Tru-D zieht!
Today marked yet another milestone for Tru-D!
Slightly modified from what I posted in equestrian.
This summer I acquired some more harness bits so I could advance her driving training without having to buy a full one before she has finished growing. She'll be three in April so she has close to a year to grow height wise and then another two to three to fully fill out. This Spring her body was too short for my Kitt's harness (but she now fills it out pretty well!), which is why I picked up a breastcollar and kicking strap to double as a trace holder to use with my training surcingle set up. Both came from Parry Tack and were really well priced. I also found some rope traces, which I used as her first thing to drag this Summer and introduce the feel of drag and more things touching around her side and haunches. I got the traces from MCR Whips who made them for Clay Maier before his website vanished off of the face of the internet (so wanted to get more of his DVDs too...). She also made the modified panic snap for hooking up to the tire.
Here she is sporting all of her training gear. She's currently working bitless (has worn one a few times, but don't plan on working in one until she has a full mouth). I was working her in just the sidepull action, but recently switched to the cross-under, which she seems to do fairly well in. She has almost grown out of this blue bridle, however. Trimming her bridlepath has helped a little, but I think I am going to have to order one for her. I might see how Kitt's fits first. I worry about getting one now and her head growing out of it!
The breastcollar is secured to the surcingle by some large spring snaps so it doesn't slide forward and the traces snap into the buckles on the breastcollar with panic snaps so they are easy on and off. This is partly why I have a strong preference for buckle-in traces on a breastcollar as you can tie or snap alternate "training" traces to them or remove the traces entirely. Nothing's more annoying than having traces dangling around that you can't do anything with. The other end of the rope traces have 2" rings so you can attach them to whatever you're pulling. I wrapped the splices with electrical tape to keep dirt and such from getting in there. You can also use a rope or string to loop through the rings and what you want to hook to and simply drop the string and it slides apart. That's how I had her hooked to the singletree the other week when she dragged it.
So today I had an extra set of hands with Susanne and an hour break between lessons. I took the opportunity to hook Tru-D to the tire for the first time.
I started with Susanne dragging a singeltree around for noise while I ground drove Tru-D. She had dragged the singletree well previously. I also put some weight in the traces so she could feel some drag before we hooked her up. We then dragged the tire for some noise before hooking her to it. The tire has a large U-bolt with a heavy duty spring snap and a panic snap. The panic snap has a small eyehook on it that I tied a long string to so it can be released either by pulling (in this case I had my student holding the string) or stepping on it.
I wanted to test that the panic snap would do what it was supposed to and we discovered that the string has to be lower. If you're too high it doesn't engage properly. I held the traces as Susanne pulled the string. Since it was baling twine I wanted to be sure it would hold up to the pressure and engage properly if required. It took a minute to figure out the right angle and I wasn't quite ready for the release when it popped open and ended up on my butt, which was Tru-D's only little spood of the session.
I asked her to walk on and she initially bounced off of the pressure on the breastcollar. She tried stepping sideways to find less resistance, but with a little vocal encouragement she stepped into it and pulled the tire. I stopped her after about ten feet and gave her lots of verbal praise and repeating. A couple times after stopping her I walked up and rubbed and praised her lavishly. She seemed to step into it better each time with minimal sideways swing.
I had my students take some pictures.
I took her around our small ring once in each direction before calling it a day. Other than the initial "are you sure I can pull this?" question she was awesome. I couldn't have asked for a nicer first pull. During the turns she had some awesome cross-over front and back as she sidepassed through them. It was beautiful and I'm excited to see her harness work progress.
I also long lined her briefly at the end with a couple brief trots and called it good.
I don't know if I'll get her put to the cart before this baby drops. I'm excited, but don't want to rush either. I guess it depends on how often I can work her between then and now. I need her steering a little more steady and start doing some serious whip work to be sure I can ask her to precisely put her feet where I want them.
Plans going forward include more tire pulling in small doses, ground driving, ponying, and trailering out places.
Slightly modified from what I posted in equestrian.
This summer I acquired some more harness bits so I could advance her driving training without having to buy a full one before she has finished growing. She'll be three in April so she has close to a year to grow height wise and then another two to three to fully fill out. This Spring her body was too short for my Kitt's harness (but she now fills it out pretty well!), which is why I picked up a breastcollar and kicking strap to double as a trace holder to use with my training surcingle set up. Both came from Parry Tack and were really well priced. I also found some rope traces, which I used as her first thing to drag this Summer and introduce the feel of drag and more things touching around her side and haunches. I got the traces from MCR Whips who made them for Clay Maier before his website vanished off of the face of the internet (so wanted to get more of his DVDs too...). She also made the modified panic snap for hooking up to the tire.
Here she is sporting all of her training gear. She's currently working bitless (has worn one a few times, but don't plan on working in one until she has a full mouth). I was working her in just the sidepull action, but recently switched to the cross-under, which she seems to do fairly well in. She has almost grown out of this blue bridle, however. Trimming her bridlepath has helped a little, but I think I am going to have to order one for her. I might see how Kitt's fits first. I worry about getting one now and her head growing out of it!
The breastcollar is secured to the surcingle by some large spring snaps so it doesn't slide forward and the traces snap into the buckles on the breastcollar with panic snaps so they are easy on and off. This is partly why I have a strong preference for buckle-in traces on a breastcollar as you can tie or snap alternate "training" traces to them or remove the traces entirely. Nothing's more annoying than having traces dangling around that you can't do anything with. The other end of the rope traces have 2" rings so you can attach them to whatever you're pulling. I wrapped the splices with electrical tape to keep dirt and such from getting in there. You can also use a rope or string to loop through the rings and what you want to hook to and simply drop the string and it slides apart. That's how I had her hooked to the singletree the other week when she dragged it.
So today I had an extra set of hands with Susanne and an hour break between lessons. I took the opportunity to hook Tru-D to the tire for the first time.
I started with Susanne dragging a singeltree around for noise while I ground drove Tru-D. She had dragged the singletree well previously. I also put some weight in the traces so she could feel some drag before we hooked her up. We then dragged the tire for some noise before hooking her to it. The tire has a large U-bolt with a heavy duty spring snap and a panic snap. The panic snap has a small eyehook on it that I tied a long string to so it can be released either by pulling (in this case I had my student holding the string) or stepping on it.
I wanted to test that the panic snap would do what it was supposed to and we discovered that the string has to be lower. If you're too high it doesn't engage properly. I held the traces as Susanne pulled the string. Since it was baling twine I wanted to be sure it would hold up to the pressure and engage properly if required. It took a minute to figure out the right angle and I wasn't quite ready for the release when it popped open and ended up on my butt, which was Tru-D's only little spood of the session.
I asked her to walk on and she initially bounced off of the pressure on the breastcollar. She tried stepping sideways to find less resistance, but with a little vocal encouragement she stepped into it and pulled the tire. I stopped her after about ten feet and gave her lots of verbal praise and repeating. A couple times after stopping her I walked up and rubbed and praised her lavishly. She seemed to step into it better each time with minimal sideways swing.
I had my students take some pictures.
I took her around our small ring once in each direction before calling it a day. Other than the initial "are you sure I can pull this?" question she was awesome. I couldn't have asked for a nicer first pull. During the turns she had some awesome cross-over front and back as she sidepassed through them. It was beautiful and I'm excited to see her harness work progress.
I also long lined her briefly at the end with a couple brief trots and called it good.
I don't know if I'll get her put to the cart before this baby drops. I'm excited, but don't want to rush either. I guess it depends on how often I can work her between then and now. I need her steering a little more steady and start doing some serious whip work to be sure I can ask her to precisely put her feet where I want them.
Plans going forward include more tire pulling in small doses, ground driving, ponying, and trailering out places.