Probably one of the coolest things we've learning so far is how to harness, hitch, and drive a team of horses. We spent two days in Brattleboro, VT working with Jay and his eight horses. I was really glad to have ridden before since it is quite complicated and Jay has high standards for his horses and for us.
We started off each pretending to be a 'horse' with our eyes closed and bailing twine hooked over our thumbs. The twine was held by our partner who was standing behind us and we walked around a series of chairs, tables and a wood stove (the scariest when your eyes are closed and you can feel it getting hotter). It was really neat to see how a horse might feel and how little pressure you needed to get your point across to turn left or right.
We then got out the lines (not called reins) and looped them around a post to practice gathering them up and our hand position.
Only after that could we go down and get the horses. We led them through figure eights around buckets until they were bored and we were dizzy. The point was to practice asking them to move slowly and take one step at a time, and for us to learn how to keep them behaved and communicate with them.
Jay and his wife served us a wonderful lunch from their farm and took us out for a drive in the afternoon.
We also practiced walking behind them steering which was incredibly hard.
The next day, in the middle of a storm, we took them out driving which was awesome. The wood stove came in handy for frozen fingers and we spent the afternoon practicing harnessing. All told, it was fascinating and incredible to have learned so much in two days!
And perhaps the best part... Jess the six month old foal:
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