We had a great trip to the KY Horse Park for Carriage Round-up. First off, it marks my having Best for one year! It's hard to believe a whole year has passed (okay, he spent 4 months this winter with my parents but still). Secondly, we drove tandem!
Clay Maier was nice enough to come over on Saturday afternoon to help us drive tandem. Notice Best checking this idea out. He was very good but we have to work on his collection.
While driving tandem (one
horse in front of the other) dates back to the 12th century, it first became
popular as well as sociably way to reach hunts during the mid-1800s. Tandem driving is referred to as an advanced
school of driving and one that is comparable in some ways to driving a
four-in-hand. The horses must be well
trained, especially the lead horse, as there are no shafts to guide him and he
is about 10 feet out from the carriage.
This type of driving is very exciting and beautiful but done incorrectly
can have disastrous results. With this
in mind experts were asked for their assistance. Many thanks to Charlie Poppe for the equipment loan and Jerry & Nancy Bedinghaus for their assistance harnessing. Most of all, thank you to Clay for making this such a positive experience.
You can watch Best bob his head in this clip and almost mess up Draken. Thank goodness nobody shook their head. You'll notice that while Draken's stride is a bit shorter than Best's he is the more forward of the two, that is why he is in front.
Here are the boys as I drive them.
And the final result...
