Today's challenge was to ride the canal trail, do some loping to help Dune out, put Zoe in front so she had to deal with the scary rocks, see how Sky would do in the back.
Dune's mom had another lesson and the trainer wants her to circle Dune when he bucks-but only for 2 seconds. Then go back to the spot he messed up and try it again. Basically it's a turn around and go back, can't really circle for just 2 seconds. Anyway that was the plan. If he bucked we were going to stop, turn around and go back and try it again. Dune was in the second position on this part of the ride. Well he did great-no bucking at all. Dune's mom was so happy and proud of him, I would be too. So he didn't get to practice the turn around and start over...but later Zoe got to practice it (more on that later).
To get down to the canal trail we took a trail that I hadn't taken before. It got us down to the canal a bit farther down the lake than I usually go. It was very nice. We decided to call it C's trail. She was excited. It seems that we all have something named after us. There is C's Trail, D's Hill, M's cutoff, K's rock and C's igloo. Anyway it was a new trail for Zoe and it had those scary rocks on it. Yikes. She was in the lead and did some hesitating over this new part but did pretty good for her. She did mess up on the part of the trail that we ride all the time...she stopped and went backwards instead of forwards. You would think she'd pull that "trick" on the unfamiliar part, but no-she did it on the part she is used to. So I had no sympathy, it was either go in the direction I wanted forwards or backwards, but we were going in that direction. She decided forwards was better. She only did it a few times. Silly horse.
Besides that-all the horses did well on the canal. No bucking from Dune, no bolting from Sky, and Zoe was fine with moving out faster. We decided that next time we would switch it up. Everybody gets a try in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions.
Off the canal trail and on the Lake Forest trail Zoe got to practice Dune's lesson. Sky in front, Dune next, Zoe last. Sky picks up a trot going up a hill, Dune trots after him, Zoe starts out trotting then decides bucking would be good. 2 bucks. I almost came off. Yay for Pilates-good core conditioning. So it was immediately back down the hill to try it all again. Second time was better. However I made a note to myself to watch my equitation better and to watch Zoe's attitude better. And to work Zoe in the back more. When we changed positions I knew if I was going to have some training issues it would be in the back so I declined the second position. First on a familiar trail is usually good, second is good too, but back hmmm. We all decided that switching it up some more is a good idea. Dune's mom is concerned about doing all these challenges with Dune in the back position, but now that Zoe will be working on it too, we can encourage each other. We tried trotting on one of the trails towards home and Zoe was okay in the back. She looked like she was going to shake her head but I jiggled the reins and made my "funny noise" that says "you're in trouble" and she stopped.
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| Back at the barn, scratching my head on the post |
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| Got anything good? |
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| All that riding made my belly itchy! |
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