[drivingpairs] Re: hardy being hard

I didn't take any offense to Hardy's comments because I understand Hardy's 
concern for my animals and me.

Since he doesn't know me, my animals or my situation he is allowed to assume 
the worse but I agree that asking more questions is better than jumping down 
anyone's throat.

Allow me to explain myself a little better.  I have lots of horse training 
experience but it's all riding and not driving.  I live in an area where the 
most sought after *experienced* trainer BEATS and KICKS his horses into 
standing still if they even move an inch.  Sorry but I made the mistake of 
attending ONE of his clinics and I will never do so again.  I refuse to treat 
my animals in this manner and I don't care how successful a trainer he is.

I would rather learn from books and this list before I would attend a local 
clinic again.  Better clinics are 5 to 7 hours drive from me and while I'll do 
my best to attend some of those it's very expensive and time consuming so I 
have to be somewhat frugal about it.

Hardy is not wrong in suggesting that I learn alot before I ever handle my 
horses and that is exactly what I plan to do BUT I would rather learn alone 
from books than learn from the guy who beats his animals.  AND there is NO WAY 
I would send my animals to him for training.  Mules CANNOT be beat into 
submission and horses SHOULD not be.  I'm a very careful person and train my 
animals slowly and carefully (I've never had a young horse buck on me yet and 
when I put my mare (don't have her anymore)into a harness a long time ago she 
just looked at me as if it was old hat because I took it all so slow and 
careful)

I do not plan on trying any of my animals in a team until they are all working 
well as singles and I certainly do not plan on trying anything resembling 
tandem until I'm much more experienced.  One misunderstanding from Hardy is my 
question about trails being narrower for tandem.  I did not mean for the tandem 
team to pull a cart on a narrower trail.  I meant could the tandem team pulling 
logs, log a narrower trail?  I would like to log some trails strictly for 
walking and riding and some narrower trails would be nice instead of all the 
trails being wide enough for carts.  Typically a team, side by side, makes a 
wider trail simply because they are wider themselves.  What I don't know about 
tandem is whether or not the animal in lead is doing as much work as the one in 
wheel? (I don't know if a tandem hook up prevents the lead from pulling as much 
as the wheel) I also don't know if they need as much turning room due to the 
length of lines?  Needing lots of turning room would still mean they would log 
a wider trail?  Does that make more sense?

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I appreciate *all* the comments because it 
does mean people care.  I'm a tough enough soul to read between the lines and 
see that, so keep it coming.

Cindy









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