Buggy Ride!

As I pulled up the lane this evening on my nightly carrot run, I noticed Trouble and Hokey were a bit out of sorts and fussing around in the pasture. Tim's car was by the barn door, so I figured something was up.

Was I right. Tim was pulling out the doctor's buggy he had restored! And he invited me to go for a ride in it! I sure wasn't going to turn that offer down.

Diablo was in the barn, already tacked up, and since Tim was in the process of preparing the buggy, I ran in and got her for him. I held her while he hitched her to it, and then ran back inside and got some reins and helped get those attached to her bridle.

 First, though, he walked her around the buggy to familiarize her with it.

 She was fine! So I ran ahead and opened the gates so Tim could drive her into the north pasture and see how she did.

Tim told me it had been a long time since she'd been driven and he was hoping she'd remember what to do and behave. That made me a little hesitant, but I figured that, horseman that he is, Tim would not give me a ride unless she really was okay. And I was right - Diablo was beautifully behaved!

I used a small step stool to hop in and away we went. Tim told me that some automobile parts are named after buggies - the dash and the trunk, for example, are both parts of a buggy. And I asked about Diablo's training for driving; he has Amish friends who train horses and he sent her to them to teach her the ropes of pulling a buggy.

He even handed me the reins and let me drive her back to the barn and my car. I've never driven a horse before, so that was a fun first for me.

Tim drove off down the lane and came back, then headed over to the house where his daughter, Melanie, and her husband Brandon were waiting for an evening ride. And I drove off in my mechanized buggy.

Which wasn't nearly as fun.