I like this picture of Christa and Duck after the ride
Christa and Kacey. She was in the same boat as me, Kacey had been on only about 2 trail rides. Ever!
Duck and I before the ride (I am surprised she stood still long enough for the picture!)
On the trail
Duck after the ride. She was VERY tired! I was glad. 16 miles is good work for her!
The day started off early. I got up at 5:10 so I could get to the barn by 5:30am to feed and grain Duck before our 6am trailer ride pickup by Lisa H. (Thanks again Lisa, you are awesome!). Of course I got to the barn, filled my haynet and grained Duck and then realized I forgot my coggins papers! So I rushed home to get them, got 3 blocks away from the house and realized I had forgotten to give Niels the GPS so he could take the kids golfing. Got back to the barn at 6:10. Christa had forgotten her coggins papers too and had to go back home to get them! The day of the missing Coggins papers!
It still took about a 1/2 hour to load Duck. Boy do I wish I had a trailer to practice with!
Got to the park after another stop to pick up Becky and her horse (she has a way cute place too)
Tacked up. Duck was pretty RB already. She wouldn't be tied to the trailer and was all over the place. So I saddled and moved her around quite a bit. She settled in.
By the time we left we had about 16 riders! WOW! Ok not that I was disappointed or anything, just that I wasn't expecting to be riding in that large of a group! Duck had never been in that big of a group on a trail ride (I think we are on trail ride #3 or 4 total for her). As I mounted up she got to being pretty RBE. She didn't want to stand, AT ALL and was acting like I wasn't even there!
Of course as the group got started she went even more extreme! I didn't feel like I had any brakes and she was dancing all over the place. First running up the horses' tail in front of her and jigging to all get out! Well I had to be quite LOUD/HARD even to get myself even on her radar but we did a lot on the first 2 miles of the trail. We went backwards (for quite a ways), we sidepassed both directions, we went sideways over a few of the several logs/tree branches on the trail. I am grateful there were so many along with some hills so she had to at least think a little bit about what she was doing! I figured if she kept this up it would be a LONG ride for me!
By mile two she had settled pretty much in besides running up the next horses' rump! Kim had offered to let me play beep beep back up earlier which I didn't because I was thinking it just may be too much on Duck in that state but once she settled in I decided it was time to end this running up the next horses' tail. It took about 2 swats. The first time Duck wasn't directly behind the horse in front (she went crooked and I didn't prevent it fast enough) and she swung her head and so it didn't get her! The second time however the carrot stick got her right across the ears! She shook her head a few times and then was pretty polite about it with a couple more reminders. She is very smart though, she knew when I wasn't riding behind someone with a stick!
At about mile 6 (I think) we lost about 10 of the group. At this point we had been riding about and hour and a half or so. I was going to do the shorter loop but decided if Lisa and Becky(my ride too) were going the other 10 miles that I may go as well because I'd just be sitting back at the trailer (possibly with Duck being all RB'd for who knows how long) until Becky and Lisa got back. Christa and I decided to go for it and 6 of us, Becky, Lisa, Margo, Linda, Christa and I did the other 10 mile loop. I am glad we did because I think Duck really learned that she was in this for the long haul. She had a job to do, and she went to doing it. At one point we even led for quite a ways! And we trotted in the lead too to get away from the bees on the trail. It wasn't smooth, but it was a trot with her in the lead!
I kept playing with keeping her attention and her listening to my aids and it brought 2 things to my mind:
1) I still don't have enough of a leadership position with Duck in any situation with a major threshold
2) I need some more arrows in those situations especially when riding etc.
The rest of the ride was uneventful (yeah), very pretty and a nice cool day as far as August goes! The real "fun" began when we tried to load up to go home!
Of course! Duck was now bonded to Christa's Kacey who also lives at our barn. Lisa loaded Jake her mule first. Then Christa tried to load Kacey but he didn't want to go in because Duck wasn't in! Then I tried for what felt like forever (maybe 45 minutes or so?) to load Duck first. No dice. Christa tried with Kacey and he went in. Duck didn't want go in now even with Kacey in. We played with it a few more minutes and she went in confidently enough that I put the divider in. Becky then loaded Bud man (who had watched our horses' bad examples and now didn't want to load either) and we headed home.
We need more squeeze game practice, and more work with thresholds! Duck didn't get off the the farm much in Illinois so this is all new for her. It definitely tested my savvy arrows! I really had a great time and think that Duck will improve the more I get out there!
2 comments:
It looks like it was a great trail ride. I LOVE trail riding (as long as it's not a guided trail ride) those are actually nice too but I love being able to explore and go at my own speed. The pictures are great and Duck is a super cute horse!
I told you that she could go for that long... and you didn't believe me. :) I am glad you had fun.
Kris
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