Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Making the most of the sun !

Well considering I started this blog to share my crafting and sewing with you , so far there seems to be a lot of Donkey and Pony content ! I put this down to the fact that our donkey jester is now old enough to start his training to become a driving donkey !! Yes I know exciting isn't it !! And I must make the most of the good weather.
So far Jester has done lots of basic walk and halt training in the field , then lots and lots of traffic training ,we have walked so many miles around the roads meeting everything from bicycles to massive lorries, Jester has always trusted me and kept calm.
Then onto harness training, firstly to get use to having lots of straps all over him then onto teaching him to long rein ( basically driving him in his harness from behind, as if you were in a cart, to get him use to voice and rein commands such as walk, halt, left right etc) then onto pulling a tyre to get use to having some weight pulling on the harness and also to get use to all of the noise the tyre and the future cart will make.
Today Jester pulled a tyre around the roads we walked just over a mile and a half and he was a super star ! The tyre made many different sounds as it went from smooth tarmac to patches of gravel, Jester remained calm even when a huge tractor and trailer passed him.
As things were going well and my husband was around to help, we also put Jester to his cart , with both of us leading him around the paddock, he was nervous to start with but soon enough he relaxed and I had enough confidence in him to have my first ride in his cart whilst my husband led him , I was so excited and proud of Jester.

First Carriage Ride - Exciting !!!!😁
I am enjoying spending so much time outside whilst training Jester it is so rewarding, but as I have fibromyalgia my energy is limited, so my mid day I feel exhausted which means that once I've run around on the school run and after school clubs there is little or no energy for sewing ! But I am squeezing in a little bit here and there, here is a sneaky peek at my latest project ..... All will be revealed next time . I promise 😀 
Thanks for visiting my blog 
Helen x