My Favorite Quote and Tessi's Carriage Driving Lesson

I took Tessi to her weekly carriage driving lesson with Merrie today. Tessi did her first water obstacle - that is to say - she pulled the cart thru a small pond, with wooden pylons around the edges, designed and set up especially for the marathon portion of combined driving events.

It was a landmark moment for Tessi because normally she doesn't even like to step in puddles. Merrie was driving her and I was the passenger-in-training. Merrie circled the pond a couple of times then drove Tessi to the edge of the water and let her look at it. Tessi put her nose down and was soon playing with the water, blowing bubbles. Merrie then encouraged her to walk forward. After a few moments of hesitation she did.

We repeated the exercise a few times, each time encouraging Tessi to trot through the water. The first two or three times she would only cross the water at the walk but the last time she boldly trotted thru. Each time she crossed we praised her lavishly. When she got it right we stopped that exercise and moved on to our regular cart ride through the vineyards.

I forgot to bring my cell phone so I didn't get any photos of the water-crossings. Tessi was pretty excited about her accomplishment. When she got home after the lesson we watched as she told Zazu and Nora that something exciting had happened to her today by racing around the pasture at top speed, leaping and bucking with great exhuberance. Learning new things like this is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical exercise for a young horse such as Tessi.