So today the sun was shining, all was looking good to go for a drive. I was getting excited againg about going out.
Horse was harnessed up, tyres pumped up (after all the worry about how much psi, we noticed it on the side of the tyre
) put to the carriage and off we went.
Walking out on the farm tracks the carriage was going fine and looking good but something felt 'off' couldn't put my finger on it. Got the roads and we could feel how much better the carriage was travelling but again something didn't feel great. After going on the road for a while I misjudged a distance and the side of the carriage went down into a deep pot hole, but all was fine. After this pot hole though there is a very very tight blind bend with a cattle grid and the lane is only wide enough for one car, so we usually navigate this by having the groom (who is wearing Hi-Vis) run up ahead to stop traffic whilst we cross the road to get to the gate which is on the right hand side of the road.
As we crossed the road there was about 5 cars behind me who suddenly had enough at waiting and tried to cut us up
he missed my horses muzzle by a flipping whisker, but fortunately the horse didn't do anything other that lift his head sharply (my daughter has learnt a new bad word) and crossed the road to get into the layby where the gate was already open by the groom, just as I was going through the gate my brakes seem to come on by themselves and the one of the back wheels started to drag as it was locked in position. I walked my horse forward a bit to the end of the layby and it seemed to free itself, we kept an eye on it but as we got further on the road it seemed quite jerky and like the brakes were still catching on one of the wheels, then just as we got on the main road and I asked my horse for a trot then my other hind wheel started to catch and drag ever so slightly as well ! It dragged only once or twice and was still moving around but there was absolutely no room to pull over for at least 500 yards and this was a very busy road, so my horse was having to work extra hard pulling a carriage that had a brake partially on (god knows what triggered it) until we got to a driveway where we pulled in and tried to sort it out, horse was huffing and puffing but typically as the groom got to his head and I started to climb down to investigate someone wanted to go onto the track we had pulled into We had planned on going out for about 6 miles today but with the hind brakes being sticky we had to turn around and head back. I put the hand brake on and off several times and pumped the back brakes (I have two pedals for the brakes) and this seemed to free it slightly as when we walked off the carriage was moving a lot more freely, we limped slowly home only for the brakes to get sticky again 1/4 of a mile away from home :angry:
Fortunately they freed themselves with a bit of pumping on the pedal and the rest of the way home was slow but ok, I felt so bad for my horse though as this was only his 3rd outing in the last week but he would have had to work very hard trotting along like that, I thought his trot was very slow and sticky
Off to find a mechanic to give it an overhaul !
Horse was harnessed up, tyres pumped up (after all the worry about how much psi, we noticed it on the side of the tyre
) put to the carriage and off we went. Walking out on the farm tracks the carriage was going fine and looking good but something felt 'off' couldn't put my finger on it. Got the roads and we could feel how much better the carriage was travelling but again something didn't feel great. After going on the road for a while I misjudged a distance and the side of the carriage went down into a deep pot hole, but all was fine. After this pot hole though there is a very very tight blind bend with a cattle grid and the lane is only wide enough for one car, so we usually navigate this by having the groom (who is wearing Hi-Vis) run up ahead to stop traffic whilst we cross the road to get to the gate which is on the right hand side of the road.
As we crossed the road there was about 5 cars behind me who suddenly had enough at waiting and tried to cut us up
he missed my horses muzzle by a flipping whisker, but fortunately the horse didn't do anything other that lift his head sharply (my daughter has learnt a new bad word) and crossed the road to get into the layby where the gate was already open by the groom, just as I was going through the gate my brakes seem to come on by themselves and the one of the back wheels started to drag as it was locked in position. I walked my horse forward a bit to the end of the layby and it seemed to free itself, we kept an eye on it but as we got further on the road it seemed quite jerky and like the brakes were still catching on one of the wheels, then just as we got on the main road and I asked my horse for a trot then my other hind wheel started to catch and drag ever so slightly as well ! It dragged only once or twice and was still moving around but there was absolutely no room to pull over for at least 500 yards and this was a very busy road, so my horse was having to work extra hard pulling a carriage that had a brake partially on (god knows what triggered it) until we got to a driveway where we pulled in and tried to sort it out, horse was huffing and puffing but typically as the groom got to his head and I started to climb down to investigate someone wanted to go onto the track we had pulled into We had planned on going out for about 6 miles today but with the hind brakes being sticky we had to turn around and head back. I put the hand brake on and off several times and pumped the back brakes (I have two pedals for the brakes) and this seemed to free it slightly as when we walked off the carriage was moving a lot more freely, we limped slowly home only for the brakes to get sticky again 1/4 of a mile away from home :angry: Fortunately they freed themselves with a bit of pumping on the pedal and the rest of the way home was slow but ok, I felt so bad for my horse though as this was only his 3rd outing in the last week but he would have had to work very hard trotting along like that, I thought his trot was very slow and sticky
Off to find a mechanic to give it an overhaul !
