Today I had a fun ride. It was fun for many reasons.
Zoe, and Sky (with riders) helped Glory out to the trail. Glory is a younger filly with not much trail experience. Her owner decided to hand walk her out to the trail head and walk back with her. We had done this before and it worked fine. But today was different. We put Glory between us with Zoe in front. Glory decided to act like a young horse, not knowing how to obey or what to do with her extra energy. She was a little too energetic on Auburn/Folsom road and we stopped while her owner dealt with her. Around the corner Glory decided to buck, kick, fall and slide on her side. Zoe heard all of this and was not able to see it so she got excited and danced a few steps. I turned her to see and Zoe just stood there while the owner dealt with her horse. Zoe was a little excited but very controllable. Sky just stood there too. It's nice to have calm horses while one horse isn't so calm. Then we continued to the trail head (by the way, Glory and owner did just fine and made it back home fine too)
Little did I know that we would get to practice being calm with excited horses a few more times on this ride. At the trail head we said good bye to Glory and owner and met up with Dune and owner.
I took everyone the back way to Look Out Rock only I've found another way that stays off the rutted road. Dune's owner was happy with the ride, she was amazed at all the different things to see. On the way back Zoe was still in the lead and Sky in the rear and Sky decided to try to charge up the trail when we picked up a trot. We stopped while Sky's rider dealt with him. Zoe and Dune did really good, just stood around and waited.
Then we decided to try something different on the sewer road just before we cut off for the trail to FLEC. Sky has recently been helping Dune with some trail lessons at this juction in the trail. The girls wanted to try trotting off and leaving a horse behind. I said ok, but with 3 horses it would be tricky. The plan I came up with was to leave 1 horse at the man hole cover, the other 2 horses would walk away together, go 1/2 way up the road, 1 of them would stop there and the other one would continue on to the top of the road but stay in sight of everyone. Then the original horse left behind would walk up to the 2nd horse. Then get left behind again while the 2nd horse walked up to the 3rd horse. At the end the horse left behind would join the other 2 horses. We started this out at a walk and it worked fine. Zoe got to be the horse left behind and the other 2 did great. So we tried this at a trot. Zoe was again the left behind horse and she did fine. Then we mixed it up and Sky got to be the left behind horse and he did fine. Then Dune got a turn and he did fine. When Sky got to be the left behind horse Zoe didn't do very well trotting away with Dune. She was having a PMS day (Pissy Mare Syndrome)-got to love those mares. I kept her trotting but boy did she have attitude-alot of verbal reprimanding and rein correction was involved. She was happy when Dune trotted off away from us to the top of the road.
Then we tried to take the trail back towards FLEC. Sky in the lead, next was Dune and Zoe last. Sky thought it was time to charge up the trail. He got a little excited I guess. (Owner off and disciplining horse) Dune got excited too and tried to charge but didn't get away with it. (Owner circling horse) Zoe got to see all the excitement this time and danced a few steps but listened to my reprimands. It really helps when ALL riders know what to do with their horses to calm them down and get back control. I've been on trail rides with people who didn't know what to do with their misbehaving horse and the ride is no fun. I start to get worried about the poor rider with the misbehaving horse-concerned for their safety. Then all the horses start to get worked up because there is no correction/disciplining going on. It makes for an uncomfortable/tense ride. But this situation turn out better-all riders took care of their horses in appropriate ways and we were back on the trail.
So I guess I liked this ride for many reasons. It was good to work on trail manners with excited horses. It was fun to show someone some new trails. And it was fun to work the left behind excercises. And it was good practice trotting next to another horse with my PMS horse. We will have to do this again.
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