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.

Henry's Big Adventure

Henry's Big Adventure

We've had Henry just over 3 months, now.  He has spent his time leading, ground driving and hanging out with his new brothers.  At the same time, he has learned to trust us.  We have done some work on the driveway and have ventured out on to the street a few times with great success.

There is only one problem I had with him when I tried to lead him.  When he saw something that interested him to the right of him, he wouldn't just turn his head to look at it; he would turn his whole body and try to walk in that direction.  He got better at home with practice, but he was really bad on the street--and that could be dangerous.

With some thought, I realized I never had that problem like this when I was driving him.  I drive him with a bitless bridle, (the Dr. Cook style,) and he does really well with it.  That is when it occurred to me that I could lead him with it and use both reins, (one in each hand,) to direct him to go straight.  It worked like a dream.  I don't even have to pull the reins.  I just leave them slack and hold them steady if he tries to turn his head too far.  I don't restrict him that much because he still needs to look around.  I just do it enough so that he can't turn his body away from me and pull me into a ditch.  It is gentler than a chain on his nose and also more precise.  I sure wish I would have thought of this back when Trifecta was 2.

Now that we had that problem solved, it was time to take Henry on his first trail walk.  The day before, we walked down the street to the trail head and back, and he did really well.  We planned to go down the hill to the river.  It is about a quarter mile one way.  If at any time we started having problems, we would just turn around and go home.

Henry was great walking on the street to the trail. head  Once we got there and started walking down the trail, he got very enthusiastic and walked faster than he has at any other time.  About halfway down, he started to relax and dropped his head to a normal level, but continued to walk fast.  He handled the steep sections much better than Trifecta did for about the first 2 years.  He had no hesitation as we approached the water, and he stepped right in!  Since the river is low, there is an island we can walk on.  We went along that and I positioned him so he had to step in the water, but he didn't mind.  When we got back to Ellen, I asked him to step in again, and he did.  

We will save crossing for another day.  I was just so pleased that this went so well.  Most horses are pretty good, but every now and then you will find one that just hates the idea of going in the water.  I'm so glad Henry isn't one of them.

The trip back home went very well.  He went slower than the way down the hill and handled the steep parts better than Trifecta for the first year.  

There was only one car that passed us on the street.  It was coming from behind us, which is trickier than a car coming from the front of us, so I stopped him to let it pass.  He was fine, but when we looked back to see if there were any more cars, we saw a man riding towards us on a Segway.  That was a really weird thing to see on the street, and I had no idea how he would handle that.  I tried to hurry him home before it caught up to us, and what a relief it was when it turned down a driveway.

Overall, Ellen and I couldn't be happier with the way Henry handled his first trail walk.  Henry seemed happy, too.  No doubt, there will be many more to come.

A Most Amazing Trifecta

A Most Amazing Trifecta

When Ellen and I have 3 rideable trail horses, we usually ride 2 of them on the first ride, do chores and then take the third horse out for a ride.  If Ellen has to go to work, she will drive downs to the park and meet us on the other side of the river.  I will cross, go off trotting and meet her on the way back.  We then walk to her car, she goes home and I ride alone back to the barn.  It was time to take Trifecta on a normal third horse ride.  (It has been so long since we had 3 rideable trail horses.)

What a wonderful ride I had with Trifecta.  We met Ellen on the other side of the river, said hello and off we went at a trot all the way to the second river crossing.  There, not surprisingly, Trifecta decided he wasn't turning around to go home--he wanted to cross the river.  I had to circle him to get him in the right direction.  Then, I decided to add something new to our ride.  We would try trotting towards home.  We have been practicing it at the bottom of the hill on the days we don't cross.  There is a short section of trail that we just trot back and forth.  He understood the concept, and it was time to see how he would do on a real trail ride.  Some horses are totally sensible.  Dante was from the get go.  Cole took a bit.  When he was young, he had a lot of trouble regulating his speed--he only believed in fast.

I introduced it the same way I introduced trotting on the trail in general.  We trotted a short stretch, stopped, clicked and treated.  I wanted to make sure he had brakes.  He was very, very excited but was willing to stop.  We did it again, and the second time was much better.  The third time I tried, he was trotting very steady, and I was so pleased.  Suddenly, he slammed on the brakes.

The day before, a large branch had fallen alongside the edge of the trail.  We trotted by it on the way out, and he didn't care about it at all, but now the sun was lighting it up like it was shining a spot light on it; and everywhere around it was in the shade.  It was something new, and it looked very much like a trail monster.

His head went up, and he told me there was no way he was going to pass it.  This is the first time, ever, that something got him that worried.  I let him look at it, and he started to step backwards.  When he stopped, I let him look some more and asked for a step forward.  He hesitantly did--and then decided backing up was better. That is how it went, but eventually he got closer and closer until he was able to gingerly pass it--giving it the side eye the whole time.

We saw a jogger heading our way, and she told us the Ellen was not much further ahead of us.  She was right.  I thought I would show Ellen what we had been practicing, so I started to trot.  He saw her and got very excited.  When I asked him to whoa, he just blew right through it.  I ended up having to bend him to get him to stop, and then he just walked very fast to catch up with her.

We had a great walk back to the first river crossing and there we parted.  It was a proper "Third Horse Trail Ride," and I am sure it was the beginning of many to come.

That ride went so well that I needed to find something more challenging for the next day.  Ellen was on vacation, so we had more time.  We took Cole and Dante on the first ride and then decided it was time to take Trifecta the other way.

He has been to the second river the other way and crossed it twice, but then we turned around to go home.  The trails beyond that point are pretty tricky.  At first it isn't bad.  The river is on the right with a fence on that side.  To the left are trees separating us from the nearby road.  At the end of that, the trail comes out into the open.  On one side is the busy parkway and the other side is the Fishermen's Wall.  It is a stone wall at least 10 feet with the river at the bottom of it.  We will usually see people fishing there.  There are baseball diamonds across the street, small parking lots along the road and the dread garbage can.  It is a lot for a horse to handle. and it goes for about a quarter mile until you are back into the woods.

Trifecta was thrilled to go this direction and all went well until we got to the top of a short but steep hill and a fawn popped up and ran away.  Tri was quite startled, and he popped up, too.  He settled down quickly and happily hurried down the hill on the other side to the river crossing.  Ellen left us to cross on the river ford and Trifecta stepped eagerly into the water.  About halfway across, he jumped like he saw another fawn.  I looked up and a Great Blue Heron soared right over the top of our heads.  At the same time, there was a very low airplane going overhead, and Ellen wished so much that she had her camera out to take that picture.  (We are extremely close to the airport, and the planes can be very low there when they are landing.)

He walked quicker across the water, and it didn't surprise me one bit when he ran up the river bank--it was the adrenaline.  I am so glad he waited until he got out of the water, first.

Because Ellen was nervous, she decided to hook him to the lead rope for his first venture on this very difficult trail.  I would say it was totally unnecessary.  He just walked beside her as she pointed out all the interesting things to see.  He was excited and looking at everything, but he was amazingly good.  He was curious about what he saw, but he didn't over react to anything.  And there simply is nothing else to say--it was totally uneventful.

The whole ride was just amazing.