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Jul 24, 2016, 02:34 PM
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Member Since: Nov 2002
Location: Mid World
Posts: 18,129
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We had a good but tiring ride yesterday. Apparently his previous owners would get on walk a little bit, trot a bit then go like crazy. We've been working on just quietly walking along. He seems to have gotten the idea that it is okay to just walk along in a nice business like walk without having to breaking into a trot. Yesterday I introduced the idea of just trotting along in a quiet trot. I have to sit the trot because he does not understand what's going on if I start to post.
For the non-riders in the group sitting trot does not look like any kind of work. After all you're just sitting there, right? It is a workout for legs and lower back. It takes gripping with the entire leg, a supple lower back and a ton of balancing.
I'd ask for a trot. He'd be okay for a few strides then think he was supposed to go faster. I'd ask him to slow down. He'd walk. Add leg for trot. A few strides of nice trot, speed up, ask for slower, get the walk instead. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Finally we got a nice steady tro about half way around the ring. I asked him to walk and made a big fuss over him. We both caught our breath then reversed to repeat the whole cycle going the other way in the ring. I looked like someone had squirted me with the hose by the time we were down.
For the non-horsey folks in the crowd this may not sound like such a big deal, but I was very pleased with him. It's so easy to make assumptions about what a horse has been trained to do. Kind of like we assume all people have been taught how to act with other people. It's not always true. There is no telling what kind of training, if any, he's had. I have to remind myself to assume he knows nothing. I'm delighted when he picks up on something I'm trying to teach him.
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