For quite awhile now, I've been wanting to be able to confidently ride my mare out on the trail (many of you were very helpful after my questionable first foray onto the trails earlier this spring...)
Today the BM and a couple of other women were heading out to explore some trails that we've recently been given permission to use, and asked if Isabel and I wanted to join. Figuring going out in a group of her pasturemates would be a great way to test the waters, I eagerly said yes- and she was GREAT!! I couldn't be happier. We rode for about an hour, and she encountered a lot. She rode across a big open hay field, through wooded trails, up steep inclines and down the other side, crossed the road (twice), through a parking lot with people honking and waving at us, past someone carrying a giant patio umbrella, and back across a hay field with mowers going and guys throwing tarps over other equipment. Never once did she look at anything funny, balk, shy, nothing. I'm so proud of her!
There were two things that we can clearly improve next:
1. It was hard to hold her back from riding over the horse in front of her. She was pretty happy to be 2nd in line, because the leader was moving at a good pace (this was all walking...), but she didn't like being 3rd or 4th behind the pokier mares. These are all buddies, so it wasn't a problem this time, but obviously not good etiquette.
2. Relatedly, she was very heavy on my hands and was chomping away at the bit (literally) the whole time I was trying to hold her back from riding up on the horse in front of her. I didn't like hauling on her mouth, but I didn't feel like there was much else I could do. So will need a lot of work on that.
I'm not sure I'm ready to say I'm 100% confident yet that I can ride her out alone, but it was so wonderful to have this experience today and know that it is pretty reasonable to expect eventually I can get her there. It was just a huge confidence booster all around- and a ton of fun. SOOOOOO much more fun than riding laps around the arena! Can't wait for our next ride!
Today the BM and a couple of other women were heading out to explore some trails that we've recently been given permission to use, and asked if Isabel and I wanted to join. Figuring going out in a group of her pasturemates would be a great way to test the waters, I eagerly said yes- and she was GREAT!! I couldn't be happier. We rode for about an hour, and she encountered a lot. She rode across a big open hay field, through wooded trails, up steep inclines and down the other side, crossed the road (twice), through a parking lot with people honking and waving at us, past someone carrying a giant patio umbrella, and back across a hay field with mowers going and guys throwing tarps over other equipment. Never once did she look at anything funny, balk, shy, nothing. I'm so proud of her!
There were two things that we can clearly improve next:
1. It was hard to hold her back from riding over the horse in front of her. She was pretty happy to be 2nd in line, because the leader was moving at a good pace (this was all walking...), but she didn't like being 3rd or 4th behind the pokier mares. These are all buddies, so it wasn't a problem this time, but obviously not good etiquette.
2. Relatedly, she was very heavy on my hands and was chomping away at the bit (literally) the whole time I was trying to hold her back from riding up on the horse in front of her. I didn't like hauling on her mouth, but I didn't feel like there was much else I could do. So will need a lot of work on that.
I'm not sure I'm ready to say I'm 100% confident yet that I can ride her out alone, but it was so wonderful to have this experience today and know that it is pretty reasonable to expect eventually I can get her there. It was just a huge confidence booster all around- and a ton of fun. SOOOOOO much more fun than riding laps around the arena! Can't wait for our next ride!