My Early Days with Friesians, p2
Outfitting The Team
During our earlier visits, we had looked over quite a few magazines and a book or two from the Netherlands. We were able to get a picture of what he wanted to accomplish driving-wise. In the picture there were lots of people in costumes driving what I thought were the gaudiest carriages I had ever seen, the Friesian sjees (pronounced "shay").
Also, we had a picture of six Friesian horses in Friesian harness, white breast plates, rope traces and lines, hitched to a landau, with a driver and footman in livery. Later, Frank and I found our way to an auction that sold those sorts of vehicles and brought one home. Frank also had the harness made and delivered from Friesland. All that was left was for me to get those six horses whipped into shape and ready to do a fancy job of pulling that landau.
The Team
We started with five mares and one stallion: Hanske, Jelske, Hesje, Lyceltsje, Linie and Laes. At home, Frank kept them all in the pasture together; Laes bred the mares when they were ready and behaved appropriately the rest of the time. The mares were all settled when they arrived at my Dad's. So consequently Laes always behaved like a gentleman, even when he was at the hitching rack in the middle of five mares.
We began matching them up two by two and then combinations of four. Finally, we had a six-up hitch. Laes and Linie were strong steady wheelers, Lyceltje and Hesje did a good job as the swing team. And never — before or since — have I driven a better pair of leaders than Hanske and Jelske.
In later years when talking about what it was like to drive a Friesian, I often would begin with, "You know how some dogs are just born to retrieve a bird and some dogs are born to follow a cow. Well, sort of like that…" Friesians are born to pull a carriage. During those first few months it quickly became apparent that as horsemen, we were very fortunate.
Word Gets Out
After getting the horses back to Frank's, I stopped by regularly to keep the team working together. More and more, interested people started dropping in. We got a few newspaper articles, like Local Dairyman Imports Horses From His Homeland, accompanied by a picture of Frank holding a horse in each hand. That brought a big smile.
Then came the first big event. Somehow a trail led from somebody who stopped in at the farm all the way to Sacramento — we were asked to carry Miss California in the daily parade at the State Fair. We were, of course, excited.
Immediately we started making the arrangements to get the huge amount of equipment and horses to Sacramento. It's never an easy venture trucking that sort of operation down the road. Even harder when you have never been anywhere, nor seen an example of how it was done. I had driven horses in every combination imaginable, but had never packed up the whole business and set out for a month-long road trip. It was a huge undertaking and Frank's "can-do" attitude was what made it happen…
During our earlier visits, we had looked over quite a few magazines and a book or two from the Netherlands. We were able to get a picture of what he wanted to accomplish driving-wise. In the picture there were lots of people in costumes driving what I thought were the gaudiest carriages I had ever seen, the Friesian sjees (pronounced "shay").
Also, we had a picture of six Friesian horses in Friesian harness, white breast plates, rope traces and lines, hitched to a landau, with a driver and footman in livery. Later, Frank and I found our way to an auction that sold those sorts of vehicles and brought one home. Frank also had the harness made and delivered from Friesland. All that was left was for me to get those six horses whipped into shape and ready to do a fancy job of pulling that landau.
The Team
We started with five mares and one stallion: Hanske, Jelske, Hesje, Lyceltsje, Linie and Laes. At home, Frank kept them all in the pasture together; Laes bred the mares when they were ready and behaved appropriately the rest of the time. The mares were all settled when they arrived at my Dad's. So consequently Laes always behaved like a gentleman, even when he was at the hitching rack in the middle of five mares.
We began matching them up two by two and then combinations of four. Finally, we had a six-up hitch. Laes and Linie were strong steady wheelers, Lyceltje and Hesje did a good job as the swing team. And never — before or since — have I driven a better pair of leaders than Hanske and Jelske.
In later years when talking about what it was like to drive a Friesian, I often would begin with, "You know how some dogs are just born to retrieve a bird and some dogs are born to follow a cow. Well, sort of like that…" Friesians are born to pull a carriage. During those first few months it quickly became apparent that as horsemen, we were very fortunate.
Word Gets Out
After getting the horses back to Frank's, I stopped by regularly to keep the team working together. More and more, interested people started dropping in. We got a few newspaper articles, like Local Dairyman Imports Horses From His Homeland, accompanied by a picture of Frank holding a horse in each hand. That brought a big smile.
Then came the first big event. Somehow a trail led from somebody who stopped in at the farm all the way to Sacramento — we were asked to carry Miss California in the daily parade at the State Fair. We were, of course, excited.
Immediately we started making the arrangements to get the huge amount of equipment and horses to Sacramento. It's never an easy venture trucking that sort of operation down the road. Even harder when you have never been anywhere, nor seen an example of how it was done. I had driven horses in every combination imaginable, but had never packed up the whole business and set out for a month-long road trip. It was a huge undertaking and Frank's "can-do" attitude was what made it happen…
REIN DANCE | www.claymaier.com