Cob Jockey

I was - in a word - nervous about driving Disco at The National Drive.

I mean, I'm nervous about driving in general still, and I had never driven him outside of our indoor arena. Nevermind that Maude trail drove him all over the place and also showed him in driving off the property. 

I decided I was only going to drive with an instructor present, and I also decided that I would make my mandatory safety check part of my first lesson.

The pro photographer didn't get any pictures of my drives, but did get this one of us. Fun fact, he had not been groomed in days here, that glow is just his coat. Photo by Mark Jump Photography

No matter if you've been to the Drive zero times or fifty times, the first time you take your horse and cart out, you have to drive over to the mandatory safety check and be inspected. Driving people take safety verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry seriously. 

At the safety check, they make sure you can control your horse in public and that there's nothing unsafe about your setup - they look for straps that look like they might be about to break, cart in need of repair, harness put on incorrectly, that kind of thing. Once you pass, they put a green band on your cart to show that you've passed the safety check, and it stays on your cart the rest of the weekend.

Driving over to safety check with my emotional support instructor. Thanks to Mary for all the rest of the photos and video!

After I passed my safety check, my instructor gave me the choice: indoor arena, or outdoor arena? We drive in the indoor all the time at home, so outdoor sounded scarier, which is why I chose it.

Disco didn't let me down. There was a lot to see and do and feel as we walked across the complex to the outdoor, and my #slugmode pony was distracted, up and forward. By the time we got to the arena, I was struggling to keep him at a walk, which had my nerves maxed out: I was braced hard against the floorboard and pulling hard against him, trying to keep him under control. I'd honestly never gotten a chance to work with him in a mindset like that before, since he's always so chill at home.

This is pretty much what we looked like for 30 straight minutes

For the next half hour, Joanna did a masterful job of talking me through it, alternating between giving me tips and telling funny stories through the headset, I knew, just to distract me from my nerves. All the while Disco was screaming, counterbending and trying to trot.

"This is just baby stallion stuff," she said. "This is a big atmosphere for him, lots to see. He's trying to call to the other horses, there's no sense in disciplining him for any of it, we just need to be patient and give him reasons to focus on us." I mean, to be entirely fair and 100% accurate, he was still not even four years old during this adventure!

Disco got introduced to Mary's show grooming intensity

After what felt like an eternity, I finally felt him come down enough that we could move on in the lesson. We worked on basic steering, with four sets of cones set out on a circle, which I am not at all ashamed to say I ran over multiple times. 

"So right now, he's kind of doing whatever he wants generally in the direction you want him to go, but you're not really steering him. We're going to work on that."

It was here that I got my biggest lesson of Day 1. She told me to turn my shoulders in the direction I wanted to go.

No joke, the tightest turn I have ever made driving so far.

It was revolutionary. He started going exactly where I wanted him to, and we stopped mauling cones. I realized a couple of things: one, that there are a lot of things that my brain goes "If you're not on his back he can't feel this so it doesn't matter," that I'm probably going to keep discovering like this, and two, uhhhhhhhhhhh pretty sure my turning aids in the saddle are also dysfunctional (more on that later).

Brain cell, reinstalled

That was supposed to be my one and only lesson of the drive, but as we walked back to the barn, I knew I couldn't end on that one, not when we had only just started to make real progress in both my nerves and actually learning something right at the end. So I quickly did some mental math on how to cram one more lesson in before I had to leave for my Rolex Land Rover Cosequin Kentucky 5* tailgate prep, and got up bright and early the next day...

30 minutes from my house, twice a year every year, there's an event called The National Drive.

(You know, the thing I crashed last fall. Although it occurs to me now that I'm not sure I wrote about that experience...)

My first time on a cart of any kind, being pulled by the WPCSA co-Welsh of the Year for 2024. Photo by Mark Jump Photography.

It's an educational driving jamboree billed as "Disneyland for driving". People come from all around the country for it, and there are private lesson opportunities, educational seminars, trail driving, games, a tack swap, and the full complement of Hoosier Horse Park CDE obstacles to play on.

Me in the red hat taking a seminar on cones courses - how they're judged in a show, how to walk a cones course, and also how best to use cones in your training at home. Photo by Mark Jump Photography.

I waffled hard on signing up, but in the end, I sent in my entry. If I really want to learn more about driving, why on earth would I pass up an opportunity to take him off the property to a show complex (but not a show) for private lessons so close to home? Especially when one of the Welsh ladies I've shown with for years was one of the featured clinicians? And when IVC Carriage (tack shop) would be there and could help me with some harness fit problems I was having?

I am SO glad I did.

It ended up being an incredible opportunity for us both. I learned how he behaves in a "show" environment, and I got my harness situation all squared away and my rig inspected by multiple driving professionals. And best of all, I got two private lessons that were just what I needed.

I also, randomly, got to weigh him. They had a livestock scale set up. He's 950lbs already!

But let's start with the shopping, shall we?

On the first day, I walked Disco over to IVC Tack with his driving bridle on and just said "Help." The noseband has never fit quite right, and there were extra straps on the bridle of mysterious origin. Myrna took one look at it and said "You're missing noseband hangers, we'll fix you right up." 

Hard to see here in this photo from November, but the noseband passed through these little cuffs that attached to the cheekpieces, which, when I put a driving bit on the bridle, didn't work at all and caused the noseband to be way too high.

$10 later, I had a set of biothane ones and instructions to take a seam ripper to those weird extra straps that had been added at some point, and the bridle fit perfectly. 

I also bought a quilted harness storage/travel bag, and a gel saddle pad, which I will school in but not show in (scout's honor).

Unrelated - I was THRILLED to see they've redone entire barns over the winter at the HHP. Sometimes it still amazes me that this facility exists so close to me, and I'm always worried they'll close it, so it's nice to see them putting money into it.

That was all the shopping I intended to do, but two more times in the next 24 hours I would walk into IVC and tell Myrna "I'm on a mission from Joanna." Joanna is a Welsh world acquaintance who is also one of the best driving instructors in the country. She was one of the featured clinicians for the spring Drive, which meant I could sign up for lessons with her. And I did.

She's awesome.

After my first lesson, Joanna said "I bet your hands are tired". They were. "You need to go to IVC and try out different reins and see what you like. You don't have to necessarily buy them there, but you need to get a feel for what you like in person. I bet you don't ride with thick heavy leather reins like you've got there, do you? The right reins really make a difference driving too."

And that's how I ended up with a pair of synthetic reins with integrated rubber stops, sort of like my PS of Sweden reins. Wouldn't you know - they made such a massive difference the next day. Like, angels singing. And far fewer incidents of Joanna telling me I'd let the reins slip too long again.

They have longer stops than my riding reins, and the stop notched perfectly into my hand in a way that made it very obvious when the reins started to slip. Also - it's apparently normal and standard to drive in a black harness with brown reins.

After my second lesson, Joanna said "You need to go to IVC and get a gullet strap for that bridle." I had never heard of a gullet strap, and had assumed that the throatlatch was enough to keep the bridle on, so I asked Myrna about it as she was once again swiping my credit card.

Photo from IVC's website

"The throatlatch isn't enough on a driving bridle because the weight of the blinkers pulls the bridle forward and makes it easier to slip off," she said. And she proceeded to tell me a nightmare story about a horrible wreck that occurred at The Drive several years ago when the bridle slipped off a horse who proceeded to spook and run around the complex and ultimately sent both the driver and the clinician to the hospital. "We had a run on gullet straps after that, every single person there suddenly wanted them," she said.

Noted, I will never drive without one again.

With that, my setup is completely squared away and blessed by the pros. Well, except for that seat bolster I need... #shortpeopleproblems