Moving from two to four wheels

[heathera]

We haven't been doing much driving recently as Rose has been playing an important role as hacking companion to the youngsters. A few weeks ago though we were given the opportunity to go and try Rose in my friends four wheeler to see how she coped.

The two wheeler hasn't been very comfortable for me with my back problems but the four wheeler was brilliant! I had long reined Rose in her harness a few times the week before and done one session of tyre dragging and she coped brilliantly and didn't bat an eyelid at being put too in a four wheeler at my instructors house where she'd never been before.


If Carlsberg did arenas..... by BeechTree, on Flickr

After we'd played in the arena for a while and done some cones to check steering and brakes we ventured out up the driveway


Climbing the hill to go out for a short road drive by BeechTree, on Flickr

and went for a drive round the village


Heading off into surburbia by BeechTree, on Flickr

Ever since we've been looking for a four wheeler that we can afford. Our budget wasn't huge but my instructor saw an older Bellcrown advertised three weeks ago that needed some TLC as it had been stored for a while without being cleaned first and the brake system had been removed so needed replaced. When we went to view it we found that some of the wheel bearings need re-doing too. All of that is OK for us to do at home, I can do the paintwork and M can do the bearings and brakes.

So it's now sitting in our shed at home.

I'm up and down to see some of the Olympics and sort out some care and health things with elderly parents at the moment so the ponies are all off work but we hope to have all the work done on it by the end of August. We'll then sell our two wheeler and spend the autumn and winter having fun in the four wheeler, if all goes to plan

In the meantime here's the pictures of it when we went to view.


Bellcrown carriage by BeechTree, on Flickr

and testing out the shaft height. The great thing is that the one carriage will do for both Dales girls. Tola will need a longer set of shafts but the current ones have been used with a 13.3hh Fjord so should be perfect for Rose who is also 13.3hh


Bellcrown carriage. by BeechTree, on Flickr

[zeldalithgow]

Excellent looking forward to hearing about your adventures on four wheels

[The Moo]

Wow - fantastic.

I saw a four wheeler at a reasonable price last week and was tempted to get it 'in stock' for later but by the time I had scratched my head it had gone!

Yep - lots of pics of your adventures please.

[harveydales]

Fantastic!

[heathera]

Jul 31, 2012 10:30:58 GMT -1 The Moo said:

I saw a four wheeler at a reasonable price last week and was tempted to get it 'in stock' for later but by the time I had scratched my head it had gone!

This one was advertised on the Wednesday, instructor gave me a kick about it on the Thursday and we went to see it on the Friday afternoon, with the trailer already hitched onto the land Rover It was a 3hr drive to go and view it but they sell like hot cakes if reasonably priced and needing a bit of work.

I doubt we'll be out and about in it before the end of August but I'll definitely load pictures once we are.

[valerie n scout]

Oh Heather that's wonderful I used to drive way back and loved it, all the best X

[heathera]

It's taken a while but the carriage was passed as mechanically sound and safe and we had a few days off last week so we managed to have both the carriage and Rose at my coaches for three lessons as an intensive refresher for us.

We finished the week by driving a course of cones in trot in the arena and stopped only because Rose becoming too excited for me to be confident to handle, she really does love her driving

Here we are for the first time in our own four wheeler with my coach in her large arena.


First time in our own four wheeler by BeechTree, on Flickr

I'd be interested in anyone's feedback about the carriage set up. We found that Rose has such big and swinging shoulder movement that, when we first set the carriage up and went down our first steep hill, the swingle tree gently tapped her on her hocks. It only tapped her three times before I applied the brake to ease the carriage back and we halted and adjusted things but it was a bit scary. I am so glad we spent so much time on doing all manner of daft things in preparation for driving! We extended the shafts by an inch and it didn't happen again but the next issue is that she seems unhappy about the breeching when we canter in the carriage.

The breeching is set so it's a hands width from her haunches. It comes into play when we're going downhill so she can hold the carriage without being tapped by the swingle tree, if I loosen it off this is likely to happen again but she is unhappy about the feel of it in the canter. Could it be that she doesn't canter easily so tends to be strung out when cantering and the breeching is encouraging/forcing her to step under and round up in the canter more? Is there anything you would suggest i do about this?

I don't intend to canter much, if at all, we just did it while in a safe space under the guidance of our coach so it wouldn't be a total and scary shock if she did it out driving on our off road trails but if we ever end up doing cones driving we might need canter as an option.

Here's a couple of little video clips of us doing our first solo drive out on the roads without my instructor as foot soldier. I think M and Rose were pretty chilled and I became more confident as we went on.

First solo drive for M, Rose and I without our instructor as foot soldier. You can hear us agreeing that we're going to try and do a lesson per month over the winter with my driving coach.

youtu.be/cUdexK8sxxA

For anyone interested this is what good, unshod feet sound like in trot on a road.

youtu.be/1tCjwPlDrew

Sorry the videos are just links, I've never managed to successfully embed a video suing the YouTube tags

[valerie n scout]

brilliant, thanks for uploading X