happy trails!

The day before we were due to set off to Brownsburg-Chatham, I was having a lesson on Mae when she suddenly would not strike off on a left canter. My trainer insisted I was doing something wrong, not giving with the rein, weight not evenly distributed but I knew something was wrong as the day before, and nearly every day, she will canter from the walk with a voice command and a leg squeeze, so I stood up for myself and Mae, said there must be something else, asked on the other rein, and she struck off, but was limping noticeably. So, I hopped off the poor mare and walked her back to the barn. It's her near shoulder and with hosing and reduced turn out, she's a lot more comfortable on it now. Today I took her for a walk in hand and we went past the yearling donkey up the street and she was suitably prancy about it. It meant, of course, that I couldn't take her for a two day trail, no matter how longingly I stared at her shoulder, willing it to be better!

So, I took Chelsea, the palomino Paint mare, who can be a real plug on a trail, or a real bitch. Either way, she's not spooky and she travels well, so she seemed pretty keen to go on the adventure, so I was happy for her and only a little sad for myself :(..!

It was about 2.5 hours north east of Magog, up to Montreal and then west towards Ottawa. We did about 40km the first day and about 20km on the second half day as rain was forecast - and duly arrived! - for the afternoon. Chelsea was a thug all the first day, always pulling on the reins, fussing when she was behind the other horses, trotting too fast with her head down at her knees.

Chelsea at our final rest stop after about 35km in 25+c heat. And she'd pulled my arms all day!

On the second day, she was calm, steadier and had a mouth as light as a feather. It was a huge relief. I guess she'd had a think overnight about which behaviour would be least tiring for her!

Back at the farm, all the horses had the weekend off and today I worked with Stormy, the scared Rocky, and Lilly, the baby Rocky, on longeing. Stormy was very scared of me asking her to go away from me and ran round in circles pretty unhappily for a while, until she worked out I wasn't beating her when I spun my rope at her. Each time she stopped she wanted to turn and face me with her eyes showing white and snorting. I got her to just stop without walking towards me, and gave her a forehead rub and gentle neck pats when she relaxed. She went both ways, if not happily, but she does seem confused about the whole point of longeing, and kept touching me with her nose when I went to pet her.

Lilly got it pretty quick and only had one freak out where she ran back the length of the line after something (nothing!) spooked her while she was walking round, and then it took a while to calm her snorting and panicky running, but she settled and we worked on woah and walk on, which were ok for the first time.

Plenty to work on with both of them now. I want to longe successfully and then move on to long lines, before either are saddled; Lilly for the first time ever, Stormy for the first time in her new, non-scary life.

I work Lilly with occasional treats as she is fairly submissive and doesn't become pushy or expectant. When she arrived she had no idea what a treat was, which was refreshing, so she does seem to take positive reinforcement from them. Stormy is a different matter and is always looking to be in charge and is very pushy for treats so she gets release from pressure and lots of hand to body contact as a reward.