The Next Ride

The Next Ride

We were back to a weekday ride, so we didn't have as much time to take Trifecta on a real trail ride.  I rode him a little bit in the arena while Ellen cleaned her stall.  When she finished, we went on one trip on the hill.

The plan was to do exactly what we did on the last ride but with a few less clicks.  I clicked for walking a few times at the barn and on the driveway.  He was a little sticky, but not really bad.  Trifecta was happy to march down the street to the trail.  Once I mounted, Ellen walked away and didn't look back.  I asked Trifecta to walk.  He hesitated--then stepped right out!!!  I clicked him after 3 steps.  I meant to go 6 more steps, but in the heat of the moment, I added wrong and thought I should go 8.  I should have stopped at 6, and all would have been fine, but at 8 steps he started to veer off the trail.

I straightened him out, asked him to stop and then asked him to walk.  This time, we made it to 8 steps, and I clicked.  Then next time I went up to 12 steps before clicking.  At that point, I quit counting and only did it when he was doing great.  A few times, he did try to veer a little, and I was able to correct him with my legs.  Overall, he was awesome!  He did learn from the previous ride!

We turned around at the end of the trail and went home with no drama at all.  

My plan is to continue this for a while and keep reducing the clicks.  I believe we are headed in the right direction.