Sunday we got the chance to go out and enjoy a nice sunny winter day. We decided to ride out around on the roads close to the barn. I was riding Willow ( 3rd ride out of our min. of 30) and my partner was riding Pixie. The purpose of this ride was to help with my partners confidence. Willow has been spooking a lot while they ride and it hasn't been helping either of them. We warmed up in the arena. Where I might add Willow was awesome! We did some walk, gait, and canter work before heading out. Pixie and my partner warmed up and started to come together. Pixie was a little confused in the beginning when I wasn't riding her. After we all felt comfortable we headed out with two other riders. The 4 of us headed down the road. Things were good, but my partner was nervous so we decided to head back after just a quick ride. Well going back one of the other riders decided to split off and go the other way around. Well needless to say we didn't make it really far before we heard the thundering of hooves behind us. The other horse decided it was NOT going to split off from the group and basically ran away with his owner and came back to the group. Well Pixie and my partner were in the back of the group. It is always scary for horses to have another one run up behind them. They don't know why he/she is running. My partner became very nervous, but Pixie held it together for the both of them. She handled it like a champ. Actually all three of the horses did extremely well! And once the other caught up with us he was good to go too. Then we calmly road back to arena :) I continued to ride with the others, while my partnered call it good for the day. I did switch horses though and rode Pixie for the last part of the ride.
After the ride Pixie and I did some liberty work. Besides liberty work we practiced side pass at the trot. She did it beautifully!
It is events like this that make it even more clear to me why making sure we have a connection with our horses is so very important. I don't want to have to rely on equipment to control my horse. Obviously I do have to to a certain point. I have to make sure they are safely under control when out in the open, but beyond that I want to know that in a scary situation they look to us for safety and it isn't just the fear of pain stopping them from running away. There are many times when I am with my horses that it may not look like we are doing much. It may just look like we standing or wondering around, but in reality I am working on making sure I have that connection before I ask more of them. If I don't have them "with" me it is pointless to continue on with training something. I want more than just the physical action I want their mind in it too. More importantly I want them to be happy and not fearful. But there is the hard part of all this...Making sure the horse is okay with the training.
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