Post by shiatsudales on Jan 7, 2007 15:07:58 GMT -1
Firstly a HUGE thank-you to Simon and his family. They are incredibly egnerous with their time (and yummy soup!) and gave up a whole day to show SO and I the chariot and their ponies and training methods. They were even understanding when we arrived rather unfashionably late.
We played around and took Henry for a drive and then Simon showed us some of the preliminary training work he's doing with his larger pony so she can also go out in the chariot. I really like his gentle and gradual approach and the way he breaks his training down step by step so the pony has time to become used to everything one thing at a time and is not worried or hurried in any way.
I've put a set of pictures with extensive descriptions up on Flickr. Hopefully this link will take you to the first picture, you can then scroll through them in order by just clicking on the small, right hand picture to the right of the main picture on show.
Edited to say I think you have to cut and paste the whole URL as clicking on it doesn't seem to work. Thanks for the heads up Zelda.
www.flickr.com/photos/81276269@N00/348899994/in/set-72157594464820085/
I'm still not sure what we're going to do for Rose. I can actually see me ending up not driving at all and just riding as I like the look of the chariot for reasons given below and I honestly can't see why people say it's so unsafe. SO agrees with me, he's looking with an engineers/inventers eye and as someone who has good husbandry skills but who doesn't ride. The fact that I can't see why it's so unsafe makes me think I wouldn't be safe doing tradtiional driving either as I'd not be competent to harness up and drive safely or well, hence doing neither.
Traditional driving seems out for me as I won't have anyone to come out with me, in 12 years of living here I've never found anyone who would ride or cycle out with me and I can't see it being any different for driving either. I find getting in and out of carriages difficult which makes it even more dangerous for me. Most of my tracks that I could drive on have ridden horse bridle gates so I coudn't get an exercise vehicle through, I want to use Rose to harrow the fields and bring logs up from the woods so would need a proper collar rather than a chest collar. Trying to buy a working collar is almost impossible and incredibly expensive, way above the general 'start up' package deal costs.
The chariot means I could go out on my own or with SO on his bicycle. He won't get in a traditional carriage as he considers it even more dangerous than riding. He did have a go on the chariot though without much prompting. From an engineering and mechanical movement and balance veiwpoint he prefers the chariot.
The chariot is a compromise over working harness and proper harrows and a cart but I can[/] use it for harrowing and bringing logs up from the wood. There's no way I'd get a normal cart into the woods as there's too many fallen and tightly spaced trees.
The chariot will fit through our bridle gates so I can go out on around 20 miles of tracks for the few months they are open each winter and I can round fields and into tracks and places that even a narrow carriage can't.
I still feel I don't know enough about either though to make a firm decision. I'd really welcome some input from you guys.
I can see how the chariot seems wierd to people but I took all the objections that have been rasied here and elsewhere when I went to visit and Simon very kindly spent hours talking them all through with me and showing me how the chariot works.
I think it's just a very different system and the reasons you would buy a chariot are different to the reasons you'd buy a traditional carriage. I think the people who would buy one wouldn't have a use for the other.
The price seems comparable with the price of a start up package from the traditional driving companies but with a working collar rather than a breast harness.
Any comments and opinions most welcome. I've also arranged for Simon to visit up here (south Lanrkshire) on Saturday January 27th, and will put a seperate post into the events board.
We played around and took Henry for a drive and then Simon showed us some of the preliminary training work he's doing with his larger pony so she can also go out in the chariot. I really like his gentle and gradual approach and the way he breaks his training down step by step so the pony has time to become used to everything one thing at a time and is not worried or hurried in any way.
I've put a set of pictures with extensive descriptions up on Flickr. Hopefully this link will take you to the first picture, you can then scroll through them in order by just clicking on the small, right hand picture to the right of the main picture on show.
Edited to say I think you have to cut and paste the whole URL as clicking on it doesn't seem to work. Thanks for the heads up Zelda.
www.flickr.com/photos/81276269@N00/348899994/in/set-72157594464820085/
I'm still not sure what we're going to do for Rose. I can actually see me ending up not driving at all and just riding as I like the look of the chariot for reasons given below and I honestly can't see why people say it's so unsafe. SO agrees with me, he's looking with an engineers/inventers eye and as someone who has good husbandry skills but who doesn't ride. The fact that I can't see why it's so unsafe makes me think I wouldn't be safe doing tradtiional driving either as I'd not be competent to harness up and drive safely or well, hence doing neither.
Traditional driving seems out for me as I won't have anyone to come out with me, in 12 years of living here I've never found anyone who would ride or cycle out with me and I can't see it being any different for driving either. I find getting in and out of carriages difficult which makes it even more dangerous for me. Most of my tracks that I could drive on have ridden horse bridle gates so I coudn't get an exercise vehicle through, I want to use Rose to harrow the fields and bring logs up from the woods so would need a proper collar rather than a chest collar. Trying to buy a working collar is almost impossible and incredibly expensive, way above the general 'start up' package deal costs.
The chariot means I could go out on my own or with SO on his bicycle. He won't get in a traditional carriage as he considers it even more dangerous than riding. He did have a go on the chariot though without much prompting. From an engineering and mechanical movement and balance veiwpoint he prefers the chariot.
The chariot is a compromise over working harness and proper harrows and a cart but I can[/] use it for harrowing and bringing logs up from the wood. There's no way I'd get a normal cart into the woods as there's too many fallen and tightly spaced trees.
The chariot will fit through our bridle gates so I can go out on around 20 miles of tracks for the few months they are open each winter and I can round fields and into tracks and places that even a narrow carriage can't.
I still feel I don't know enough about either though to make a firm decision. I'd really welcome some input from you guys.
I can see how the chariot seems wierd to people but I took all the objections that have been rasied here and elsewhere when I went to visit and Simon very kindly spent hours talking them all through with me and showing me how the chariot works.
I think it's just a very different system and the reasons you would buy a chariot are different to the reasons you'd buy a traditional carriage. I think the people who would buy one wouldn't have a use for the other.
The price seems comparable with the price of a start up package from the traditional driving companies but with a working collar rather than a breast harness.
Any comments and opinions most welcome. I've also arranged for Simon to visit up here (south Lanrkshire) on Saturday January 27th, and will put a seperate post into the events board.
