Trifecta Hits the Trails

Trifecta Hits the Trails

We have continued to bring Trifecta in the park.  Ellen has been walking along with us.  The main problems I have been having with him is rushing towards home--which makes it really tough for Ellen to keep up.  I really don't mind the fast walk, but he kept trying to trot.  

I don't know how many rides we went on like this, but finally it occurred to me what must be done.  I needed to get him tired.  The next time I took him out, once I got to the part of the trail that is good for trotting, I left Ellen behind and trotted all the way out to the second river crossing.  I did stop a few times to make sure I still had brakes, but we started right back up.  We turned at the second river and walked back to catch up with Ellen.  After all that, he was happy to just walk home.  The problem was solved.

This meant that it was time for Trifeca Tuesdays to begin again.  We were doing them last fall.  That is where he goes on the primary ride with one of the other horses.

For our first Tuesday, we chose Dante.  There are some complications when we ride these two together.  First of all, they are best friends--which means that Trifecta always wants to play with him.  The second problem is that Dante is much slower than Trifecta.

We started down the hill with Trifecta in the lead and practiced standing and waiting for Dante.  We got to the river first, so I had him start crossing.  When we were about 5 feet from the other side, he just stopped and refused to go any further.  He even took a few backward steps!  I think it might have been because he realized Dante was back there, and he was leaving him.  I convinced him to get out of the water and go up the bank.  While we waited for Dante to catch up, he decided, once again, that he wanted to go to the left instead of to the right.  We ended up circling...Sigh...

When Ellen made it across, I was able to get him to follow Dante in the right direction.  He still tried to turn around a few times even with Dante in the lead.  I confess I was getting a little frustrated.  Since he likes to walk so fast, I knew it would be better if Trifecta was in the lead, but whenever I tried to pass, I could feel his hindquarters swing towards Dante.  This scared both Dante and Ellen.  We have spent a lot of time practicing this in the arena, and he was getting so much better, but the excitement of being out on the trail caused the behavior to return.  Sigh...

When we got to a wider part of the trail, I was able to pass Dante peacefully.  (I have to use a lot of leg on the Dante side.)  That only worked for a few minutes when we came across a person who was on her phone and walking her dog at the same time.  Since she wasn't paying attention, the dog tried to come right up to us.  She pulled him in only to have him do it again.  I didn't think that Trifecta would kick the dog.  My worry was that he would lose his momentum and want to turn around again.  I was right.  We got stuck.  Ellen explained kindly to the woman that her dog's safety was at risk if he got too close to a horse and then came to help us.  Dante took the lead again and Trifecta was on the move.

And then things just got better.  I had Trifecta pass Dante, and this time my leg worked.  We did some trotting, stopped to talk to friends and did more trotting.  We got to the second river, waited for Ellen and Dante to catch up and started our walk home.  Trifecta walked fast but steady.  It didn't take long before I lost Dante.  They would drop back, trot for a while, drop back and trot again.  Ellen told me she actually ended up doing a lot of trotting.  We just kept walking.  The woman with the dog was coming our way, and this time she pulled him off the trail and held him still; which made me smile and give her a big "Thank you!"  When we saw our friends again, we stopped to chat.  That is when Ellen and Dante caught up with us for real.  They dropped back by the time I got to the river to cross to go home, so we just went right across and waited on the other side.  As we went up the hill, we practiced waiting for Dante again.  

Once we got past the first part of the ride where he was being sticky, it turned out to be a terrific ride.  Trifecta Tuesdays have begun!