[drivingpairs] Hello

Hello All,

I've been getting the list for a couple of 
months and have enjoyed the comments.  We are 
 from Texas have but have live in Florida for the 
last 5 years . I used to ride Hunter/Jumpers and 
3-day event, so when age and injury caught up 
with me we stared looking at driving CDEs.  We 
have been showing our Welsh Cob/Thoroughbreds 
crosses as single horses in Pleasure 
and CDE for a couple of years. We put them 
together as a pair for the first time the 
weekend before Christmas this year.  The boys 
went to their first CDE as a pair Jan. 17th 
at the Treasure Cost Event 
(www.thecarriagehouse.com/CDE2003.htm) near Ft. 
Pierce FL.  My wife and I have had fun driving 
singles but there is no question pairs are a 
real kick.

We started our CDE driving with a use 
single/pair vehicle, we extended the navigators 
step, rebuilt the brakes, added seats over the 
back wheels and guards to keep posts from 
getting caught inside the back wheels.  I am a 
firm believer in making sure that the equipment 
is well maintained and in working order.  Sunday 
morning we were at a local park that has trails 
setup for horses and carriages. We have the 
Black Prong CDE coming up and we like working 
the horses on these trails to get ready for the 
marathon.  My wife was navigator on a friends 
single horse carriages and another friend was on 
the back of our carriage.  We can to a creek 
with a steep bank and the singe carriage slowed 
to a walk, my younger horse started to act-up.  
They ended up swinging around as far as they 
could to the left.  I pull them back around with 
out to much trouble and started to go on though 
the creek.  I quickly checked the harness and 
pole to make sure nothing was tangles, nothing 
was tangled but the pole had bend in it where it 
when into the socket at the splinter bar.  As we 
crossed the bank the pole broke and back hit the 
ground, I stopped the boys and hit breaks and 
called to my wife =93 I have no pole, and no 
steering.  The breaks just went out=94.  The Horse 
& Carriage Gods were smiling on me, the boys 
stopped but were jumpy, the carriage rolled up 
against a tree and did not hit them in the back 
legs.  Erika came back and headed the boys, Greg 
and I un-hitched (quick release shackles are 
great) them and we moved them forward away from 
the carriage.
At this point I started breathing again!! It was 
time to looked at what we had; a 675 pound 3 
miles from the truck; a metal pole that had the 
back 6 inched broken off.  We pulled out the 
spare parts kit to see what we could do.  We 
pull the broken section out the socket, used the 
hammer to beat the pole so that it could go back 
in the socket. Duck taped the pole so it could 
not slide out the socket. Shorten the traces one 
hole and put the boys to. We made sure that the 
traces were short enough that the boys were not 
pulling on the pole and drove back to the 
parking lot.  The trail is a loop so we did not 
have to cross the creek again. We drove back 
with no problem from the carriage or horses.

Lessons learned:
1)=09Make sure that your horses are well 
trained and quite.  If something goes wrong you 
want them to listen to you and weight for you to 
get them out of trouble.
2)=09Make sure that your carriage is well 
maintained.
3)=09The spars parts list in the ADS rulebook 
is a good start but add a few extras and always 
take it with you.
4)=09The marathon vehicle that we have has a 
pole made from square stock.  It has been 
reinforced for Black Prong this weekend.  The 
pole and splinter bar assembly will be replaced 
with heaver gage round stock as soon as I can 
fabricate one.
5)=09Remain calm Talk to your horse and help 
in a calm and reasonable voice.  If you are 
calm, you can keep you horse calm and out of 
trouble.
6)=09Taking your time training and not 
rushing the groundwork will help when something 
happens that is beyond your control.




John Porter & Erika Matulich
CYPRESS KEEP 
www.cypresskeep.com
4909 Stanley Road
Plant City, FL 33565
(813) 982-2200 (H)
(813) 495-0070 (M)
(813) 982-9709 (fax)
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