Centered Trail Riding

Today I went with a friend and client, Carol, to Eagles Nest for some troubleshooting on the trail.  We planned to work on keeping her horse from jogging when he should be walking, and keeping him straight on the path rather than weaving on and off the trail.  It was a great ride, cool and dry, with our two wonderful grey geldings, her horse Shambhu, a 10 year old Connemara cross, and Major, my 16 year old OTTB.

Carol and Shambhu

The jogging when he should have been walking was a simple fix.  Shambhu would usually speed up when he was going up or down slight inclines, because it is easier for a horse to do hills with a little speed for momentum.  We fixed that by having Carol lean back when going downhill, and lean forward when going uphill.  This effectively rebalanced Shambhu so that he could use his haunches more effectively, and walk with a steady pace instead of scrambling for speed.

This is what Shambhu thinks turning a perfectly good trail ride into a lesson!

Wandering off the trail wasn't too much of a problem today, Shambhu was pretty focused with Major leading most of the way.  However, usually if a horse is wandering off the track and it's not based on footing or avoiding an obstacle (like rocks), changing the rider's eyes from hard, pinpointed vision to a softer, more peripheral gaze will usually fix it.  This is the case when Shambhu goes off course in the arena over ground pole courses, and when Carol "softens" her eyes he flows straight through his lines.  I suspect we will have the same result with this technique when it is used on the trail.  Something to experiment with next time!

Major and me

Some other things we worked on were bridges, water, and controlled stretchy trotting on the straightaways.  Major had his usual big long trot and Shambhu rushed into the canter a couple times to keep up, but Shambhu also got some very nice stretches where he really lifted his back, engaged his haunches, and then stretched his neck out.  Dressage, centered riding, and trail skills all in one ride!

My token picture of Major's ears on the trail