25 kids from a local summer camp stopped over to Connie’s barn in June and it was so much fun!! Connie spoke about horse basics and made it so interesting, not only for them, but for me too. I was Connie’s photographer and I had the best time taking pictures and videos for her!!! The kids were very interested and had some great questions – they kept Connie on her toes!!
Welcome to children on field trip, topic “Farming and animals”
Not being sure how the Herd would take to all this commotion, and not having any script pre-planned, Connie sort of played things by ear.
After a brief intro outside the barn, all the kids came in to see the horses in their stalls. Were they excited!
Most of these children had never been up close to a horse before. They got to go into the barn and see what a horse barn looks like and got to feel and touch the horses’ muzzles as Momma, Gilford and baby Glendale stretched their necks out through their stall doors searching for treats.
Then Connie had them all go outside into a small enclosed area and she brought out her beautiful Momma mare. The children were ringed around the fenceline with plenty of room for a horse in the middle.
Momma Willy comes out to meet the children
(These children were very well behaved and took direction readily from the 6 adults with them.) Connie knew Willy mare would be OK with crowds of people (she’s done it all!) so brought her out first, talking about how horses communicate, her age and past history as a show horse, 4-H horse, jumping horse, Arabian native costume horse, mother mare, etc.
Young girl meets horse…
…and another feeds her a carrot!
The children had brought carrots (with prior permission) so Connie took the mare around the lineup and many children fed her a carrot piece.
Willy is polite accepting carrots but Connie restrained her nonetheless, all those little hands holding out carrots was awfully overwhelming. Then she got them to approach the mare one at a time, and that worked much better so that Wil wouldn’t get over-eager and possibly pushy.
Next Connie lunged the mare, which was also a first for me to see. I have never seen Willy lunged in person, only in videos with Emmie lunging her. And Momma mare performed beautifully – I think it’s been a long time since Willy was at the end of a lunge line but she acted like she’d done it yesterday by doing just what Connie asked her to. She lunged her in 3 gaits (walk, trot, and canter) while explaining how she knew the words and was trained what to do.
After she cantered nicely, the children applauded! Willy was soaking it up, this job was SO easy!
Connie did some more Q&A– A teacher asked the parts of the horse and they were shown the basics. The kids had many thoughtful questions, such as how much they ate, how they stayed warm in winter, how do you tell a girl horse from a boy horse (!)– (Connie dodged that one by answering “the same way you do with people.”)
Q&A subject showing off.
Then more carrots, and everyone wanted to pat her through the fence, which kept it really safe for little feet.
Connie brought the mare right up to the gate (with kids on the other side). That mare stood there PERFECTLY STILL and let everyone touch her and admire her!!
All the kids with their outstretched arms wanting to touch Momma mare gave Gilford and Glendale’s mom a celebrity-like status!! Connie had expected that Momma would be fine with a crowd of excited kids around since she’s been used to it from her days with Emmie.
She truly is an amazing and wonderful horse!
Then Connie brought out Momma’s oldest boy Gilford and you could see the difference age and experiences makes. While Momma just stood quietly with barely an ear twitch and let the kids touch her and admire her, young Gilford was not quite so willing to stand still! He wasn’t difficult or anything like that, he just wasn’t quite so patient as his Mom. He is, after all, a youngster and hasn’t been around crowds like mare mom has. [Connie's NOTE: he smelled carrots and basically just wanted to grab for them!]
Dad and Fio look on…
This was a great experience for me– it’s wonderful to see young kids eager to learn about horses and I shared in their excitement that day. I’d love to be part of something like this with Connie again! I felt like a real Horse Gal by being my mentor’s assistant! [And many fine photos and vids you took too, thanks HorseGal!]
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.
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!!!
Hi, just playin around here… I believe if you are adventurous, you can figure out how to embed this widget onto your own homepage in many different services– such as Facebook, Myspace, your own blog or website etc.– to share, or you can even email it to your friends.
Click on OPTIONS at bottom left to view the possibilities. Clicking on an Option icon gives you appropriate code for each service listed there. Try it and see– and I’d love to know if you do something with it! It worked nicely for me!
I’m not really feeling nostalgic for winter, but maybe a little bit for Abby, our first driving horse. Sharing these pix from 2002 (oh so long ago!) when Emmie and Dad horsed around bareback in deep fresh powder, it must have been at Christmas time.
One of my favorite shots! Em on beautiful Willow’s Bask and Dad rides Abby, making fresh tracks in their fun run.
Emmie knows Willy like the back of her hand, having ridden and trained her since the mare was 5 and Emmie was age 12. In these pictures in 2002, the mare was age 16 and in foal with Gilford.
I cannot condone their riding without helmets, but I suppose these are the softest landing conditions you might find.
Abby, a Morgan-Percheron mare and our first driving horse, controllable with a halter. And I see Dad is wearing cross-country ski boots too!
Dad makes one more run for good measure! Thanks to this mare I think we first fell in love with Percheron breeding, and ended up with our two arabian-percheron boys!
Abby has another good home now… please visit more blog posts about Abby!
The Stable Scoop Radio Show has posted it’s 3rd Episode. Stable Scoop is a horse related podcast that I think you will enjoy. You can listen on their site at www.stablescoop.com, subscribe through iTunes or listen right here by clicking the Listen Now button below. Enjoy!
Stable Scoop Radio Show Episode 3:
Join hosts Glenn the Geek and Helena B. as they take you on a wild ride with fox hunting talk to one of the most beautiful spots in America at the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center. And, your faith in the youth of today will be restored as we speak with our blogger of the week, she is one articulate teen.
News of the Week:
A little legal talk with a suit after being bit while farm sitting.
Drugs at the Olympics and those nasty chili peppers.
New drug testing using horse hair.
Irish fox hunters fight back - the war continues.
The Blog of the Week is one teen who can write! You can find Kristen Kenney at Equestrianism.
[comments from Ellen, who has a pair of lovely Percherons up north...]
Just read your blog Scary horseback and driving encounter
~~ first of all, happy to hear that the pairs driving is going so well. I did squirm at the bee mishap (worst nightmare). A friend of mine was riding in the woods with others and had a similar experience but her horse (in addition to bucking and rearing)~~ bolted thru the woods.
She was thrown off; hitting her head on a tree and he was in bad shape as well. So, I guess you can thank your lucky stars that your young horse didn’t add bolting to the list of his reactions!
Here’s a pic taken [in late August] at Sutton NH ~~
Ellen’s big girls, Bali and Killian, gave hay rides for the Sutton Musterfield Farm days held Sat and Sun. Great experience for them.
On August 2 we had our most frightening horse experience ever. We’ve been lucky and sort of charmed at times in avoiding serious injuries working with horses, and that luck continues to hold (knock on wood!)– at least we are still in one piece.
We set out from home with Glendale pulling the metal training cart– with Hubby and our young horse-loving friend Bailey– and this day I rode Gilford. I felt I would practice what Emmie had taught me in my recent Mom’s riding lesson “without stirrups to improve my balance.”
Starting out for the woods trail, passing a sheep farm (those are Gilford’s ears inside the green ear net of course… LOL)
Bailey with Dad and Glendale, who wears a fly net over his whole face and ears…
Turning around at one dead end Dad explored.
Heading up a power line cut and into the woods, Glen’s cart in the lead. Trail is a little bumpy, and Gilford doesn’t neck rein so it’s a tad tricky to steer him with one hand.
We knew that deer flies would be pretty bad in the woods this time of the summer, and they were! Our preparations of bug ointment, fly spray and ear nets slowed the deer flies down to a couple dozen per horse when we reached the wooded trail, and poor Glen in the lead was tossing his head a lot. (The lead horse attracts the worst of the bugs, which latch onto their poll at the top of their neck and buzz annoyingly around their ears.)
Entering a thicker part of the woods
The woods trail seemed pretty peaceful at first, except for deer flies…
Things weren’t too bad until we started down a sloping woods trail, when suddenly my mount Gilford, following behind the cart, began to buck and pitch a fit. I glanced back and saw what looked like a large horse fly on his rump, but I didn’t try to shoo it off– I was too busy holding his head up and single-reining him and trying to stay on him! I was also yelling WHOA! WHOA! so Dad’s passenger Bailey bailed out of the cart (she’s a sensible young girl.) Gilford passed his brother, got in front of him, then stopped and tried to scrape the bug off by rubbing himself on Glen. Not too cool, what with the shafts sticking out and Glen being harnessed to the cart.
Hubby was out of the cart too by then, he grabbed hold of Gilford’s bridle to help me, and I dismounted quickly. We both felt that Gil was being a crazy horse because of the deer flies, and we agreed we should turn back and get out of the woods. As we led the horses around to backtrack, Gil started bucking and rearing again and totally freaked out, he pulled the reins out of my hands and took off galloping back up the trail.
At that point my biggest fear was that Glen might break free of us too and take off after his brother. I had visions of him galloping up the trail with the cart flailing around behind him and crashing into a tree or worse. Hubby had Glen’s head by his left rein, so I grabbed his right rein as we both led him back up the trail. Suddenly Dad started yelling and slapping at himself– his head and neck and back! Glen jumped around then too and got very agitated.
It had taken until that moment for us to realize we were all being attacked by bees (well, wasps technically), which turned out to be yellow jackets. We hurried forward as fast as possible without letting Glendale start running. Gilford came back (not willing to go far without his brother) so I grabbed his reins again, and we booked it until we were out of the woods. Poor young Bailey got two stings which brought tears, but she was very brave.
We stopped then and scraped off a few dead wasps, we all remounted, and we headed down the streets for home. It took a while for the boys to calm down, and Gilford was understandably a bit hypersensitive to flies on the trip back. Once safely in the barn, we counted 6-8 sting welts on Gilford, 11 on Glen, and poor Hubby had nearly 2 dozen stings, including near his mouth which caused his lower lip to swell up. He iced it and took some Benadryl and aspirin. The stings had been very painful at first.
After phoning the landowner, we returned to the location later that day, for two reasons. Dad had lost his glasses (most likely while slapping himself in the face during the bee attack), plus the landowner wanted to spot the nest so he could get rid of it. We expected to find an underground nest, though we were incredulous that bees would go to ground so early in the year because that normally happens in the fall.
We found the glasses, remarkably intact, and finally spotted the yellow jacket nest– it was in a hollow stump at least 3 feet away from the edge of the trail! Those jackets had flown out and attacked the horses just for walking by in the middle of the trail!!! When we had turned around to leave, we had passed the nest again and they had converged on poor Dad, the closest to them at that point, then hit Glendale on Dad’s right. Being on Glen’s other side, I was screened by the horse and somehow I never got a sting myself.
Apparently when we first walked past the nest going out, Glen in the lead had attracted their attention but Gilford coming behind got hit by them first. Dad had brushed one off his forehead but didn’t know it was a bee. Turning around and re-passing the nest was the worst thing we could have done (perfect hindsight!) At the time neither of us realized it was bees, it all happened so fast.
In researching afterwards (yellow jackets) I learned that in late summer, because the colonies are at their fullest maxed-out size, yellow jackets CAN become even more aggressive than normal, and they are pretty bold normally. Scary way to find THAT out– but the nest was destroyed by the landowner who returned at dusk to spray it, on a couple of different evenings.
Neither Hubby nor the horses had any allergic reactions to the stings (if that’s possible for horses?) and we were terrifically lucky no one suffered other injury. This episode was much the most horrifying thing we’ve had happen with horses… horse people beware! I knew from a bee encounter on horseback years ago that underground nests can be exposed in the fall by breaking or clearing new woods trails or even traveling on unfrequented trails, but this attack in late summer was completely unexpected, and unprovoked as well in our minds. Not in the wasps’ minds though.
NOTE: If you were expecting pix of the bee attack and afterwards, dream on! You’ll just have to use your imagination! In fact if I had had my camera in hand when Gilford started bucking, there’d probably BE no camera at all anymore!
NOTE #2: Since Gilford didn’t manage to buck me off, could it be that Emmie’s riding lesson did me some good?? I can tell myself that, but I’d rather NOT put it to the test again like that!!
Sharing a couple of different training runs with the boys as a new pair, in “downtown” Gilford Village. These were late July and early August, putting mileage on them.
FYI– we started them as a pair with Gilford on the left or “near” side because he has been driving longer, is older and more experienced, so we thought he might be steadier facing oncoming traffic. (Glen on right is in the “off” position.) At some point we plan to switch places with them and see how that goes. It would be real nice, better for their continued development, if they became interchangeable.
This neighbor’s field has a couple of interesting visual obstacles, old upside-down rowboats and the like…
During Emmie’s summer visit, she came along with us for a ride in the neighborhood! Whenever their hoofbeats sound like one horse trotting, that means they are in sync with each other.
Fun long trot back out the field and into the street… but cars often pass way too fast for our tastes.
Heading out downhill on a different day, Glen nuzzling at his big brother’s face as he likes to do– the Belknap mountains seen in the distance.
This is probably a Sunday morning, because we stop by the Village store for a Sunday NY Times! Friends and neighbors say hi.
Once again we check out progress on the new Library…
…and put them on a training walk loop through the construction site.
Hardly ever bothered by stuff that doesn’t move!
More trot work in the Village downtown
Return leg, crossing a 2-lane highway
Almost home again!
Their worst “spook” so far was trotting up a steep hill in the rain, near an intersection when three cars in a row passed us in too much of a hurry, making them nervous with all the rain and wet splashy tire noise and slippery pavement, and they started into a canter for several strides. Fortunately they were very easy to slow down again, and stay pretty sensible generally.
It seems we never get tired of looking at horses’ butts!
As promised, here are PIX from Glen and Gilford’s first outing driving together as a pair (see previous post Pairs carriage driving in Chocorus NH for videos.) This was on a weekend trip where we camped two overnights and drove three different days.
Gilford and Glen in their horsecamp
Trotting out on Day 1, giving sort of a visual sense of their motion…
This is their third hitch together, the first two hitches being under supervision of the instructor at the Carriage Barn in Newton, NH.
Laurie G. harnesses her pony Sophie, while Sonja C. assists. Both gals are members of Granite State Carriage Assoc. Sophie is the little lady that Glen was smitten with during the weekend.
More Granite Staters harnessing up, daughter Taryn and mom Pat P.
Taryn and Pat pose for pix before their driveout, their snappy Appy-Arab mare in front.
Another driver, Ginger L., got many compliments on her restored antique wagon, here put to her Canadian gelding.
I’m making an attempt to keep Glen’s mane all on one side of his neck!
Putting on Glen’s hoofboots in front– Easycare Boas.
then comes the harness
Dad and I going out on Day 2 with the boys
Several of us line up for Sonja’s portrait, this one planned for the cover of GSCA’s 30th Anniversary Album, which I was finishing the design of.
Sonja got pix of us coming and going
The second night we had a tailgate pizza party, after which Dad and I rushed off to a concert in Wolfeboro!
The last day there was no escaping the drizzle– Glen’s back is pretty wet already…
but they were willing to go wherever we pointed them, even over wet slippery bridges!
Such handsome boys!! (well, WE think so– like our second set of children!)
