First Driving Lesson

As with many of the good horse things in my life, it was through Lisa that I finally met a driving instructor. Lisa's been telling me about her for years, but our paths have never been closer at the moment, since she's about to take Eva on a trial to see if she wants to be a driving pony. I'm tickled that Eva brought both Disco's saddle and a driving instructor into my life.

She lives about a half hour north of me, and while her passion is combined driving, she's led a life full of interesting driving experiences as both a professional and an amateur. Think things like being the trainer for a person that had coaches with footmen, lamps, and full picnic hampers in the back for shows.

She showed up, and when Leah and Deb asked if they could audit, the instructor said "As many people as I can get hooked on driving, so much the better."

 

The first lesson (which ended up lasting 3 hours!) was a lot of equipment stuff. She inspected my cart (perfect size for him, serviceable but does need some work - no surprises), my harness (needs a different noseband and slightly longer traces, but serviceable), and my bit (weirdly the right size, but too narrow at the very top because Disco's face widens so quickly from a tiny little muzzle). 

I was relieved that Maude had steered me correctly in my gear choices so far, even if it's not perfect. Just like riding, I'll start with something that works and upgrade over time, I'm sure.

Ummm pop quiz. Components seen in this photo: breast collar, traces, tugs, saddle, girth, overgirth, shafts.

 

There is. SO MUCH. To remember. Thank goodness I had a professional there. Just getting the harness on and adjusted was an adventure. And she's a stickler, in the best of ways - multiple straps got a hole punched, not because they were too long or short, but because a half hole would make the fit perfect.

Just me, taking pictures of things to remember how they go

Even these little straps broke my brain. You have to like, remember the right direction to wrap these and put them through a little metal bracket on the underside of the shafts, and decide if they need to be wrapped once or twice, which is affected by how straight the horse is standing in the shafts when you hitch up.

 

Disco was as good as you could expect a 3 year old stud colt to be for all of this. A little bored, a little nibbly, but stood in the crossties for the better part of a half hour for all of this fiddling with the harness without any major complaints.

We started with ground driving.

And after a few laps of that, we hooked him up. The instructor said she would normally not go that quickly, but she took me at Maude's word that he was solid.

My first ever "behind the ears" of Disco!

She took the reins for a couple of laps before we switched seats (driver sits on the right!) and she handed them to me. But she kept the whip, which, thank goodness. I had a hard enough time just managing the reins, which she mercifully allowed me to hold like riding reins just to spare my brain the challenge of being without muscle memory in addition to everything else I was trying to learn.

I have to admit, I don't know a damn thing about carts, but the proportion of cart to horse, as well as the balance of the shafts, looks nice.

It was the strangest sensation, to be holding reins, feeling a mouth, but sitting in a seat. I found myself more than once with my heels pressed into the back of the cart, hamstrings active, legs desperate to be doing something since my hands were holding reins.

 

She rides too, and she was able to translate everything into ridden Dressage for me. The outside rein still dictates the size of your circles, just like in riding. Correct contact is just the same in driving as in riding, not too much or too little. Half halts were even similar, with a "square" (both reins) half halt for preparation and general rebalancing, and a right or left half halt to control the shoulders.

 

Changing rein through the middle of the ring, with a halt.

Disco was just wonderful. Not perfect - there were times he didn't want to stand still or would take a step back in a halt, but the instructor was quick to growl at him and use her whip, and every time he took correction well. He is, after all, only three - and the instructor said afterward that he's "well ahead of where he should be for his age." 

I have so much more respect for the drivers I've seen navigate cones courses at speed after this. Steering is HARD, yo!

When we were all done, she helped me learn how to put everything away correctly, including a precise way to fold the reins so that they didn't develop twists over time. "I'm sorry if what I'm telling you feels very picky, these are just the things I've learned over the years," she said. I told her not to apologize for that, that those are the kinds of experiential things you can't learn from a book, that you can only learn from someone who learned them from someone who held them to a high standard, like she did.

I am literally going to have to study and practice this. #slowlearner

Thankfully, she offered to come back for a lesson later this week. I'm looking forward to it already. Who knew I would enjoy driving after being afraid of it for all these years?