Teamsters!

This post is six years in the making. In multiple previous posts I’ve mentioned my ten year goal of creating a 6 up or stretch goal of an 8 up hitch of miniature ponies among other equestrian goals. Last night on June 20, 2023, I passed the 80% completion point. Why celebrate now you may ask?

Driving the first team with a four wheeled vehicle was a major milestone toward the goal. Actually getting enough equipment for four ponies and training them as a team was no small feat with everything else I’ve had going on: training/competing my neurotic mustang, riding my other horses, working a day job, training two new ponies as singles, being a good mother to Offspring, giving birth to Offspring #2 aka Baby Sparkly, and two of my ponies foaling within weeks of my delivery date. It’s been a little hectic at the GHLHF this past year! I now have four ponies that drive as a team, so 2 pony teams for a 4 up hitch or 4 in hand if you speak carriage verbiage, but I will not be hitching the 4 up until Apple Jack’s foal is weaned. To some this may seem a small accomplishment, but you have to understand where we started.

Seven years ago I attempted to train my first driving pony, having never driven a horse in my life. After an epic failure, I shelved the goal of having a driving pony for over a year before I felt confident to give it a go the second time. You can read about that epic fail HERE. Driving and using horses/ponies in draft is a small subset of the equestrian world, and finding knowledgeable people is much harder than finding a riding instructor/trainer. Quality, informative books or web articles about driving and draft animals are also difficult to come by. There are a ton of self-published books by people I wouldn’t consider “experts” and don’t always agree with their training philosophies. Many of the best books are not available in electronic form, and are often out of publication. You have to get lucky enough to find someone selling their second hand 1970 edition of the book.

Even though the American Driving Society (ADS) does have valuable resources for beginning drivers, they are primarily focused on carriage driving and don’t offer much in the way of working draft animals. If I lived closer an Amish population, the entire endeavor would be simplified and the learning curve reduced. As it was I ended up scouring the net for obscure farming publications and getting a subscription to the Small Farm Journal. The rest of my knowledge was earned the hard way by trial and error. Some of the best information came from equine chat archives that at least provided additional terms to search. Finally I do have a friend with access to the Amish, who also let me drive a team for the first time while visiting my home state last summer. That experience allowed me to reason out a few things I did not find in books or on the internet, and made me more determined to make my goal happen.

There is no small amount pride in the fact that I managed to train my own team from the ground up with virtually no prior teamster experience or assistance while pregnant. Draft harness is completely different from the driving harness I had been using for five years. Adjusting it properly was a challenge and took several sessions before I felt I had it just right. Then came decisions about the vehicle. Did I want a light marathon carriage built for speed and maneuverability? Or, was I going for a more traditional draft look? Sourcing a manufacturer at an affordable price was also an issue. I’m a working mother of two, supporting a family, and I can only justify these frivolous equine expenditures to a point. Its bad enough we currently have 22 equine on the grocery bill. Harness was easier to locate even though it was not nearly as easy to fit as driving harness.

In late Summer 2022, we said goodbye to my Grandmother. I returned from her funeral with a working miniature draft sled, my grandfather had made for me when I was around eight years old. With a goal of using that sled hitched to a team of my ponies for the GHLHF family Christmas cards, I started team training with Apple Jack who was already a solid single driver with four years driving experience and the neurotic Summer, who had maybe four months driving experience. We managed to get that Christmas card photo, then used the sled for small jobs around the farm like moving square bales and cleaning up limbs from an ice storm while both Apple Jack and I were heavy bred (approx. 7 months pregnant), waddling around the farm.

Finally after months of vehicle research, I decided I wanted a traditional draft look in miniature (totally aiming for a beer wagon look) and sourced a wagon manufacturer. I took a leap of faith and placed my order in late February with an Amish wagon builder in Pennsylvania, only 1,570 miles from where I currently live. Many factors went into this decision including contemplating building my own, but ultimately the Amish could build a significantly lighter vehicle with brakes for less cost (even with freight charges) than I could do it myself. Plus, you don’t get much more expert than a population that uses horsepower as their primary means of transportation.

By the time the wagon arrived in early May, I was 2 weeks postpartum, and one of my original team ponies was days away from delivering her foal. I went to work training Fairy, a new pony that I had purchased in March as a single driver because she was the best size match for my pony Tater, and I didn’t have a good size match for Summer. After two weeks of ground driving, I felt Fairy was ready to hitch as a single. We did one short drive with no major issues, so I decided to pair her with Tater for ground driving sessions. After a week of ground driving, I decided to change tactics. Tater is extremely competitive and has a tendency to drag her teammate along. I had tried a device called a buck back strap to keep Tater from rushing, but decided pairing her with Summer may be more effective. Although there is a significant size difference, Summer likes to charge ahead like Tater. I reasoned, in an effort to outwork the other, they would both end up working together.

The Summer/Tater team worked extremely well together. They’re both opinionated dominant mares, and don’t exactly play nice together. Once they are moving though, Summer and Tater made a formidable team even if Tater does reach over to bite Summer every 5 minutes. After only two ground drives together I decided they were ready to hitch to my new wagon. Truth be told, I may have rushed this decision in my eagerness to use the beautiful new wagon sitting in my barn, but I have no regrets. First I hitched them and then walked beside them, to a good spot for photos. The ADS would say this is the ultimate “no-no” but since much of their work has been pulling the draft sled with me ground driving beside them, I figured this was really no different. After photos to commemorate the first drive, I climbed in and off we went down the driveway!

Summer and Tater hauled me down the driveway and back. I tested the turning radius of my new four-wheel vehicle (since it was my first time driving anything more than two wheels). Then I decided to take us off property, down the fence line to my neighbor’s driveway. With everything going so well, I risked one trip onto a paved roadway, turning into the neighborhood behind our property. By this time it was getting dark, so the girls and I circled the lighted median of the neighborhood entrance and headed back to the house.

My few words of wisdom gained through this experience for anyone with horse related goals, or really any non-horse related goal. I say go for it! Don’t make excuses for why you are not where you currently want to be. Don’t wait until you have all the money or information. For you ladies, don’t use motherhood as an excuse not to be the best version of you. Your kids will learn from your example of goal-setting, overcoming failure, and ultimately succeeding. They are watching and learning from you right now. Don’t let fear of failure hold you back. The most valuable knowledge and experience I have in my equestrian tool box came from bad decisions and failure. I’m proud of both. Don’t waste time. If you are waiting for some imagined time when you’ll be “ready” or “have enough confidence in your abilities” or the “perfect moment”, you will never reach that goal. Confidence is gained by taking the leap and learning from or surviving the fall. You will not be magically blessed with confidence one day. It is earned by doing. If your dreams aren’t worth taking a risk for, what is?

I have this new favorite song by Corey Kent called “Something’s Going to Kill me.” I’m paraphrasing some of the lyrics, but on of the verses says “If you’re not busy living, then you’re just dying slow.” and the chorus “One day I’m gonna die, If something’s gonna kill me might as well be, what makes me feel alive.” I can’t think of better phrases to sum up my equine activities or really my life. I could have wasted a month working Tater and Summer just to “be sure” whatever that means, but we spent one week trying for “close enough for government work” and hit the road. Some things need tweaking, but at least we’re out here doing instead of waiting for perfect which puts us way ahead of the dreamers and planners!