I wish I was doing more with them, until I step out of my air conditioned house.
So, from the world's worst blogger, I will confess that Yndi has been refusing to halt. If I insist, she spins around. This is very dangerous with a driving horse. The cart can create a balance problem and result in a bolt or fall. A bolting driving horse can easily take a turn that is fine for the horse, but too tight for a cart-the wheels get hung up and rip off. Then you get a frightened horse dragging a broken vehicle that continues to break up.
The solution, then, is to stop the spin. That makes her rear. When a horse rears, you send them forward quickly. See 'bolting driving horse' above, or do a YouTube search: "Youtube carriage horse bolt." It's a S%&$t show.
This whole scenario also plays out if she thinks it might ahppen and starts to drift sideways and then I try to correct her. She knows leg yield. she doesn't like it. When Merrie told me to practice it in long lines, I did. I ended up with ponies who don't follow their heads. they now require a higher level of finesse.
Yndi is a hot horse. Small and pudgy and cute, but hot. I think what she really needs is to go out on the open trail and just trot until she can hardly breath enough. There are bees in her hair and she has to get them out. Sadly, the level area of my property is too limited and the first mile of road out of my driveway is very very steep. Know this: turning a cart around on a slope is not a good thing to do. One shaft becomes much higher than the other when the cart is sideways on the slope. This can push/knock a pony off their feet, really, and the cart flips at the same time.
So this is a hot mess. Its a difficult but possible trip to a wilderness park that allows carriages, but, hear we go, Yndi is a poor traveler. She would not be safe to hitch single if she were isolated in a strange place. She is not safe to hitch pairs to Pepper who is too inexperienced and not big enough to just hold her in place.
So, now I wait for fall and cooler weather for lessons, like I waited for the '16 Holidays to be over and the terrible winter to be over and the road wash out to be repaired.
I have loaded my trailer with grass hay pellets and water, and packed a go bag for each animal as for myself. Its wildfire season. I am ready for evacuation, just in case.
There has also been batik. I am getting ahead of that batik phase of a few collections so that I can work on the indoor sewing part when the outdoor weather is too cold for batik wax to flow well.
I've also been in a funk as a self employed artist, I belong to an online art marketing forum. I asked for help with social media and got a bunch of website critiques. I make art saddlepads and someone said "I can't tell if you are selling the saddle too.(she doesn't know there is a major price different between the custom saddle shown in the photo and just a saddlepad) "Maybe you should show aerial photos of the horses." (Yes, I will rent a crane, buy a case of tranquilizer and take out a two million dollar insurance policy.) as well as the suggestion that I study color theory(Who Tastes Fish?) and pick more neutral colors(black and white ARE the neutrals for saddlepads and you all are wasting my time answering questions I didn't ask and ignoring the one I did ask.)
Heavy sigh. Back to
work!
No comments:
Post a Comment