On the road to a combined driving event

Am I a bad wife or just an equestrian?

My husband has to have a cardiac cath. Done, might have to have a stint put in. We were at the doctors office discussing the procedure and the scheduling of the test. The doc left to send in the nurse, after telling hubby that I was sorry and it will be alright, I said if It was at all possible lets not do yhe procedure on the 21 or 22 of June. After looking at me curiously, I said that was the CDE....... I really could not believe it came out of my mouth. I did start to back up....Beep....Beep....Beep. I said I would of course miss my CDE but I would prefer not to. He smiled and shook his head.




Thankfully I did not have to choose.

Drive 53, June 13, 10 days to go:


Let me start by saying I have never really had a driving or riding lesson ever. In driving I have gone to a few clinics about 18 years ago with my push button Arab. In riding never had the time or the money to take lessons, I have taken one or two but never more than that from the same instructor. My Mom rode jumpers for the Anheuser Busch family and her Idea of teaching her kids to ride was to over mount us and throw us on. We either learned how to ride or fell off. I fell off a lot.


Dressage Lesson one: Where to begin. Well being as I have been driving horses for 20 plus years, I was feeling relatively confident in my driving abilities. I had been practicing Pilgrim on bending and transitions, while they were not the most beautiful movements they pretty good. Well now I know we were bending, using all the wrong muscles. He was using all his under the neck muscles and not the upper muscles of the neck. Our lesson did not even get out of a walk, I could not do anything right. Poor Pilgrim I think he is forever scarred by my driving. Our transitions were sloppy, he would not stay on the rail, my circles were collapsing and this was all at a walk. I felt so totally inept; I thought I was going to cry. How could I have waited this long to take a lesson? This was stupider then trying to have Pilgrim go barefoot in back. I was a mess it was like I could not walk and chew gum at the same time. Plus under stress I cannot tell my left from right, I can’t count the times the instructor said …”no the other left” and “No the other right”


At the end of the lesson we did decide that I was sitting entirely to low in the cart. My high riding cart sits much higher but is not safe on the marathon, too high of center of gravity, and since I only have room for one cart and the Meadowbrook can do both marathon and dressage, that is the one I am taking. I called Whitmers Coach Shop and ordered a couple pieces of foam to try and make something to sit on that gets me higher in the cart….we will see if it helps.


Also decided to use a shorter lash at the end of my whip, Pilgrim is ticklish and he over reacts to the long lash.


Gosh I hope tomorrow’s lesson is better.


Drove 45 min at a walk, Pilgrim grade B, Driver grade D

Drive 54, June 13, 10 days to go: PM Drive

We got back from the disaster lesson and decided I needed to practice what I learned today. I drove in the high rider because the Meadowbrook was still at the lesson site. I did so much better in the higher cart. Mostly drove the cones course, then went around the property, trotted for 15 minutes straight then came back and played in the cones some more. Practicing bending the way instructor told me, defiantly seeing some improvement in me and Pilgrim, but crunching a lot of cones. Still having trouble understanding the the why of some moves but I am doing them.

I am going to ask the instructor if she will come to me tomorrow, so she can show me some exercises to do on the trails, since that is where I do most of my driving. Plus her stable has a chat ring and we slid around the corners on that ring, just like the other. Of course we were just walking so it wasn’t bad, but I hope to trot eventually.

Still have not varnished the wheels.

Drove 45 minutes, Grade B, Driver C-


Help! I need another month!!!

Drive 55, June 14, 9 days to go: AM Drive

Oh my gosh, It is single digits to the event. Drove Pilgrim to the high rider, Walked around property for 20 minutes, then drove cones walking and trotting for 15 minutes, then trotted for 20 minutes. Practiced again what I “learned”. I am still asking Pilgrim for a bend, just in a different way.

The dressage instructor is coming to my place this evening around 6:30. I went and got the cart from her place and had, the husband of one of her clients teach me how to do the running braid. She said he was the best and fastest at doing that braid, go figure. Went home to practice the braid.

I hope this afternoon lesson is more encouraging for me.

Drove 55 min, Grade B,

Drive 56, June 15, 8 days to go: PM drive

Dressage instructor (DI) came to me this evening; we started off driving around the property, at a walk. She was showing me exercises that I could do along the trails to encourage proper bending and rounding. While I am beginning to understand the theory, the results are slow. Now I am not talking about Instant gratification and short cuts. But my turns are big and sloping now, while that works great on a 60 meter circle, but in a hazard where I need to turn ASAP not so great. I guess we are going slowly now and things will pick up later. It is however working beautifully to get him on the rail and straighten him out in the shafts and do the dreaded circles.

We were walking and had just rounded a turn when we saw 2 small birds on the path, DI and I discussed that they might be Quail, Of course we had not seen Quail in these parts for years. We kept walking, well they were not Quail they were baby turkey, and mama turkey and 12 babies flew straight up out of the tall grass about, not kidding, 8 feet in front of Pilgrim’s nose.
It happened so fast I do not know what I did but the instructor grabbed for the lines, I thought OH MY, I do not like that! But what she did was take my hands with the lines and talk me through the event. Explaining what she was doing and how to handle it, I swear she was so calm Pilgrim did not even veer off the trail or break into a trot. As a matter of fact Pilgrim only got animated when she let me have the reins back. She explained that I was boxing Pilgrim in and not giving him an out or a safe place to go, holding him to tight and making things worse. Now of course this makes tremendous sense looking back at the spook journal, most of the good, no problem spooks were the ones where, I pretty much ignored them.

I then practiced what I learned at a trot, more difficult but it just takes time to remember to do it. If the DI told me once she told me 100 times to relax my elbows. I had always been told I was a quiet rider with good hands, but obviously no one told me my elbows were locked up tighter than the Franklin Mint. DI gave me an exercise for that…. Do small backward and forward circles to help oil those elbows, I wonder if Cosoquin would help?

Okay by now I am exhausted and want to end this fiasco, when almost to the end of the trail we ran into a heard of deer just off the trail by 25 feet, about 5 of them. I started to get nervous and the DI just took one of my hands this time and again walked me though it. One deer did jump off but Pilgrim and I were great. I said I can’t believe that we walked right by that heard of deer, the DI corrected me and said through the heard of deer, there were two more on the other side of the trail that I did not even see.

When we got back to the barn we went through the cones course, with DI giving me pointers. She then took the lines and drove Pilgrim and he did great for her. Lots of nice steady movement and bends, even some shoulder work. My drive not so good, but better.

Much better lesson today, there might be hope, not for this CDE but maybe the next one.

Drive 50 minutes, Grade A-, Driver better

You might be surprised on how well the taller cart will do. If driven properly and at lower level center of gravity isn't an issue. My instructor always worried about the center of gravity and then she went to a competition where some top level drivers had high carts and moving and turning quickly. If it is bigger it may give your horse more room in the shafts and he will turn better. You might get Muffy Seatons video on bending the driving horse. It is easy to follow and very helpful.

I measured the seat in the hi-rider, and it is sadly too small for my groom and me to fit, without being very uncomfortable. I have used it in a marathon before, (in my thinner days) and it did pretty good. I am defiantly looking for a higher cart when I get back home from the CDE. I hope to scout out some cool vehicles at the CDE for reference. I would ideally like a lower center of gravity but a seat that sits high. I don’t know yet if I want a 4 wheeler or not, I am going to check those out too.

I ordered the book and DVD that you suggested, Bending the Driving Horse; you have suggested it before to someone else. I checked out EBay and Amazon with no luck. Then found both for $50, I think on Seaton’s website, I just wish I had ordered it a month ago.

I found a photo of the high-rider on the marathon. It was not me that drove it was my mother. She is driving the horse on the left; I am driving the horse on the right.

Nice photo. The video is very easy to understand and follow. I wish I had gotten it sooner and it is reasonable priced. Let me know what you think after watching it.

Drive 57-60, June 16, 17, 18, 7-5 days to go:

Wow I can’t believe it is less than a week away, driving sometimes 2 times a day, it is getting in the mid 90’s every day; I am trying to be harnessed and driving by 8 AM. We are working on keeping our stamina up, he is getting very lazy, I remember when we first started this journal he was all go, go, go , now if he trots any slower he might fall over. I have to keep after him to keep it steady. We walk for the first 20 minutes, then trot for about 12-20, then walk for a few min, then do the cones course. I am actually hoping to see some wildlife so I can practice my new “anti-spook” maneuvers.

We are still practicing what the DI told me to do. I am hoping that the book and DVD I bought, Bending the Driving Horse, will help clarify some things. I am a visual person and need to see it a few times, kind of dense sometimes. Of course it will not help for this CDE but if there is a next one???? I did ask them to send it overnight but it was like an extra $30, and I thought that was excessive.

I have been working on my to do list.

Picked up Mom’s trailer, and washed it. Mom got new tires for the trailer; I didn’t want to drive 14 hours on ten year old tires.

Got the truck serviced and tires rotated, washed and gassed up.

I have fitted the good harness and am now starting to clean it; I will use the everyday harness from now on.

Put a coat of varnish on the cart wheels in the evening, under the florescent lights. Thinking I was finished with the cart, but when I came back in the morning there were little dead bug carcasses all over the freshly varnished wheels.So I put on another coat of varnish in the am. NOW, I think I am finished with the cart.

I got an E-mail from the CDE organizers stating that we all should give our horses a Rhino vaccine within 90 days of the competition; I hope 6 days is okay. I went to vets immediately and got a Rhino Vaccine to give it to Pilgrim right away. I have no idea why but Rhino is not something I regularly vaccinate for. It seems Rhino is going around up there, not at the competition site but in the Iowa area. Great!! They told everyone not to pet horses without washing hands.

Dewormed Pilgrim and cleaned his sheath again, I do not want anyone commenting on his personal hygene.

Drove 4 ¼ hours, Grade B, Driver C

Keep in mind that this will take lots of practice and you won't have it all down in a day. LOL

It will help with your spooking also as you can learn to turn your horses head away from something scarey but still drive in a straight line past the object and it is about driving the horse at the shoulders.