A Typical Young Horse Trail Ride

 

A Typical Young Horse Trail Ride

Riding a young horse on his early rides is usually filled with hiccups because there is so much for them to learn.  We had a learning ride today.

As usual, I rode Trifecta with Ellen on foot.  Some of the hiccups probably wouldn't be there if I rode him with another horse, but this gives Trifecta a chance to learn how to be independent of other horses.  Sometimes, he can be a little dependent on Ellen, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing most of the time.

Poor Ellen, this means she has to cross the river on foot.  The river was a little higher than it has been because of the rain we just had, but it was totally doable.  Trifecta didn't want to step into the water at first--which is really unusual for him, so I told Ellen to go ahead and cross first.  Once she was about halfway across, I asked him to walk and he stepped in immediately.  It turned out to be one of his better crossings.  I halted him twice to keep him from building up speed, and he did stop nicely.  The bottom of this river crossing is extremely slippery, so rushing is the last thing I want him to do.

We passed Kevin up on the trail.  He was digging out obnoxious rocks and writing political stuff in the dirt.  I thought Tri wouldn't want to leave Kevin, but after a greeting where Kevin gave him a treat, Trifecta marched on without a backward glance.

Ellen walked with us as we fought off the mosquitoes.  He really hates the bugs and kept wanting to stop and scrape them off.  I was so glad when we got to the section of trail that we have been practicing our trotting.  Trotting is better than any bug spray on the market.  I left Ellen, and we just trotted off.  He was perfect--very steady and calm.  Instead of turning where we have been and repeating the trail over and over to practice our trotting, I decided to go further down the trail.

The trail goes up a little slope, around a corner and down a little slope.  This was only the third time I have ridden him past the corner--and he decided he wasn't going when he got to the bottom of the slope.  He gets himself all twisted up when he doesn't want to go forward.  He ended up backing all the way up the slope.  The rocks on his bare feet had to be uncomfortable.  When I was back on top, I was happy to see Ellen was catching up with us.  She saw what was going on, passed us up and grabbed a handful of grass.  He stood for a few seconds and thought about it--then marched right down the slope.  She gave him the grass, walked a few more steps and got some more.  Trifecta was changing his mind very quickly.  

Ellen had her clippers and was trimming some low hanging branches, so we traveled down the trail without her.  When we made it to the next corner, I asked him to trot.

The last time I was on this part of the trail he was pretty excited, so we worked on our walk, trot, whoa transitions all the way down the trail.  This time, he seemed so calm that I decided to just keep trotting to see how far we could get.  He was great.  He continued trotting very steadily.  Every now and then, I could feel him slow down a little, and I would just give him some leg and he would keep going.  I could feel my smile getting bigger and bigger.  We were almost to the next river crossing, and I asked him to stop.  The next thing I knew, he made a right angle turn and went off the trail.  Such a young horse move--I think he wanted to explore.  They all seem to do this a few times.  Fortunately, the area had no underbrush to get tangled in, so I just circled him and sent him back on the trail.

We turned around and walked towards Ellen.  He was all excited about finding her, and he did throw in a few trot steps a couple times.  I just told him to walk, and he listened.  We found her and walked on home.  The bugs were really bugging him again since we were just walking, and he still tried to trot a few times.  (Apparently, he learned that trotting is better than bug spray, too.)

We only had one spook.  I am glad to say he is a horse that seldom spooks, but at the young age of 3, he still has moments.  I heard a car along the road hit a puddle-and Trifecta jumped in the air.  I quickly spun him about, and he stopped like nothing happened.  Such a silly guy.  I think he was just a little excited to be going home and was looking for an excuse to express himself.  

When we got to the river crossing, Ellen told me to cross without her, and she would catch up.  It sounded like a good plan to me, so we proceeded very carefully down the river bank.  It has a rut going down the center that he is obsessed with and has ended up in it a few times.  As I guided him away from the rut, he decided trotting down the bank was the best idea ever.  All I could see was us hitting the slippery bottom and falling.  I told him "whoa" and he did, though we were a few steps in the water by the time he stopped.  He then proceeded to walk calmly and carefully across the river to the other side.  If it wasn't for the trotting, it would have been his best river crossing ever.

As I thought about it, I realized I may have cued him to strongly with my leg to keep him out of the rut.  Since he probably wanted to trot anyway, he decided one leg on his side was as good as two--so he would trot.

The trip up the hill was uneventful.  As I led him down the street, there was someone in a large truck that stopped to let us cross the road. That shouldn't have been a problem, but when we got across, he tried to trot around me to get to the truck.  I think he wanted to visit.  That is what happens when you have a horse that just loves people.

I call that a great trail ride for a green trail horse.  Sure he did some things wrong, but he is learning.  It is all very exciting for him, and he isn't always sure of what I expect of him.  Everything that he did, he has already done in one form or another when we were riding at the barn.  His worst incident was when he balked on the trail.  We have found a pattern in his behavior.  When we are doing something that doesn't meet his expectations, he has a little tantrum.  I believe he thought we were turning there because that is what we have been doing. Once we got past the spot, he no longer seemed to care.

When we got back, we took Dante, Starry and Cole on the same ride.  It was nice to look around at the wildflowers and such on the second ride.  I didn't see them on the first one.