Liberty and Kristi's 2008 Drive

July 19, 2008 Liberty and Kristi 1 hour 57 minutes. Liberty and I had our first all by ourselves 2008 driving excursion this morning on the Camas Prairie since coming home from Day Star Farm. Jim has actually been riding him for me in the evenings while I ride Luc. Temp was between 70 and 75 with a slight warm breeze at times arrived home at 11:30 am. Drove a total of 5.88 miles.

This was the first time Liberty has really been a willing boy for me, driving as a single. He’s certainly more mature and Assured of himself. Lori Forge has done an excellent job driving him. He took the hills without hesitation. He needs to learn to come downhill and brace himself so when the britchin is snug he doesn't lose his rear footing in the gravel, that will come with more prairie drives. I did get a slight sweat on him so I know he was working hard.

We didn't do any serious training maneuvers we just enjoyed a relaxing late morning drive. We serpentined in the road, that seemed to help his head set that Lori showed me how to fix. Haw and geed over just to see how he would do, a few trot transitions and a little backing was as technical as I got. He did very well on all accounts and I am extremely pleased.

On the way out he stopped nice, in fact had to do some harness repositionings within our first mile. I made the adjustments after the first hill when he needed a break to catch his breath so he was happy to stand while I made the cart ride smoother. On the way back he would only stop long enough to hesitate and go. I didn't fight him over it I just gave the command to go before he took off on his own. A friend drove up in his big diesel pickup and stopped for a long visit on our way home. Liberty was content to stand, absolutely no problem. I figured it out, if there is a reason to stop Liberty has no stopping issues. If it is just to stop then it is as Spock would say “Not Logical” to stop when home is still a good distance away. It’s just a donkey thing… ya jus’ gotta be smarter than the donk! Sure wish I was!

There was no problem harnessing him by myself but the bees in the grass were an issue when unharnessing as he wanted to leave the scene quickly. We'll mow the grass and get rid of that problem or unharness where there is no grass tomorrow morning. Last year I could not lift the team harness on him by myself so was glad that I had no problem with the buggy harness which is a little lighter.

Luc took off with our red neck strap that I had hung on the fence to use when unhitching. He brought it up from the bottom of the pasture in his mouth slinging it from side to side pretty darn proud of himself! I think someone has a jealously issue going on.

Just thought you might like a Liberty update! Hugs,

Kristi
www.teamdonk.org