Schwartz Rides Out on the Back Forty

Today I had a friend here to ride her steady trail gelding, and we decided to take Schwartz out for his first real ride out of the arena.  I've ridden him from the arena back to the barn, but this was his first time touring the back forty.  Before I got him I was cautioned that he was very uptight and even melted down when his previous owner tried to get him out on a trail ride.  Because I love to event and I'm curious about whether Schwartz might enjoy it I wanted to get him out of the arena now that he trusts me.

Joan, her gelding Darby, Miles the border collie and Mahzi the border/lab were our escorts out to the back fields.  I rode Schwartz and did my best to set him up for confident success.  I figured when you added us all together we were a herd of six.  The dogs would lead and show Schwartz how to deal with anything scary, Darby would walk beside him and be the familiar "pony horse" from his track days, and I was happy and calm riding him.

He marched right out of the arena and towards the llamas like he's been waiting for this for weeks.  Maybe he has been?  The dogs led the way, Schwartz and I were in the middle, and Joan on Darby brought up the rear.  Halfway to the back field we passed the west pasture horses, who were all very sociable and hustled over to the fence to greet us.  Schwartz was a little excited about it, but I placed us so that Darby was between Schwartz and the pastured horses, so Darby could be that buffer.  Schwartz settled right down, and even led the way a little after we passed that pasture.

We ended up walking all the way out to the back forty and walking around some of the log jumps so Schwartz could get a good look at them.  The dogs climbed all over the logs to show him they were no big deal, and actually sort of fun to jump over.  Darby and Joan were wonderful steady riding buddies, and even when Schwartz became a little "up" as we headed back to the barn Darby just looked at him to say, "Dude, you're working too hard.  Just chill out."  Schwartz liked to keep a little contact with my hands through the reins so he knew I was still there, but other than the one hop in excitement he just walked around and looked at things.  When he would start to fixate on something in the distance, like the traffic that was several miles away or a neighbor horse on the horizon, I would redirect his attention back to me by asking him to circle or turn and go back to Darby, or even bend in different directions.  In this way I was able to keep him focused.  As he saw I was enjoying myself and praising him, he began to feel confident and interested in the ride as well.  It really made a difference to go out as our herd of six, there is safety in numbers for a prey animal.  Every member of Schwartz' little herd, humans, equines, and canines, thought it was really fun and easy. The dogs even had to take a break or two to wrestle to entertain themselves.