Patty's Pony Place

From January of this year - we still have a few days to get another run at this in before the end of 2024. Tank and Tonk are ready - hopefully I am too.

Such a beautiful day today! She just had to take the superhorse for a little Christmas day drive. It has been a very long year this year, but some things have remained totally wonderful - Tonka is one of those things!!

A video from 2019. Never did rig up a breeching, but surely could, which, per the video, would make the system even better for training, and prepping for driving a cart. As the demand for the skijoring systems continues to grow, we will hopefully be doing more instruction style videos to ensure our equipment is used as intended, and to ensure it is not altered in a way that makes it less efficient.

Saw an article that was written in 2020 - it covered, in part, how much weight a mini can pull. It stated that on "smooth terrain a 34 inch 200 pound mini can pull 600 pounds, but on rougher terrain, safely expected to pull 200 pounds". This is a video of our "people hauler" wagon, on runners - weight of about 700 pounds with driver. We have the two black Shetland ponies, and our old Queen hitched to it. How do you think Tonka would do pulling this by himself?

When the snow and cold arrive, it is easy to find something that reminds us of summer. The boys are ready for some tandem skijoring, but alas, all the nice snow that was here, is no longer! It only lasted about a week. Sure there will be more though!

A little Tuesday afternoon entertainment, courtesy Supertonk

The first Cricket since the fire, the order that was almost completed and in the shop when it went down. A very long summer to say the least, with the loss of the building, all the equipment, the materials, and all of the notes regarding every detail of a cart, and more. We remain grateful for all that was not lost though, and to all of the clients that hang in there with us. With that, it was very, very rewarding to be able to complete this cart, and take it for a spin with Tonk.

We are very happy to be sharing the first cart to come out of our extremely humble "new" workshop. We are grateful for the help we have received to create a new beginning, and thank each and every one of you that donated, and cheered us on. In some ways, the night of the fire seems like forever ago, in some ways it seems like just yesterday. It has been a long five months, Patty has continued to sew as much as she can as she works hard to maintain her physical and spiritual health (for lack of a better way to describe it), and I, well, I just keep doing. With that, this is a Firefly - the customer will be fitting their own wheels to the cart, the wheels in the video, we had here, so put them on to drive the cart. Patty, Tonk, and our Tilly, out for a little drive.

Just something to make you smile. He never fails to bring one of those to our faces. Mr. Supertonk

Once in a while, we do get to play a bit. A really good excuse to do so, is our recently acquired, really short, four-legged critter. Tilly is getting the hang of things really well, and she is a travelling dog to be sure. Both Tonk and Tank don't seem to care much about having her along, but that's ok, she doesn't care if they do or not! Fun little girl, miss Tilly.

How time just marches on. We built the first set of these in 2013 - using an existing set of cart shafts, modifying them, and building a mount to attach to an Otter sled. This set was built in 2014, and since that time, well, we have completely lost track of how many of the shaft sets are out there across both Canada and the US, but it is a LOT. The biggest we have built this style for has been 12 hands. That worked, but anything bigger, we were always going to build a steel frame that the sled sat in, shafts hooked to said steel frame. We never did get an order for one that size, and that's ok. We have always promoted the far safer method of sledding being steel shafts, and have never quite seen the logic in simply tying ropes to a harness with everything loose - zero brakes - zero stability in turns. We don't mind anybody doing what they feel safe doing, we just share what we think is the safest.

Gimli update. Though it remains difficult to pinpoint with any sort of exactness - the Berberine is the only thing that has been introduced. First drive in over two years - old Queen has been sound, but her first drive in about the same length of time. Both show their age, but that's ok - they are old!! A truly great pair of horses these two - that also remains.