09.26.08
Pairs driving with Carriage club in Vermont
Our August horsing around time at Shelburne Farms, situated on Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vermont, could not have been much better! This was the carriage club’s (Granite State Carriage Association) 10th anniversary visit to drive at Shelburne, and our first to the area ourselves, where we spent 5 happy days enjoying our favorite hobby!
Gilford and Glen on the shores of Lake Champlain! Wahoo!!!
Shelburne Farms was created in 1886 by William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb as a model agricultural estate. In 1972, it was founded as an educational nonprofit to teach conservation stewardship of agricultural and natural resources. Shelburne Farms website
One of many amazing structures, the Farm Barn in the background…
The “Inn” at Shelburne, where guests may find accomodation. I believe it was the original residence…
Shelburne Farms is now a 1400 acre dairy farm with public exhibits, including cheesemaking, and several incredible buildings the size of small castles, such as the Inn (above) and a few barns.
Shelburne has welcomed the GSCA to come up yearly since 1998, housing our horses in style in their spacious– formerly luxurious– Coach barn. Club members stay in a nearby campground, and truck in as desired to drive their horses on the grounds, which are very carriage friendly.
Really interesting History of Shelburne Farms.
Lake Champlain’s Shelburne Bay, at Shelburne Vermont.
About 12 miles of roads and trails were available for driving our carriages, some with minimal auto traffic and a few with no cars at all. Some sections of road went right along Shelburne Bay. There were a few driveable hillsides with spectacular views of the lake and the New York mountains beyond. Even the weather was perfect– the only rain was a fierce torrential storm our first night there, but it didn’t interfere with the daytime fun!
These pix and vids show us and our driving friends– we put a lot of practice mileage on our new pair and they did just super!
Drivers meet on Day 1 to review the Farm’s guidelines and accessible areas…
Trotting alongside Lake Champlain… you can hear it is pretty breezy, a storm moved in later this night.
The storm on our first overnight DID make Lake Champlain really rough for 2 days afterwards, so rough that everyone’s horses were too afraid to pass close to these crashing waves throwing spray right across the road! Luckily there were another couple of routes to drive out on.
Flocks of seagulls were one of the recurring challenges for the horses.
Big sideways jump when Gilford suddenly hears huge waves crash up against a cliff below the road to his left. Hubby was able to recover them quickly– green (inexperienced) horses require the driver to keep alert! Luckily they didn’t run into anything on the right.
THEIR HOME… Can you believe this is a stable??
This Coach barn was where Dr. Seward kept his personal coaches and driving horses.
OUR HOME… home sweet home away from home in nearby Shelburne Campground…
Inside the Coach barn, where the boys stayed in comfort while WE slept in a horse trailer! There were 8-10 horses with their respective owners, carts and carriages for the week.
GSCA driver heading out in fjord cart
We drive to Shelburne Farms breeding barn on the grounds
Circling the massive, ornate breeding barn, where Hackney horses were raised in the early 1900s.
The interior of this breeding barn is about the size of two huge indoor arenas, with stalls and rooms along both sides.
“Warming up” while making ready for the picnic drive, everyone circles their carriage horses…
Hubby circling the boys in front of Coach barn
Patti S. and Pat P., fellow GSCA members ready to head out on picnic drive.
We noticed after a day or two, that Glendale had begun to hang back in his harness and let big brother Gilford do most of the pulling. Either he was hesitant from lack of confidence, or just smart enough to realize he could do this, either way it is not desirable… so I started getting after him by lightly tapping his butt with a crop if he ignored Dad’s voice, which was effective and also made him pay more attention to being brushed with the soft lash of Hubby’s driving whip. One goal of pairs training is to keep both horses evenly “in draft” so that their work is shared evenly.
Trotting in a Caravan of carts, the Club on their traditional “Picnic drive” goes into areas not generally open to the public.
One carriage road on the way to the picnic
GSCA friend Sonja C. capturing pix of passing drivers!
We stop to rest and picnic with the horses on a beautiful peninsula in Shelburne Bay, then return as a group.
This exposure to many other horses and carts was great for our boys, especially Glen.
There were various challenges each day to deal with… here Gilford shies right off the road, afraid to approach any closer to a sheep pen ahead. He pulls his brother with him and after this tried to run away; I had to get out and head him up, we retreated to reconnoiter, and ended up taking a different route to avoid the sheep.
Pat P. and her daughters driving their Appy-Arab mare… they helped us out with our sheep practice!
Sheep-passing and canter practice… after Gilford (on a previous day) refused to pass these sheep and 2 llamas and actually wheeled and tried to run away, fellow driver Pat P. helps us train by going first. The green horses gain confidence when following another horse.
The boys are allowed to canter for their first time ever, near the end of the above video… not exactly in sync, this will take a lot more practice, but no rush to do that! Pleasure driving horses are not usually asked to canter, however we do practice it occasionally, feeling that it is good for them to experience the feel of cantering in harness BEFORE it happens unbidden, as sooner or later it is bound to do.
On one of the side trails up a hillside meadow with a view! Those are houses in the distance!
We had some cattle-passing practice too… which were nowhere near as scary as sheep. There were several woods-road passages we could drive… and one huge mud puddle we passed through several times, which was tricky but great practice for the pair and driver.
Farewell to Shelburne Farms, until next year when we hope to return!!!
