Take MEEEEEE TOOO!!!!!

[Bess]

True story: Two black Morgan mares, mama is 8 yrs old, her “baby” is 6 yrs old. (Dear Abby was right – you CAN get pregnant really really young….) Mama is very forward, baby more laid back. Mama rides, but considered too forward for driving. Baby rides and is learning to drive. Today, she is hitched to a Running Brook cart, driving sweetly down a narrow gravel drive onto a quiet dirt road with an experienced teamster and his student trainee beside him with the reins. Mama is alone back at the barn, running the paddock fence line and hollering. Baby ignores the calls, never answers and just does her job. Likes pulling a cart and driving. I am playing photographer, wanting to get some nice late fall pix, waiting for the cart to return. I am standing at the end of the driveway focusing my camera. Suddenly I notice the absence of calling from the barn up above and I hear a muffled boom-crash and I wonder what is up but can’t see through the brush and trees and don’t want to miss my photo op. I hear the sound of hoofbeats and wheels on gravel up in front of me and I see the trainer, driver and younger horse crest the hill 100 yards in front of me. I focus my camera for some good pix and snap off one, then two, then three digital pix, when a flash of glistening black catches my eye over my left shoulder and I see Mama – no halter – coming down the driveway at a steady trot, her head down -insistent and on a mission. The driver, instructor, and baby see Mama too now and we all wonder if this is going to be a wreck of some kind. The younger mare keeps on coming down the road at steady floating trot and I hold my breath as the boss mare trots up to her baby’s face. She is checking to see if she is all right. The younger mare does not flinch or acknowledge her mother in any way. Just does her job. Mama spins on a dime, lowers her head and starts trotting right beside her harnessed daughter. They are side by side trotting along in front of the carriage. Mama has never driven, but it is as if she is wearing an invisible harness herself – a matched black driving pair. They trot right down the driveway two wheeled cart is pulled up at the paddock fence. Mama then walks off to the side of the barn to look for some grass where she can eat but still see her baby. We unharness the youngster, then get a piece of apple and a rope and Mama walks calmly back into the barn, happy now that her baby is back. A look at the barn and we determine Mama pulled open the exterior stall door with a hoof or her nose or both, then walked through the barn and trotted on down the driveway to find her daughter. And she has made her point – she wants to go too! Guess its time she gets her own harness and some driving lessons.

[Jean]

Where are the pictures? Sounds like someone is going to have a nice team.

[Author]

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