortable for the horse. With everything set up we got on board and Dave steered us out of the gate, and