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Writer's pictureSarah Mracek

Trail Ride Training: Riding- January


January 2nd, 2021-

I started the New Year with a trail ride with Ashkar. We went out and she did a fantastic job getting out on the trail and walking past the logs. We walked past the bus stop and continued walking on the trail path. Since this was quite far for her, we went slow and had a couple breaks on the way. We went a lot further than we had ever been. When we got to a spot where there was a bunch of wire along side the trail, she was pretty nervous and wanted to go back but we got through it. We got to a good point to stop and turned around to go back. She was walking back too quickly though so Jan said to turn her around and walk a couple of feet and then turn back and keep going. I did this and she had a little trouble but was great anyways. She did amazing on this trail considering how far we went. She walked back without any issues and walked up the little hill without me having to jump off. (Side note: It is probably not a good idea to take your feet out of the stirrups on a trail but my feet were hurting and she is a good girl so it went okay. Just for future reference.) Great start to the year in general.



January 4th, 2021-

Over Winter Break, we went on a trail with Jan and Red. Abigail walked Rockstar along, although she could have ridden if she wanted, and I rode Ashkar. This trail went really well because we had Jan with us and she was able to help us work through any issues while we were on the actual trail. We went the farthest we had gone before with this trail, we went on a trail that was a couple miles away. Ashkar and I had the best time and it was really nice going out with a trained trail horse, Red, too. They were able to work off of him. We even meet another rider on the trail and they all stayed calm. This was the only trail were we went with Jan, but there are others where we were with other friends. Ashkar has improved with trail riding a lot at this point.



January 7th, 2021-

This trail was a bit of a mess on our part. We went out and she was doing really well. We went towards the direction with the ranch across the field, the way she has a little more trouble with. She was doing really awesome. We wanted to take one of the paths that we had taken a couple years ago. It was quite a steep hill to get up there and then we spent some time trying to find where we go down and out of the trail. We couldn't find it and I ended up jumping off and Abigail walked her down where we entered. We made sure she knew that she was a good girl and did nothing wrong, it was completely our fault. We had made a mistake of not knowing and although a lot of people look around for new trails, doing it with a new trail horse is not the best idea. She did a great job going back to the barn though and we didn't go back that way for a while.



January 11th, 2021-

Abigail came with us on the trail and rode Rockstar. This was one of the first times that Rockstar rode along with us. Going out together, they did so well. They did great getting out onto the trail and walking to the first road before the bus stop. Once we got to that road, Rockstar started to act up and Abigail got off. We decided to turn around and she walked the rest of the way back to the barn while I stayed on Ashkar and rode back. They were great on the way back and stayed calm. She did great with all of the little hills and things she had previously been scared of. It was a great trail for having both of them out together, especially while we were riding.



January 23rd, 2021-

Although this wasn't technically a real trail ride, I rode Ashkar in the open field in front of the barn. I worked on just walking around and stopping too. This field makes her nervous too so just getting her out there, when I can, helps for when we are on actual trails. She did great but we were still working on having her not fixate. It really did help going out in that field though for trail practice.



January 26th, 2021-

This is another trail where we went with one of our barn friends, Maureen, and her horse Willie. All of our horses are still pretty young, 7, 8, and 7, so it could have gotten a little crazy but all of the horses stayed calm the whole time. It went great. We took the three of them to the bus stop and back. We were all able to stay on for the whole ride. There were a couple times where they had to wait for me and Ashkar to get past something she was nervous about but other than that, she was fantastic. It is always a good time to be able to go with another barn friend. Rockstar did exceptional on this trail too.





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