drum roll please!

Last fall, a curly pony filly arrived at my farm for training. *CNC Summer Breeze is owned by Sheryl D'Uva and I took Summer in, to see if I have the skills to train a pony to drive.  Summer had the basics of training,  halter, lead, load and tie..the rest was up to me. In a slow and methodical method, I have worked this filly towards my goal of seeing her hitched and driving.  Summer has been in a paddock, since it is so muddy. Today was a bit drier and I turned her out on pasture for a bit of exercise while I spent some time cleaning my tack room. That is multitasking!  Let Summer stretch her legs and air things out, while I cleaned up the tack room and then we would go to work.
                                                                              

I got distracted, I must admit. My intent to clean my tack room went sideways when I put a halter and lead rope from the tack room, into the spares box on my horse trailer.....I opened the spares box (fitted on the trailer frame between the body of the trailer and the tongue) and found a mess....nothing was organized, and it all needed cleaned and updated...so, my tack room job became my trailer job instead ;-0  Everything came out,  2 halters and leads, 1 halter and lunge line, one spare rope, a horse cooler, and a human towel, all went back in....besides the tire iron and a few tools. Job complete`!

After I finished the horse trailer task, I got Summer out of the pasture and we went to work. I harnessed Summer and ground drove her a bit. When I was confident I have "walk, over, and whoa" I took on the task of hitching her for the first time!  My first hitching I do not buckle the breeching. There is much to do in the way of fitting and fussing over things the first time. Do NOT hold these photos as the final product.....it was just a "get to know you" kind of a day for the cart and Summer. As you can see in one photo, the trace on the off side has slipped off the end and is on the ground...we corrected that before moving forward again.  Summer did awesome!!! 

So, Summer has been hitched, it is pretty much like your first day in the saddle on a riding horse...so much work to do, and so enjoyable to do it!  Tomorrow I will spend resetting the footman's loops, and making some more adjustments...happy pony means happy driving!