i can not come up with anything inspirational today.... but someone did comment about driving 8 animals.....budweiser style. 

I'm really getting hard pressed for topics today.. but when someone asked me about driving the 8 donkeys and how you steer them I did find the photo of one of their bridles,. i hope it lands in the email

 

so this may be totally boring however I'm stuck... you notice on the bridle for the donkey's that there are no blinders or little square things covering their eyes....which prevent the animal from seeing behind them.. with a horse this is dead on critical.. you must never hitch a horse to a wagon or anything without having blinders because the horse notices whatever it is behind them must be chasing him so he better run faster.. (******** note. Dogs will do the same thing,,, and often get in bad trouble because thay have their leash tied to a chair leg ... and they start,,, and the chair chases them  with devastating effect t )this idea has been the death of many horses and people because the faser they go the closer that thing stays right behind them.. I do know of a case and I believe Fall River parade where some well meaning person suggested that the driver of the a team of draft horses take their bridles off so they could get a better drink of water and the old draft horses as well trained as they were got in their heads that the wagon was chasing them so they bolted and ran up and over a pickup truck killing the people in the pickup truck.   you cannot take the blinders off a horse that's hooked to anything. I think in my whole life I have seen one horse not have blinders and that was a Trotter in a race.   I tried that once with a horse of mine and it ran off and broke up the wagon miserably...   the donkeys are different they wanna know what's going on so they understand and then they'll cooperate..  which is why I don't have blinders on the bridles for them

 

this particular bridle. in the photograph is the bridal for the left hand Wheeler..  which waqs weenie.  the one close to the wagon and I know because of the rings on the side of his face..  those three rings carry the reins till the donkeys in front of him...   with the one right close to his head is for the donkeys right in front of him..  the middle ring the next pair.... and the bottom ring goes to the leaders.. 

 

 all these rains . split.    just before the donkeys ... and  the split goes to the left hand side of both leaders so that when you try and steer the pair you're steering both at once... There is one additional complication about trying to drive a horses or donkeys and that is when you go around the corner if it is at all tight he let the leaders get well into the corner before you turn them and if you start turning them to the left you have to hold the next pair back with your right rein so they don't cut the corner because if they start cutting the corner by the time you get to the Wheelers they'll be pulling the wagon over all the spectators...   driving 8 it's not as simple as it sounds to start with ..  And when I started driving these I had the lines hooked up in the living room up and over the rafters so I could get the feel of holding 8 reins in my hands... and manipulated them at will..  it was critical to start with but as these donkeys got more experience I didn't even have to get in the wagon I could sit in the back and put a stuffed bear the driver seat---  at least that's what I did for the parades in. Merrimack Massachusetts.. we did that parade for eight years.. and every year they gave us a brass “thing”  Which are on the wall under our spiral staircase.

 

So now go have your. Coffee.... that is supposed to be a picture.      hmmmmmmmmmmm