First Trail Ride with Leah

I had a busy two weeks entertaining family. Lots of family. In fact, almost our entire combined family. Everyone traveled at once, and converged, at various times, upon our house. 

That meant the horses were off for two weeks because I did not have even one spare moment to play with them. At one point, the grandkids asked if we could have horse time, but that day I was making a brunch and then dinner for 25-30. 

It was a super fun whirlwind of activity, and I was tired, but as the last guest was pulling out, yesterday morning, I hooked up my truck to the horse trailer and headed out to meet Regina with Tweed and Leah. 

Tweed was amped up after that much time off, but Leah knew her only job was to stand and look pretty, which she did so well that I had to snap this photo. 

There was some huge group of kids right behind Leah in that photo. They parked themselves there all day and were running all over the place and being super loud and unpredictable. It was an organized group of some sort, but I don’t know what their goal was there or why they chose the equestrian area.  At any rate, they made a good training opportunity. 

We worked on all the same stuff we usually do, seeing how long Tweed could maintain his frame on a loose rein (2-3 steps) and then collect him back into vertical flexion. Regina found that turning him in a wide circle (in vertical flexion) then immediately asking for the canter as we ended the circle, set him up best for collection. She was telling me to do that, but I kept confusing her directions and trotting onto the circle for a bit, then asking for canter. When I finally understood her, we had beautiful trot to canter transitions. 

I had plans with my husband after our lesson to ride Leah and Tweed on the trail. In retrospect, it was a dumb idea since he had never rode Leah (she was only ever ridden by me) and Leah hadn’t even been ridden AT ALL in 2-3 years. You can imagine her shock when her job description quickly shifted from looking pretty to figuring out what in the hell this new rider wanted of her. 

And off we go!

Leah walks out fast. She’s a big horse, I always had her ride lead, and she was amped up with my husband. Tweed could barely keep up, and we often had to trot to catch up. 

We went along pretty well for a while, but eventually we ran across a party of four horses and riders and Leah wanted to follow them home. She started to pull that direction and escape my husband’s control. I was paying so much attention to them that I couldn’t focus on Tweed, but he was getting equally amped up. I asked my husband if he felt safe enough to dismount and walk the rest of the way with her so that I could school Tweed in the trees. 

My thinking is that Leah is already a trail horse, I rode her all over for many years, but she and him need time together in a controlled environment. Tweed, on the other hand, is somewhat new to trail riding, and his schooling takes priority. 

With my husband safely on the ground and Leah back to only looking pretty, I began my work. I would check in with T, but if I didn’t get a response, I’d ask for vertical flexion, if he acted upset about that, we’d circle into the trees and work, then go back out on the trail and repeat. It worked really well, and he got back into his thinking brain. 

The ride was about 45 minutes, which is rather short (but eventful) and I didn’t want them to think coming back to the trailer was a reward, so we went to work again—for Tweed it was a repeat of the morning class, plus riding over the obstacle course, and then in the arena with a new horse (a friend of mine arrived) and Leah (who my husband had finally figured out with my direction) and for Leah, it was round pen work, then arena. 

Leah’s issue was speed. She wanted to control the speed by breaking into a trot and taking control. My husband kept pulling on the reins and asking her to “walk.” I rode Tweed over to them and gave him a mini lesson on my old girl. When she speeds up, turn her in a wide (keyword: WIDE) circle and back the other direction. Do it immediately when she picks up the trot. 

Of course, it worked like a charm because Leah is inherently lazy AND smart, and she knows the drill. When we went into the arena, he did the same thing and it didn’t take long before he had a solid citizen. They looked really good together at the end, but I didn’t get a photo. 

My husband had so much fun with her that he wants to go again this afternoon and work on those basics and a little trail work. I think it gave him a new appreciation for foundational work, since he is so used to riding the dead broke grandkid horses who you just point down the trail while you drink a beer. Leah has been that horse for me, but after so long a time off, he has to earn it with her. 

By the time we were finished, Tweed had been working for 3 hours, and he was more than happy to cock a leg and fall asleep. 

My husband had brought a bottle of wine, which we also shared with the friend who had showed up. 

I am so happy my husband is enjoying horses again and is excited to ride with me because the next phase of making Tumbleweed a full fledged trail horse is going to take a lot of riding WITH another horse, and a lot of Leah looking pretty while we work out the kinks. I think she’s going to love her new job. It will require a lot of standing around watching Tumbleweed do all the work. Every horse LOVES to be in that role. Haha.