Amy L. Wink, Ph.D.

amywink September 25th, 2009

This week has been rainy again and we are still thankful even if it delays driving for another day. We are also thankful to have found our farrier, who came out yesterday afternoon and trimmed everyone. It took some doing to find someone good to come out to the boonies and we were, of course, anxious to find someone who would pass muster, given our poor experiences with some farriers. We were more than pleased with Joe Salaman, a UK certified farrier, we found through another barefoot trimmer. All the horses look terrific and seem very pleased with his work. Lisa and I both enjoyed talking with him and learning so much about the work. I always enjoy listening to a skilled craftsman talk about his work and yesterday was no exception. Of course, as he started on Miss B, the rains began again and so no driving after he finished. The sound of rain on the barn’s tin roof was, however, almost equally enjoyable as the sound of horse’s hooves trotting down the road. We are still in drought but the steady light rains are making a dent.

Since the rains have started up and the weather has cooled down, I have gotten back to my cart rebuilding project. I had to put it aside this summer because the heat was so bad, it started to warp the wood I had varnished outside!! I still have the underside of my shafts to varnish and the underside of the shaft stabilizer. Of course, now that it’s raining, I can’t do that yet either. This week, I got back to painting my bolts brown and touching up the metal pieces for the seat platform. I’ve gotten one seat upholstered, except for the trim around the bottom, and we’ll be working on the driver’s seat shortly.

This morning, I scraped the dripped varnish off the dash with a razor and reapplied new varnish to smooth out the flaws. Once the seats are completed, I intend to put the dash assembly together, with the crossbar and the swingletree. I have the materials to create the trim pieces–the same marine vinyl I have for the seats and I think I have decided to make the loops from a set of synthetic reins I do not use. We’ll see if I stick to that decision on further reflection.

The varnishing and painting of the cart’s body is mostly complete aside from what I mentioned above and a few carriage bolt heads and corresponding nuts (which I am still considering how/when to paint) so the next Major Step are the wheels, which have been in my garage since last Christmas. I will be sanding and staining and painting the trim on those sometime this fall, as well as painting the axle and springs. I was very pleased this week to discover I could order “Spring Blocks” from Iowa Valley Carriage to replace the split ones I pulled off the cart.

It’s been a great adventure, this cart, and I’m surprised by my interest in re-doing it and excited by what I’ve learned about the mechanics of it. As usual, Tom O’Carroll taught me a great deal about cart structure every time he looked at a cart and I have started to look at other carts with an eye to how they are put together. I have made a couple of changes to my cart as I have progressed after I noticed other designs that proved more durable and structurally sound. The true test, of course, will be what happens when we get it all back together–and perhaps “can we get it all back together!”

Here are a few photos of the cart before and during the rebuilding process. I’ve chosen Minwax Woodstain “Gunstock” and Cabot Gloss Spar Varnish (as per the recommendations everywhere) for the durable finish. The ironwork paint is Rustoleum Leather Brown. I suppose I should say that I bought this cart for $250 and proceeded to put about $600 and my own labor hours into the project to create what I hope will be a smashing presentation vehicle.

BEFORE:

DURING

I ended up replacing the seats entirely, rebuilding with new wood, reusing the brackets and oak pieces underneath, and the dash (because of the giant crack). The shafts were also replaced and the wheels because of their size. I did refinish the fenders and the floor, replacing only a couple of missing pieces, and the spares box under the driver’s seat. I also changed the dash brackets so the dash is attached to the front, with the metal on the “inside”. Now the dash and the seat backs have the same curve.

The metal bits are now brown, after sanding and filing with a Dremel:

Now, this isn’t going to be an ordinary Meadowbrook cart but a Custom Meadowbrook cart, complete with a Custom Painted Design created by my mother, Winifred Wink. We were inspired by the idea of adding flames to carriages but wanted something that tied Will’s name (Frisco Creek Red Ranger, aka Will Scarlet) to his carriage. This is what we came up with.

Check out the fenders, the spares box, and the dash and seatbacks.

I also solved a problem on the seat bottoms and the seat backs with the delightful, and design-suitable Acorn Nut:

I still have work to do so the “After” shots will come later, upon assembly I think, but we’ve certainly come a long way since with our original cart! And, I think this is fairly good work for an English Major!

• creativity , Carriage Driving , cart building
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amywink September 21st, 2009

I spent my morning today in an “hands-on” workshop learning how to use the education software known as “Blackboard”. It’s not really very difficult if you are able to read instructions and click “okay” as needed. And I think it will be very helpful for my students when I get everything set up for my classes. It’s the kind of hands-on work I do every day, sitting at the computer, brain in charge, type-ity-type-type, click-ity-click-click.

After my workshop, I met up with a longtime friend, a fellow Southwestern graduate and colleague at Austin Community College, for lunch. We ran into, almost literally, each other last week, rounding a corner near the elevator, both of us rushing to get somewhere else. Over e-mail later, I sent him my blog and he sent me his and we entertained each other with our obsessions: carriage driving and knitting.

Who would have guessed?

These new hobbies befell us both about the same time, the magical age of 39, though I think it took longer for me to move my theory into practice. After reading his blog, Knitting Sweaters and Sitting Still, I looked forward to our lunch together and a discussion of how we’d both learned our “hands-on” hobbies.

I have a great deal of respect for what’s required in hand work like knitting, crochet, tatting, and lacework. I once tried to learn how to crochet. Dis-Mal Fail-Ure. My hands refused the instructions. I might as well have been trying to work with oven mitts on my hands. But I do collect antique linens–doilies, table linens, etc, etc–and have written about the appreciation I have for the hand-created items of our history. I have friends whose skill at this type handiwork is astounding to me but it is not work for my hands.

Or perhaps, I did not want to learn it enough. Because my hands have learned new work, without pen, without computer.

When I came to driving, I had long since decided I was not a very good “physical learner”. I had spent years in intellectual work, knowing my aptitude for physical dexterity was limited–though now I think that really just something I was telling myself because I couldn’t do it perfectly the first time. Perhaps knitting was something I just wanted to do, but not to actually learn. Driving, on the other hand, I wanted to learn. I wanted to drive and I wanted to drive well (sometimes too well, too soon!). It took my brain a few months to decide that I really did want to learn and perhaps it should open up some new neural pathways and turn those hands “on” instead of letting them flounder alone with the reins. I’m still working on those connections, getting my ‘good hands’ working well with my ‘good brain’.

Steve had similar story and now knits “continental” style, or left-handed, because his right-hand simply refused to learn the ropes–or yarns, I should say! har-har. We had a delightful lunch catching up, talking about our new handiwork and where it’s taking us. It’s the sign of a truly good hobby when it leads you to renew old friendships, find new ones, and head forward into unknown adventures of creation.

• creativity , creative practice , Carriage Driving , Morgan horses
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amywink September 20th, 2009

Winter’s coming according to Will’s coat. Just this week, I noticed more hair on his withers and the little flaxen hairs running down the backs of his forelegs. In other years, he started to grow his winter coat in August but I suppose this year’s record breaking heat helped him hold off until almost October. Today, I could see the coat coming in on his neck, belly and back, especially after his post-drive bath, which he deserved today.

We did another 6K drive today–or 5.7K for Lisa. I’ve added some distance to our drive since we had to do some loops whenever Will began catching up to Windy. He enjoys driving with her but has no trouble leaving her or having her out of sight when we go on ahead. Today he did extremely well again and I found myself much lighter on the reins and getting a better response with less effort. He was very responsive and happy to turn left (YAY!) and drive straight–and my signals to do so are clearly getting much better. Both Lisa and I worked to be lighter this week since Jerry Hess mentioned that some horses can have TMG as a result of drivers holding their reins too strongly but, of course, we wouldn’t be doing that.

Oop! Noooooo.

And of course, we’re not doing that, especially because now we’re thinking about it all the time! Haha.

I’ve been reading my newest Driving Digest and I’m sure Andy Marcoux’s article, “Rein Directions Your Horse Can Follow” has helped. I also recently listened to Jeff Morse’s “Effective Communication with the Driving Horse” which I found extremely helpful. Now I think some of my reading is having an effect on my actual driving.

I also know that the consistent driving that Jerry O’Carroll kept harping on has paid off (you were right, Jerry!!!) and driving Will for several days in a row has helped me learn Will’s mouth as well as reinforce the hand movements I am making. Today, I could feel the lightest movement was all that was necessary for Will to respond and the results were delightful. He eased into a trot, turned left, turned right, slowed to a walk with nary an evasive move. We’re still working on the steady trot–he does a little head tossing when I ask– but we’re getting there and today his trot was more steady than not, with only a few hints of the turbo-charge that’s waiting there for whenever we need it.

We’ve been at Lisa’s about 6 weeks now and I think Will is very very happy in his new place. Today he did his “I’m a Morgan” pose before we drove and Lisa says he does it all the time. I think it’s because he knows it’s cute and might get him a nice cookie or two.

And, of course, it usually does.

• nature , Carriage Driving , Morgan horses
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