Out on the trail

Friday 23rd April

Headed out at a reasonable hour this morning to run a few errands around town. When we arrived home Phil gave buddy his penicillin shot for the morning and I headed down to get squizzy for our trail ride. Today the plan was to head right out on what we call our “short ride”, its about 6 ks around. So I headed down to the yards and fed the 2 juniors, I couldnt see Squiz anywhere so i started calling her. It took me about 5 or so minutes to get organised and once the 2 littlies were eating I set out to find her. After a bit of calling and searching I spotted her in the neighbours paddock. She was a fair distance away and was head down bum up eating. I grabbed the rope hackamore and was heading out to walk to her and ride her back, when I got within her earshot - as soon as she heard me calling, she threw up her head and started bolting towards me.

Its a great feeling to know that she responds to my call like that, she cantered to a bridge, walked over it, got focussed on me and ran straight towards me. She found the gap in the fence and galloped up the hill and stopped right at me. I was laughing my head off, she is just so sweet :). I put the hackamore on, led her up to the saddle & saddled her & walked out of the gate. By this time Phil was almost down the road, so we walked back up the hill together (i was still leading squizzy as it is on the road, and I dont think it is wise to ride a horse out for the 2nd time on a road). We got into the paddock - and it was just as interesting as yesterday for her. She was having a look at the other horses, but once I started the ground skills she focused on me and I was happy to hop on.

We headed out and she kept up with Al, who has a really nice forward walk. This time we just went straight down to the dam (the gate to the trail is next to the dam), went through the gate and hit the trail. The first thing she had to do after going through the gate, was to go through about 6 inches of water - and she just sniffed it, and followed Al through. This is why I wanted a confident horse on the trail with her, to show her there was nothing to worry about. We headed up the path, over the gate and she was great. Phil and I swapped a few times on the trail - Id go in front, then he would, to teach her that she couldnt just follow the entire ride. I clicked her up a bit and we trotted some parts, and I worked the start of her collection. She has a high head carriage, so It is a little difficult to get her to lower her head. When I halt and back up, she tends to lift her head, so I worked on some exercises to help her to lower her head. We went up hills. down hills. over gravel. over leaves, through water, through the bush, into open spaces, we led the trail, we followed the leader, we walked, we trotted. Oh, what a great 2nd ride out for this horse. I am planning on building the canter on the trail, as it is fairly natural for them to canter up a hill, but as this was her first time out, and she was a little worried about stump monsters, I just walked and trotted. I am super happy with the performance of this little filly, she has a temperament to die for! There is alot to be said for training a young horse out on a trail, it gives them a direction to go, and you can do heap of stuff with them, and expose them to things. It can seem a little boring - "a trail ride" but when you think of all the things that you can do - which is pretty much anything , and the things that they learn - for example, when Squizzy jumped over that stream yesterday, she did her first jump, and did her first canter strike off with me on her back. Pretty Cool huh?

After a bite to eat, I headed down to Rocky, and much the same as yesterday, I haltered him, saddled him & set to work on the ground skills. He looked pretty good, a little cranky in the face on the trot circles, but I disengaged him when he relaxed and we got through it. I mounted him and asked him to walk around. His progress under saddle has been alot quicker than his ground work, so I walked him around in the yards, turned him, disengaged his hindquarter. I asked him to walk out of the yard, and into the larger paddock, and he did that quite well. When I asked him to trot today, his head came up a little but he handled it, and trotted a fair line for me. So I stayed out there and trotted him in lines, came back to a halt, walk, back up to the trot. I did this for about 5 - 10 minutes and was happy with that. I left him there.

What a great day of training!!!