Fitting the Harness

Once Pearl got her "shoes" on, John, our Amish neighbor asked if DH wanted to hook Pearl up to his hack and take her for her first drive (least her first since we had her). Naturally DH was all over THAT idea, and was really excited about it!  I didn't get as many photo's of the process as I'd have liked, cause I was trying to not get too many with John in them...but least I managed a few!

Hubby went and got the harness out of the barn, while I went to get the two pads that we still had inside, and they preceded to get it on her and fitted correctly. DH said he was so glad John helped the first time, cause he wouldn't have known how tight things should be, not to mention exactly HOW everything went on.


Getting the halter on, is something thats going to take practice, cause getting the bit in Pearl's mouth wasn't as easy as it looks...least not to us who have never done anything like that before. She wasn't real happy with the bit, but who would be happy having something in your mouth like that! LOL John showed DH how to get her to open her mouth, so hopefully he can get the hang of it.


It takes a bit to get the whole harness setup on her, especially the first time since things had to be fitted to her, but they finally had it on and ready to hook her up to the cart. Hopefully DH can remember everything the next time he wants to hook her up to our cart...cause I'm not sure I could do it myself yet! LOL


There is a trick to getting the horse in the cart...who knew! John said they train them so they can lift the shaves (the wooden things that go on each side of the horse) with one hand while hanging onto the horse with the other hand, and the horse then swings their hind end around so it's between the shaves...then the shaves are lowered so they are on each side of the horse. I couldn't get photo's of this process cause there was no way to do it without getting a photo of John's face...so I just watched.

Pearl didn't do it the first time John tried to get her to, after all it's been at least 6 months since she's been hooked up to a cart...so she has to be reminded how to do things. She did however finally remember what she was to do, and we saw her swing her hind end into place. So cool!! So nice to see she remembers what she is to do, and behaves! I told her she was a good girl. LOL

Getting her all hooked up to the cart is a process...certainly not as easy as grabbing your keys and going out to your car and taking off, but...if that's how you have to get around, guess you would get used to having to take extra time to get ready to go.  I'm rather fond of having a car...but this certainly is interesting, and may be fun to take a ride now and then in the country.  DH is certainly excited about it...I'm just waiting to see cause I'm a bit more "chicken" than he is.  LOL

I'll share some photos of them driving tomorrow!