Working Under Cart

When you have been working diligently for what feels like forever to train a young horse to drive safely and comfortably, finally encountering the above image for the first time is one of the best sights imaginable. It is perhaps one of the only times that a giant horse booty blocking most of your view seems completely resplendent. If you're a driver, you know.

From my perch up here on cloud nine, it still looks as though the cart is a bit too close to Levi's hind end, and although he is over 12" or so from the singletree, I will adjust the shafts forward a couple of inches for comfort and safety. The brilliant aspect of Frey carts is their customizability; I can remove these shafts completely if I need to, and adjust them as needed. To this point, next week, a friend of mine who is a phenomenal professional combined driver and trainer has graciously offered to come visit us and take a critical look at my turnout. The cart balance, harness sizing and attachments, and all other aspects of our setup will be addressed. I am almost giddy over this since it is so rare to have help from a decorated expert I really respect and admire who has lifelong experience driving and training Morgan horses; moreover, this trainer actually competes with Levi's older sister, UVM Tirzah- a beautiful mare who resembles Levi so closely they could be twins. Tirzah is also a talented driving horse, and if her performance is any indication of how Levi might turn out with proper training and care, it is a sign I made the right choice in directing him on this particular career path.

While I was taking measurements of the cart, I also measured Levi again just for fun, because I swear in the last two weeks he has grown. I just adjusted his bridle throat strap and breast collar/traces last week and had to adjust these yet again this week, since his chest and jowls are both wider. It's challenging to find level footing, but the wash bay seemed like the best place to check his growth. He's big for a young Morgan, and getting bigger!

Sam mentioned that the best way to measure a horse's height is on a level surface while he is standing squarely and use the line of his back front leg from knee to elbow as a guide for the measuring stick, keeping the line straight to the withers, and then level it to find the accurate height.  Since Levi is now four years old and most of his growing is complete, I don't anticipate we will ever see him closer to 16 hh (nor does he have the height genetics for this), but he may still grow 1/2" to 1" or so. It's not unheard of for Morgans to continue to grow up to age six. In the meantime he is definitely growing wider, doing both of his parents proud in the barrel roundness department. Maybe we can start to work on becoming a little less round and a little more fit through our arena work in the cart!