Too cold...

It has been quite cold here the last days so I have been lazy and comfortable and have not driven the ponies. Yesterday I thought it would be nice to take a few photos with me and my beautiful mares and so we did. Here some:

Jenniefer on the left, not driven and in foal, then Swinhill's Paulette in the middle, driven in single and pair, and on the right Humledals Izabelle, just long reined.

Jenniefer I will try to long rein later on, Izabelle was not at all comfortable with long reining, she works like a clock but sweats a lot = is stressed inwards, will take it slow with her and see if she is more suitable for just riding and being a pony club pony :)

It is very important to choose the right type of ponies for driving. We have had a few ponies who I have chosen to sell as I thought they would not be as suitable for driving as I would wish. It takes a lot of time to break to driving if the pony is too excited or stressed or afraid of things happening behind. When chooseing a driving pony I prefer absolutely one whos reaction type is not bucking. If you look at horses in flocks when they run and have fun, some of them typically bucks, others stands on their hindlegs and so on, they have a typical way of reacting. I prefer one that does not react on everything with kicking or bucking - of course all horses do it but, well it is hard to describe :D All horses don't so easily strech their feet backwards though they would bump their bump up for example. It is the ones who really easily kicks in general that I avoid. Others are just too excited or afraid and try to run off for any price, it is also not so good when you think that the carrige will follow. So ponies who are comfortable with most of things, relays on people and have realtively calm reactions in new situations and are quick to get back to the "I listen to people"-mode are the best ones.

Driving pair - again!

Okey, I like snow and winter but now I have to say I couldn't be happier of not having it still! Can't remember a winter when we would not have had snow in January but this year I don't mind as it makes it possible to continue driving my pair! Yesterday my friend Niina paid us a visit and we got a short action set on the only place (ca. 10 meters) on the road that was slippery - of course. Paulette and Ivanhoe both got scared of something in the wood, probably some noise as we didn't see anything and took a few faster steps forward but they calmed down fast though the carriges was slipping on the ice. They where also driven for the second time with blinkers so maybe it added some action as they could see only forwards. But it is nice that both ponies are so easily calmed down and listens to me and so we went on with the driving as planned. 

Sometimes sudden things happens and it is just to wait calmly for it to past and next time it will be again a less reaction. It is said a horse is not broken to driving until it has once been scared of something and runned off and that means of course that only then you will see how it reacts on the carrige sudden bumping behind and pressure of the harness in an exciting situation, so some horses may be driven for a long time before anything unexpected happens and until you see what their reaction is. In pair it is of course even more important that the ponies listen to the driver in any situation and has already seen things driven in single as well as in long reining in pair.

Today we drove together with Marko and he took a video, not a really good one though but you see how it looks :) Here we start trotting and drive around a suitable pair of trees on our yard that are perfect for training "marathon". A long way to go still but it is a start! And so FUN! In the beginning of the video I'm laughing because we had just driven pass the point were we harness the ponies and Paulette is showing her teeth towards Ivanhoe as she was unhappy as we contiuned to drive and did not stop at the harnessing place, it was Ivanhoes fault she seemed to think. She has not been driven or ridden so much in the last two years as she has ahd two foals so I see she has to get used to working still and not only eating and relaxing ;) But she is accepting the gelding very nicely now and they are a really good pair already.

And after driving you always see a happy face around two lovely ponies <3

No snow - driving my pair instead

We have still no snow here except of a few small snowflakes falling now and then, so it has been possible for me to drive my shetty pair Swinghill's Paulette and Ivanhoe av Friheten a few times since Christmas. Today we made a few changes, put Paulette on the left side and Ivanhoe on the right. It is important to change places to get the ponies used of beeing on both sides. I have also driven them without blinkers because Ivanhoe as a former trotter has been more excited with blinkers when driven single and he also wants to see what he hears. But I want them to get used to blinkers when driven in pair as I hope I can drive in weddings and happenings and then it will be safer if they don't stare at every balloon or child running etc. Paulette did not like the driving bit, butterfly I drove her yesterday with, so I also changed to normal straight bit to keep her comfortable in pair.

I had a assistant who took his job seriously :D That is Marko my husband of course...

 Concentrating, concentrating in driving...

And what a nice halt! If they only would always stay as straight!

Someone is having a happy face!

2011 in April a photo was taken at this same spot of me with my first pair Okana and Swinghill's Paulette. Okana we lost sadly in foaling 2012 so here Paulette on the left (from drivers view) is now with Ivanhoe av Friheten. I hope I will get a just as good pair of these as Paulette and Okana was.  I miss Okana very very much still, she was our first Shetland Pony and a very special one.