new trail rider!!! (long)

Yeah in fact I took another lesson yesterday (first one in a month I have been doing trails etc.) and we were spectacular! =] like I said I am very excited about trails and I am moving my horse to a diff barn where there are beautiful trails and right down the road there is a trainer that does hunters and jumpers! So I will trailer down once a week or once every two weeks. Seems perfect! Anyways - horray for trail riding! Lol! =]

Trail riding is a whole lot more interesting than walking around in a circle in the ring :P

My point exactly!!! =]

Happy first trail ride! :P Sounds like a lovely time.

If he starts getting behind and you don't want a fight, just make him trot there on your command before he decides to do it on his own ;)

Then it can be a good idea to train him to go well alone and get behind the group a bit. You could for example slowly let the distance between you and the group grow before you give the trot cue (so first week it's 5 metres, second eweek it's 7 metres etc) and eventually you'll have quite a bit between you without him worrying since he know he'll catch up :P