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