Real Trail Ride on Trifecta

Real Trail Ride on Trifecta

One day last month, I met Ellen at the barn and she asked me what I wanted to do that morning.  I told her that I wanted to take Trifecta across the river.  It caught her totally be surprise--which was a good thing.  She didn't have to worry all the night before about taking him on a real trail ride.  

Last year, I led him across the river and on the trail a number of times before I started riding him.  Once I was riding, we did the hill a lot and finally one real trail ride before the weather got bad, so this wasn't completely new for him, and the ride last year was very successful.  Where Ellen was nervous, I was like Trifecta--very excited.

Ellen was going to walk with us.  Talk about having a wonderful sister--she was going to cross the river on foot.

Going down the hill was uneventful.  We passed up the exit ramp for the river, turned around and went to the bank.  My thinking on this was to prevent him from refusing to pass the river ramp when I just wanted to ride on the hill.  I had a lot of problems with him last summer doing just that, and I didn't want to lose all the progress I made with him.

He was so excited when I told him to go down to the river.  He didn't want to wait for Ellen to roll up her jeans--he just wanted to cross.  I made him wait.  Ellen hooked up the lead rope, and we stepped in.  It only took a couple steps to know that she wouldn't be able to safely walk as fast as he wanted to walk, so she unhooked him.  He did walk faster than I wanted him, but I was able to get a "whoa" which helped slow him down.  He walked up the bank on the other side, and we waited for Ellen to catch up.

She hooked the lead rope back up.  I didn't think we really needed it, so she made the rope very slack as a compromise.  She would just be an emergency brake.  We walked quickly and uneventfully down the trail.  I decided to turn at Willow Bend--which would make it a 2 mile ride.  The bugs were ferocious, and they really aggravated him.  Is there any good bug sprays out there?  

On the way home, there were 3 joggers that came towards us.  They walked to pass us and then started jogging--and that spooked him.  I am just not used to him spooking!  It was just a little spook--he shot forward a few strides, and I was able to stop him easily.  He settled back down very quickly, and that is so important.

When it came time to cross the river on the way home, he tried a whole new method.  Instead of walking fast to get across, he wanted to stay next to Ellen.  Since Ellen had to go slow by necessity, he did the same thing--matching her step by step.  It made us laugh. Trifecta often makes us laugh.

What a wonderful first ride!  If this is his starting point, I really don't foresee many problems.