Trail Ride

Werther has the weekend off, this is my post about yesterday's ride which I was going to write last night, but I got too caught up in the presidential debates. Thanks to global warming yesterday was hot and humid. My Mom and I took advantage of the nice weather to go out on a trail ride with Werther and Tryst. My Mom does the a/o jumpers and has several horses, and when we have been taking the horses out we have normally paired up Werther with Stoli.

Werther did not like going out with Tryst quite as much, Tryst was leading and he is a real wiggle worm on the trail, always going from one side of the trail to to the other. This annoyed Werther, as the trails have been cut for the local foxhunt and are plenty big enough for two horses to go abreast but because of Tryst's wiggly behavior he had to travel further back and I had to shift Werther quite a bit to make sure that he was not directly behind Tryst. Other than that the trail ride was uneventful which I was grateful for, as I had that fall last time we went out. In fact, Werther was even lazier than usual and would barely trot up the little hills we set them on.

I finished the trail ride by walking Werther up the bank jump and into the outdoor ring where we worked on our canter. I did the walk trot transitions that Andre recommended in my lesson the day before and it was pretty successful. I asked Werther to pick up the left lead first which is easier for me because I can use my right leg, and I was able to get it on the second attempt. I switched directions and did the same exercise with the right lead, which is more difficult for me, and Werther picked it up on the first attempt. After we were done Werther got a bath, which he was less than pleased about, but the horse cookies I gave him seemed to console him.