RAC (Ride-A-Curly) Adventure Blog

OYY Tippateena is another of my favorite driving mares. She has not really been working much since before the birth of her first curly colt (OYY Jockomo ).  She had time off because I was busy - then came along this fellow, OYY Brave Ulyssess. This day, I decided - these two should get back to work together. You readers might remember back in the late winter, Ulysses did some obstacle work in the indoor. His prior handling helped a lot making this exercise smooth and fun.

Day One, we ground drove around the yard and up and down the road -- looking for traffic and other scarey stuff.

Other than Ulysses being pesky toward his mom's bridle.. they new little 'team' went well.

I decided this 'Brave'  son of Tippy's  needed further distraction.. walking alongside his mum was just too easy.

Here they are getting dressed for the day. Tippy dons her mother's work harness. Ulysses gets an outfit all of his own.

This little pony fancy studded harness fits the job perfectly.

Ulysses is tied to the hames with a lead rope attached to his halter.  Off we go again for a bit more practice.

Ulysses needs to learn to stay beside Mum.. not walk ahead or lag behind.  Focus and attend to business at hand :)  This day of practice, we had intermittent showers - but once a project has started I guess we need to see it to the end.

Next ~  time to hitch these two to something !!  I chose to have Tippy pull my little handy skoot/sleigh rather than the cart.  Her son still gets in the way at times and to have the shafts to deal with in addition to a pesky tot.. a bit much for any Mum.

Ulysses is not hitched to anything but at this point I am sure he could pull something all by himself.  He's a bit over 12 hands now, so will grow beyond his Mum's size. Otherwise, they'd make a nice team someday :)

 



Tippy is getting so great at pushing her son right over when asked to gee 'round.

 

then with a passenger ! 

I have always loved Tippy as a gorgeous driving horse (she's 14.1 so actually a large pony).  Ulysses has a strong dose of driving genetics with his Mum's side and his sire is a superb driving pony (OYY Finnegan)

You all know I love driving -- really enjoy teaching a young horse to drive and pull.  Ulysses will make an excellent riding horse as well I am sure.  He's going to be a big boy -- maybe even a nice stallion prospect !  he IS for sale :)   

Tippy drove next to her Mum all over the neighborhood...  it's so rewarding to continue the tradition through the generations :)   

A job well done !!

Enjoy ~

Betsy, Tippateena, and OYY Brave Ulysses