[drivingpairs] Amish pairs
- From: "Phil and Sharon Myers" <trinmar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 09:58:27 -0400
Yesterday I was over at Pam Schneider's farm. Pam is back in the swing of
things, and she wants to get two of her horses going again. Her older mare
is a saint, and Pam can hitch her to the Doe Run by herself, but the younger
mare had just been hitched a few times by Kurt. We weren't sure exactly how
much driving he had done with her, and as luck would have it, two weeks ago,
Dave Hirsh was coming over, and he spent the afternoon showing Pam how to
adjust her harness for the marathon vehicle, and adjustments for the two
mares. We drove the older mare first, then ground drove Lilly and hitched
her up. She was not only good, she was great! Kurt had put more training
on her than we thought, or she was born to drive! She is a lovely Morgan
mare, and very pretty in harness. Dave is such a good guy, he gave us the
start we needed.
Yesterday I went over to help her hitch Lilly again. Pam isn't confident to
do this by herself, and understandably so. We hitched her up and once again
she proved her Morgan heritage as a driving horse. We were thrilled with
our success!
My drive home is along a route that many Amish and old-order Mennonites
drive on a regular basis. I have encountered two Amishmen driving pairs.
This is very unusual, they almost exclusively drive a single horse. The one
pair is a pair of Haflingers, and the other is a pair of Morgans. The
Morgan pair lives somewhere near me. Yesterday, I was following a string of
cars passing an old,open wagonette with an Amish couple in it. The lady was
looking around nervously, and I thought perhaps she was nervous in an open
vehicle, instead of the usual enclosed buggy. As I got next to the vehicle,
I saw why she was so nervous. They were driving a pair of Standardbreds to
this old wagon (not a cutunder), and the one horse was acting very nervous,
and wanted to trot out. The husband had his hands full! I hope they made
it home safe! If you think about it, the reason many don't drive a pair,
which would get them to town and back much more quickly, is the safety
factor. If one horse bolts....catastrophe! I'm not sure how heavy their
buggies are, but perhaps they have them made heavier for a pair.
As I was coming down another road that is heavily traveled by the Amish, I
saw a pair of light colored mules coming at me. They were pulling a big,
empty hay wagon, and standing on the bed of the wagon were two young boys,
no more than 10 years old, driving the pair. They had no way of bracing
themselves if the mules suddenly stopped, or took off. They were just
standing there, driving the team. Typical youngsters, they were talking and
laughing. There was no fear. This is a busy two lane road! The Amish
never cease to amaze me. They put their children in such danger. I'll bet
those boys were barefoot, too.
So! There is driving, then there is driving! Two different worlds we live
in, huh?
Sharon in PA
_________________________________________________________
To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to:
http://www.drivingpairs.com/index.php?pg=2
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Other related posts:
- » [drivingpairs] Amish pairs
