October 6th, 2020-
This was the first trail ride that Ashkar and I went on together. We left Rockstar at the barn, he was not quite ready yet, and just did some hand walking. I took some carrots in my pocket to use as positive reinforcement and let her know that this is a fun, and not scary, activity. Abigail and I walked her on the trail to the left, in the photo we turned around and went that way, and once we reached a road on that path, we came back. Ashkar was very new to this and was still getting adjusted so there were a lot of things that she needed to learn. She was very fixated on different things going on around her, which it was important to work through this problem later. My biggest thing at that point was to make sure that trail riding was a fun and exciting adventure.
October 8th, 2020,-
When I started this trail ride, I made sure that I kept my nerves at a minimum so I can support her more. She gets nervous so I realized that I needed to be a better leader for her. She gets scared at different objects and people surrounding the trail so I also worked on having her keep her focus on me and brought more carrots with me like last time. We went farther than the previous trail to slowly get her out more and more. We walked on the road and up to a tree on the trail to the left. There was a lady that was walking on the road as we were out there so that was another obstacle that we had to work on. She did speed up a little to get by quicker but she was relatively calm, which is was the best for where we started. (Side note: Since it was October there was a kid that lived next door that had a Halloween mask and scared us more than the horses)
October 19th, 2020-
Repetition is one of the best ways to train Ashkar, it is the easiest way for her to learn, so that is why we went on the same trail a lot. When we first began this new type of training, trail riding and arena work, she started out as a follower but then worked her way up to being a leader. On the path, there was a giant tumble weed in the way but she did a great job of walking past it and being calm. Throughout the whole trail she was a little on edge though. Rockstar was whinnying a lot for her which made her a little more nervous. As we got closer to the barn she was very fixated on getting home and started to act a little excited. She was walking faster than usual and kept focusing on the barn, and Rockstar's whinnies. She was having some trouble stopping when I asked her too because she wasn't focused on the current trail or me. She did have a little trouble with this trail but it being a little longer than usual and it being almost dusk both could have been factors that made her a little more out of it.
October 28th, 2020-
I took Ashkar to the open field in front of our barn to walk her around a bit. She hadn't been out there in a while so it was good to be able to get her out over there too. She did a really great job. We were still working on her not fixating on certain things but other than that, she was able to walk around pretty calm. She spent most of her time looking around, but because it was a new area, that was okay for the first time. Although she would need to work through that habit later. She also did a nice job of walking around with only me and her.
After I walked her around in the front field for a couple of minutes, I took her on the actual trail. I took her on the trail to the right, the one different from before, and made sure to bring carrots again. There was a tarp on the trail to the left, which is one of the reasons we took that way. We both took quite a long time to get through the trail since it was our first time on that trail walking together. She does seem to be a bit better with this trail path rather than the other one though. She did a really good job on the mini hill leading up to the other part of the trail, which is a good skill she had. We walked up to the road on this path and then turned around. We didn't want to go too far, so that was a good point to use. She did walk faster and was a little nervous throughout the trail ride, but especially coming home. She was very fixated on the things around her but we were both a little distracted, and although we were, she did a great job. Ashkar did kept trying to eat my pinecone though. We saw a friend of ours at the end and that made Ashkar a little more on edge to get home but she was able to make it back relatively calm and collected, and did a fantastic job for the first time.
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