Driving Twila Merrill

A week or so before Christmas Jay Lankford told me I could bring Twila up for the day and he would check her out for Driving! Well you know I would take him up on that one!
I was sick for over a week before Christmas so Mom and Dad came down for Christmas to my house. A few days after Christmas I felt well enough to take her and Jay had a free day to help me out.
Mom and I cleaned my heavy work harness and I took it as Jay was interested in buying it.
Debbie decided to come along with me for the Twila adventure! I thought this was great since she came with me to go and pick her up and then came on the H. Cooper Black ride adventure too!
We arrived at 10:45 and really got lucky with the weather! It was cold for sure but the wind died down for us!
Jay went right to work and we got Twila harnessed in a nice work harness with a collar but was much lighter because it is made of bio-thane. She looked great in the harness too!

 We took her to his big round pen and he ground drove her around, testing her steering and stopping. Both need some work!  But with each thing he added she handled it so well. She only took a few quick steps when we let the single tree drag on one side so the hames would touch her leg. Then he hooked a tractor tire to her. She stepped right off and pulled the tire. We let her stop and rest and learn to stand still in between. Each time I asked she just stepped right off and went to work.  Jay soon decided we could hook her to his fore cart! I was a little nervous about this part but she once again stepped right off like it was no big deal!  Soon Jay let me drive her around too! I was so excited! Thrilled is more like it!

So before I left Jay and I did some harness trading and I went home with the harness she wore and he had my old double set of harness.  We then went to Jay's tack work shop and she showed us some of his neat saddles and projects!
Debbie and I went shopping at the Saddle Bags Gift Store. Annette opened up shop for us! We each bought a SunBody Western hat. Debbie got her shaped specially by Jay! Debbie found an neat mirror that had been framed with reclaimed wood and had antlers horns for hooks for her bathroom.

When we headed home I could hardly contain myself. I was so excited about how well Twila did driving that day. We have lots of home work, to improve our steering and stopping but she is sure off to a great start!