The Rides Continue

The Rides Continue

I have been riding Trifecta a lot, and he is doing really well.  We are walking, stopping, turning and learning to walk along the wall.  My biggest problems is his reluctance to trot.

Trotting is my favorite gait.  I can trot all day and the smile will never leave my face.  I just love trotting.  It doesn't matter if it is a good trot to sit or a good trot to post.  All that matters is that it is a good trot.  Starry has a horrible trot.  He is cursed with a club foot that throws him all off balance.  Cole is great for posting.  Dante is great for sitting.  My old horse, Mingo, had a terrific sitting trot, and my old horse, Cruiser had an arena trot that was easy to sit and a great posting trail trot.

The question has been--what is Trifecta's trot like?  I was guessing it was very smooth from watching him, but that can fool you sometimes.  Starry's trot looks smooth, too.  I have been wondering about his trot for more than a year.  Finally, I am riding him--and he refuses to trot!  Oh, the suspense!  I think I started to ask him to trot around the fourth ride--and nothing.  The last thing I wanted to do was to ask him harshly.  I knew I could get it that way, but I want to do things gentle with him.  He is enjoying our rides, and I want it to stay that way.

I stopped ground driving him before his ride and switched back to lounging.  Everything we can practice with ground driving I can now do in the saddle.  What I wanted to practice with the lounging was trot transitions.  He knows the word, but I wanted him to know it so well that it would transfer to the saddle.

We were practicing the transitions a lot--reinforcing them with clicks and treats.  Then, I would get into the saddle, and he would act like he never heard the word before.  I was also adding a leg squeeze which he has learn to mean forward movement--but is it possible that he thinks it means forward at a walk only?

Each day, we would try again with the same results.  The good news is that everything else was going well.  One day, Ellen suggested teaching him to go faster with my legs.  With the help of clicker, that is what I did.  It didn't take long at all--I mean a matter of minutes--and he would walk faster when I asked him.  Yet, when he was walking fast and I asked for faster, he didn't trot.

All along, I felt that maybe it was that he didn't feel balanced enough with a rider to trot.

I decided he would like to walk over poles and around cones.  He always had fun doing things like that on a lead line and while driving, so I thought it would be great for riding.  It might help his balance, too.

The day we decided to do it, it was very chilly and quite windy.  When I lounged him, he was much more enthusiastic about his trot transitions.  All of our previous rides had been on very hot days--which was an advantage for the early rides, but it might have been a disadvantage for trotting.

He loved riding over the poles and all around the cones.  He did it very well, too.  We would ride through the obstacles Ellen set up, go do a circle and then go back to the obstacles.  One time, he was going towards the gate with a little extra oomph in his step, and I thought it might be a good time to trot.  Ellen thought the same thing, so it must have been a good idea.  I asked him--and he did!  I clicked him after just a few steps, he stopped and got his treat.  It was so exciting!

We circled around and went back to the same spot on the fence--I asked and he trotted--but then I made a mistake.  I got greedy and wanted a few more steps, and he stopped before I clicked him.  That made him confused because he thought he made a mistake and now he wasn't sure of what I wanted.  I tried a number of times after that with no success.  We went back to the obstacles. 

Towards the end, I suggested we just walk along the fence the full arena for a little bit.  We never did that before--actually, this was only the second time I rode him in the outdoor arena, and the first time was only for a couple of minutes.  The outdoor arena at our stables is quite large.  We went around, and when we got back towards the gate, Ellen said to try trotting.  I did--and he did!  I clicked him for it.  We walked another lap, and when we got to the trotting spot, I asked again with great success.  I clicked him for it.  I asked one more time and we went about 10 steps before I clicked.  This time, his head was lower and he was much more rhythmic.  He was figuring out how to trot with a rider on his back.  It was time to quit for the day.

I also got the answer to my question.  He gave me a lovely smooth and rather slow trot.  There is an odd sense of softness, too.  That is a great place to start.  Trifecta is going to be a comfortable riding horse; at least in the arena.  Like Cruiser, the excitement of the trail might change things.

Just as with his walk, he reminded me of Legs, the first horse I ever rode when I was just 5 years old.  Ellen and I both rode him later in our lower teens. It amazes me that I can remember how a horse felt to ride so many years ago, but Ellen remembers how he felt, too.