Tri on the Trail

 Tri on the Trail

This is Tri's big year, and so far it is going well.  We are getting him out on the trail 2-3 times a week.  Sometimes he is just wonderful, and other times he can be so "trying."  It often happens on the same ride.  The best news is that he isn't doing anything dangerous, and I feel very safe on him.

The easiest rides are the ones that Ellen walks along with me.  She has such a calming effect on him.  He sometimes gets a little upset when we trot away from her, so we did take a few rides where we didn't go as far but spent our time trotting away from her, walking back and then trotting away again.  One day, she suggested cantering.  I thought it was a wonderful idea, and he did his best cantering--ever.  At the 25th stride, I felt him slowing down a little, so I stopped him on the 27th stride.  Since then, he has been getting very, very excited when I try to trot him on that section of trail, so we haven't cantered there since.  I have been encouraging him to trot there like a gentleman, and I have seen improvement.

We have ridden a few times with Dante, and that is more like riding by myself since Dante has a much slower walk and a somewhat slower trot.  By the second ride, Tri's manners improved considerably with Dante, so it surprised me when I tried to ride him with Cole and he regressed so much.  Then, Ellen reminded me that the only time I have ever ridden him with Cole is a few times last summer in the park.  I ride with Dante in the arena all the time.  We decided we will have to spend some time with Ellen riding Cole and with me on Trifecta up at the barn to work on manners.  (This is all part of Ellen's plan to steal Cole away from me and leave me with the babies.)

Cole is a faster horse, so he can keep up much better with Trifecta than Dante.  It isn't that Trifecta is that fast of a horse.  In the arena, he is moderately paced.  It is just that the excitement on the trail makes him go faster down there.  I expect that he will mellow out in time just like Cole did.  Cole was faster than Trifecta ever was...

The problems I have been having the most with him is when he drifts off the trail and refuses to go forward.  Sometimes he does it when I am too far ahead of Ellen or the other horse, but he will even do it if we are following them.  After much observation, Ellen and I both agree that most of it is about him wanting to eat the vegetation.  He has never been allowed to eat on the trail, but he has managed to trick me up at the barn and grab leaves while we are working.  It started back when I was ground driving him and I couldn't see the leaves on the ground ahead of us.  When he sees a small branch on the ground in our outdoor arena, he will actually stop and fight with me about it.  I believe that is what is happening with us on the trail--and there is just so much vegetation everywhere!

One day, we didn't have too much time, so Ellen walked with us on the hill to the river.  We did 2 trips up and down, and for the first time doing this, Tri was terrific.  The opens up a lot of opportunities to do more trail riding--either on days where we don't have much time or days when the river is too high to cross.  Honestly, I am starting to get restless when I ride him in the arena and really prefer to be in the park.  I have Henry now for arena training.

This is the kind of training I love and excel in, and it is great!  I see him getting better at some things--and then he will try something new for me to work out.  He's never been an easy horse--I think he just thinks too much--but he has always been a fun horse.  And we are going to have a really fun summer!