When Everything Falls Into Place

When Everything Falls Into Place

Ellen and I decided to take Cole and Trifecta on a trail ride together.  Rather than do it as we had in the past where Trifecta would get way ahead and basically we would go on a solo ride, I decided it was time to try riding them together.  We have had plenty of practice solo riding.  We needed to practice group behavior--always a challenge for Trifecta.

Trifecta's biggest challenge is passing another horse, and it seems the worst when it is a horse that he knows.  He can pass up strange horses pretty good, but he tries to swing his hindquarters toward his herd mates. It makes sense because that is exactly the kind of thing he does when he is turned out with them.  He is actually quite a bully.

Ellen and I mounted at the trail head.  Cole was in the lead, and I wanted to pass him.  Sure enough, Tri started to swing.  I stopped him and tried several more times and he repeated it several more times.  It was time to get tough.  Cole is somewhat used to this kind of behavior because Starry has his moments.  Dante tends to panic.  Cole is much calmer about it, but Ellen is so used to Dante, that she was cringing when it happened.  I warned her that I had to put an end to it, so she was ready.  I asked Trifecta to pass, he swung and got a good wallop with the whip and he straightened up and skittled past Cole.  I hate doing things like this, but sometimes it is the best way.  

On the behavior quadrant, this is called positive punishment and I only use it when I want to make a bad behavior go extinct.  

Once we were in the lead, he didn't want to stay there.  I think he thought we were going to leave Cole as we have in the past.  He stopped a few times and once tried to back up.  That is something that Starry does, too, and Cole has learned to just back up to stay out of the way.  He did that on his own for Ellen.  There is a reason I wanted to do all this with Cole.  He is simply just awesome--and partnered up with Ellen--they are an amazing team.

After a few more pauses where he only slowed down and didn't stop, Trifecta decided about halfway down the hill that he would march down just like he does when we are alone.  As we approached the river, Ellen wisely hid Cole up on top of the bank behind the trees where Trifecta couldn't see him and be tempted to turn around and go back to him.  Trifecta crossed and went towards the right!  That was big because he often fights me, because he prefers to go to the left.  I called over to Ellen and told her we would wait for her by the fence.

Cole usually likes to take a great big drink before crossing, but he didn't want to leave me alone with "that thing."  He went right across and met us on the other side.  I kept Trifecta in the lead.  A few minutes later, he took a quick and unexpected turn around on the trail to go back by Cole.  Ellen was far enough away from us that she just stopped Cole and waited as I just told Trifecta to continue turning until he was pointing back in the right direction.  That was the last time he tried it on the ride.  

We started to trot.  This is the first time we have trotted with another horse following us on the trail.  It was a drizzly morning, so it wasn't that big of a surprise when I saw some hikers coming towards us with an open umbrella--and I realized there was a hole in our training.  I knew Cole would be fine, but I wasn't so sure about Trifecta, so I shouted over to the people to close the umbrella.  We walked towards them, thanked them and told them how umbrellas can scare horses.  They were so nice about it.

We walked for a while until we got to the best parts of the trail for trotting.  Cole is a naturally fast horse who really doesn't like to lead.  Dante is a naturally slow horse who is a happy leader.  Cole has learned to slow himself down and stay behind the lead horse; even if it means coming down to a walk and restarting his trot.  He was the perfect horse to do this with, and that is why I wanted him.

He originally learned it when we started trotting him on the trail with Ranger in the lead.  I spent a few rides clicking him to stay behind, but I really think that he learned because if he got too close to Ranger, Range would make evil faces at him--think of the ferocious faces that you see on merry-go-rounds...

We started our trotting, and Ellen placed Cole at a reasonable distance behind Tri.  It worked beautifully!  Cole was a parachute horse that moderated Trifecta, and he trotted calmly and steadily.  Cole stayed calm and steady, himself.  We walked around Willow Bend, which always makes me happy because Trifecta used to give me so many problems there.  (He wanted to take the trail that goes out to the street to the Willow Bend Picnic Area, and I wanted to continue on the bridle trail.)  The park was mowing grass over by the street which wasn't that far away from the trail at this point.  I wasn't sure what Tri would do.  I stopped him to let him watch through the trees, and he was curious, but not worried.  We walked a bit more and then went back into the trot.  We trotted all the way to the second river crossing with Cole not too far behind, and it was the best trotting Tri ever did over there.

We turned around to head on home with Trifecta in the lead.  During the last few rides, I have introduced trotting towards home.  We go a short distance and stop, click, walk and repeat.  He has gotten better at it, but I still haven't gone too far to keep him from getting too excited.  I wasn't going to do it this time because we were adding Cole to the mix, but my gut said it was a good time to try it, and usually my gut is right.  I told Ellen what I was going to do, and I said we probably wouldn't get too far.  She held Cole back a bit to give us space.

Much to my delight, Trifecta was wonderful!  I kept going and going.  Tri stayed calm, but Cole, who was fairly far behind us, was starting to get a bit riled up about it.  Ellen yelled out to me, and Trifecta did a lovely downward transition.  We were back to where the mowers were, but he hardly cared.

The rest of the way home was at a walk, and they were great.  We let Cole pass at one point, then had Tri pass him.  There was no swinging--just tons of praise--so we did it again.  Then we just let Tri lead the rest of the way home.  Cole was very happy about that.

In the last few weeks, we have done so much with Trifecta and he has come so far.  Big problems became little problems or vanished entirely like going around Willow Bend.  He is now 5, and I have had him for 3 years.  Things weren't always easy with him, though they were seldom dangerous.  He could just be so frustrating at times--like he was with Willow Bend.  Going down the hill to the river used to such a huge trial as he learned how to control those noodle legs of his that seemed to have a mind of their own--and if that wasn't hard enough you should have seen him on the river bank...

Just in the last month or so, everything seems to be falling in place, and it is such a wonderful feeling--all the more so because this hasn't always been easy.  I can now see that he is going to be the terrific trail horse that I always  hoped he would be.  It has been a fantastic journey.