Driving Horse
Sometimes I worry about how far behind we are. Of all the things Rusty should be doing by now. Of all the things he would be doing if I rode once in awhile instead of messing around with those silly tricks. I hear people say things about trick training, they don’t say them kindly either. They have real training to do and don’t have time to mess around with silly things like tricks. I sometimes think we should work on real world skills. I’ve been meaning to introduce Rusty to a rope. A good cow horse needs to be able to have a rope thrown off his back, to be able to hold and drag a calf. It’s so hard to find time for these things though.
Today after church the weather was perfect. Warm and calm. The kids played outside then decided they wanted someone to pull their wagon for them. I said I could do it, on Coyote. Then I remembered how I am trying to go really easy on Coyote until his eye is taken care of. Then I thought about Rusty. He’s never drug anything in his life. So why not start him out pulling the wagon loaded with children?
He took it like a pro. Never spooked. Never hesitated to put his full weight into it. The work wasn’t easy through the deep sucking mud. With the time put in and trust learned working on learning tricks rusty waited calmly for his next cue. He’s used to me asking things of him that would seem weird to a normal horse. He was happy to be playing at this latest fun trick we were learning together.
We’ve been wanting to learn to drive Harvey who may or may not know how. It has somehow never occurred to me to just teach Rusty to drive. I may be buying myself some harness for Christmas
