Twosox: Trail riding

March 29, 2011

Twosox and I went on a trail ride with Mom and Knightly today. Before we went I had a lot of preparing to do.  I saddled up first. That went well like normal. Twosox didn't have any issues with the saddle today which was good. We did however have some issues with cantering. 

I was (and still am) not sure if his behaviour is left brain or right brain and that is the challenging part. It looks left brain/dominate but at times it feels like right brain/ lack of confidence/ scared. What ended up happening was that when ever I would ask Twosox to go out on the circle he would toss his head, and back up, pulling. A lot of opposition reflex there!! So after a lot of trial and error the phrase "zero brace" came into my head. So I decided to try instead of stopping Twosox from backing up, which wasn't working, I took his idea, went with it, made it my idea and then came back to the circle. This worked really well!! 

Twosox stopped pulling back and got light and connected again. Now this didn't help the cantering issue but at least we got our circles back to normal. 

Twosox was 100% more confident jumping today. He jumped the single barrel that way by the fence no problem. Just another reminder to take the time it takes and it will take less time!! 

Once I felt that Twosox was ready to ride I mounted up. We did lateral flexions which were fairly good then we moved on to the 9 step back up... which was broken. After playing around with it and not getting anywhere I dismounted and played with the porcupine game in zone one, backing up. Then I remounted and tried it again. This time it was much better. Twosox wasn't trying to escape and but at the same time he wasn't bracing. He was light and his head was lower. 

I felt that Twosox was not in tune with me and he was distracted. At this point I was thinking that a trail ride was definitely out of the question unless I was able to help Twosox get focused and listening to me. I picked circles so help get the rhythm, relaxation and connection that I was looking for and it worked very well! 

I LOVE riding circles. I could do them all day... RBI much? But of course I have been blessed with a LBI and a RBI/LBI so I have to make sure not to over do the pattern that I love so  much! 

Today our center was Mom and Knightly as they had just done circles and so there was a nice track in the dirt. Twosox needed many corrections at first but made sure to stay as consistent as possible and pretty soon we started getting really nice results. Twosox relaxed, he started getting straight on the circle and not looking out. We both gained a lot more focus. 

We stayed at the walk and kept it simple by meaningful and ended when I only had to make two corrections. Doing this pattern really made the difference in Twosox's mental, emotional and physical state. Things were looking up!

Twosox and I took a lot rest and then played with sideways. Which in the end went well and Twosox gave me some nice, soft sideways in both directions. Then we played with all 8 of our responsibilities at the halt for about 30 minutes as we waited for Mom to be ready and then we headed out! 

I was ready and prepared not to get on Twosox until he was ready and not before. He was definitely more confident and I felt that we could at least have success Online. We stopped at the end of our road for a while to talk to someone so I was able to see how Twosox handled the traffic, he was fine. We have ridden through town twice before (Twosox and I) but I wasn't going to make any assumptions!! 

Twosox was fine walking through town and the only little hiccup was when we came across a man whole... the exact same one that Prince spooked at last time we were out that way. So we did some squeeze games until Twosox was more calm about it and wasn't so scared. Then we carried on. The last time Mom and I rode out there were piles of wood chips on the side of the road and so I wanted to see what Twosox thought about those before I mounted. Things were looking up!! 

There were no issues with the wood chips. Twosox walked right up and started eating them :) So I mounted up and we continued on. Twosox was very relaxed and we were able to do lots of walking and trotting. Twosox took it all in stride and was calm, cool and collected! Again I was reminded of how smooth this horse is to ride!! His trot is to die for... but I guess that means a rough canter? Hehe we shall see. 

On the way home we trotted most of the way and this was when I saw Twosox start to totally relaxed and he started stretching, blowing, licking and chewing and etc. His head was almost on the ground!! At one point I felt something different happening under my saddle but quickly realized, to my complete joy, that Twosox was lifting his back up!! It was amazing!! 

We dismounted and walked through town and home again! It was such a great ride!! Twosox was a champ and we both had fun!! 

Naturally,

~Keri