Rosemary Driving: View from the seat

Rosemary did her 2nd drive down the road today. This time I took the passenger seat since my foot is sore from Roscoe. We had Mom and Larry walking with her on the ground. Rosemary loves Larry so she kept track of where he was at and would not pass him. Made for some slow moments, but it was fun to watch their interaction.
There were about five vehicles that passed by, some going way too fast. Another ATV and shortly after this video there was a woman dragging trash cans. She handled it all great. And she did it all without having a lead line attached.
Peggy let Rosemary trot three times during the drive. This video shows her second trot. She was a bit lazy today and Peggy will probably bring out the driving whip next time. Once she is trotting, it is an awesome feeling. Her downward transitions were prompt, but smooth. When we got to the corner, Peggy had her do the tight turn which makes her push against the shafts. Unfortunately a truck was coming, so she had to stop three quarters of the way through. Rosemary seems to like those turns and is like "Look I can do this." Peggy had her do another tight turn heading back to the arena. Only this time it was a right hand turn. She had to think about it, then executed it so well.
In the arena, Mom took the reins and did her first solo drive, WHOO HOO.
Nothing better than a drive with great weather and friends and a SUPER PONY. So proud of her.

Rosemary Goes on a Field Trip

Well, the trainer canceled and we thought Rosemary would miss another driving session. When my called Peggy to let her know, it turned out that she was able to play. So we brought Rosemary and planned to make an excursion outside the arena.
Mom warmed her up by ground driving her in the arena. Then she ground drove her on the road, while Peggy and I dragged our feet through the gravel. Rosemary wiggled a bit but kept walking. There were garbage cans, mailboxes and a flag, but the only thing she looked at was a darker patch on the road.
Once back in the arena, we set to hooking her to the cart. While we were doing this a bunch of kids came by riding bikes. Rosemary was interested, but stayed still. That all changed when a Bay horse, which she of course thought was Dottie, came walking after the bikes. And as an aside, that horse was a saint. The girl riding bareback had no helmet and no shoes and I do not think she was holding on to anything but the mane as someone else led the horse. Anyway, Rosemary called the other horse answered and she got impatient. Luckily the kids, bikes and horse cleared out so Rosemary could settle.
Peggy started her out in the arena to get her focus back on working. Then she burned some carbon off by letting her trot. When her head was back, we headed out. We went first down this little hill to a dead end in case she got loose it would be into the woods. She handled the hill great managing the weight of the cart while maintaining her stride. You will notice the video is very shaky. Trying to tape and keep up with Rosemary was hard to do.
Peggy had her make the turn and head up the road. Rosemary settled into her ground covering walk and enjoyed the area. Then she went down a bigger hill and made a much tighter turn around to come back up the same hill.

She really has to push against the shafts to make the turn.

Oh and when we got to the top of the hill, a UPS truck came driving by. The driver slowed, but Rosemary did not even bat a eye. Peggy decided it was time to get in. They headed back down the first road to the grass turn around again. This time Peggy let her trot up the hill. Peggy thought about continuing down the road, but decided not to push it since she was being good so she turned into the arena. Rosemary picked up a jaunty trot and cruised around. She came to a nice halt when Peggy asked.
Driving really seems to satisfy Rosemary and she loves all the new aspects. She had not been driven for nearly a month before this exercise and had no major issues.