Out on the trail

[glenatron]

On Friday I went out on the kind of ride that is the reason we own horses.



Heading out onto the fire break, the sun painting everything up brightly.


Our shadow on the ground.


Ascending sunwards, the perfect place for a fast canter.


Thursday's storm winds had stripped most of the leaves from the trees, but one birch had held on obstinately, standing out like a candle on the heath.


A grey mane and a winter sun.


I like trying to capture the difference in light so that it looks a bit as though Iris has been photoshopped into the picture.

After that ride I was in a super happy mood and went off to teach - actually mostly to put some work in with my student's horse, who has been making some great progress but after a big jump forward during the previous session went through the worst bucking I have seen from her and then reared vertically, at which point I bailed rather than risk her flipping on me. I did a little more groundwork and then got some nice quiet work from her after that, but it was a shame because it put something of a damper on an otherwise excellent day.


Today I finally persuaded herecirm to go for a ride on Iris and my mare was impeccably behaved throughout, very nearly.



Heading down into the village.


Out of the clear blue sky, like some descending valkyrie in pink hi-vis.


The birches and clear blue sky made this part a little bit like riding into a Victorian watercolour painting, something that might be on the cover of a Hardy novel. Except for the traffic noise from the dual carriageway beside the common at any rate. I think this time has a lot to commend it, but I would love to be able to hear how these familiar places sounded a hundred years ago, just to be able to remember it.


My attempt to get a different angle for this photo meant it came out a bit like stalker-cam footage.


Making their way off into the woods. Iris was somewhat vexed by the presence of swans just before this. I think she suffers a general perplexity regarding the existence and meaning of waterfowl.


Or possibly she wants to be a water animal herself and feels they are encroaching.


I just really like the way this shows off her dapples.


Starting up the homeward hill. Iris was a little hurried up here and after a short trot ( and canter ) herecirm asked her to stop, which she wasn't keen on, the to come back towards me ( and away from home ) at which point she put in a pretty serious bucking fit. Sari rode through it and was fine, but it was a real shame because Iris had been so good up to that point, and pretty much was the rest of the time too.


Iris has some chill out time in which we wait until she can stand nicely and not be all wiggly and hyperactive.


Two forms of transport, a hundred years apart, similar colour scheme. The church would I suppose have seen more horses than cars in the nine hundred years it has stood here.


My mare, very nearly a proper riding horse.

Comments

[spirithorse21.livejournal.com]

I want your trail riding place. That sandy lane looks awesome!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

We're pretty lucky to be on sand- the trails don't get too muddy even in rainy winter days and this time of year and they're always a pleasure to ride on.

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

What a good mare! I love her dapples. <3 She seems tall, is she?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

She's a good 16.2hh. I think over the next couple of years she will go through that rocking-horse phase.

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! She's a big girl!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

She is, I'm fairly tall, so I need a horse of a decent size or I look like I'm sat on a shetland pony :)

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos. Nice to see Iris walking out so well and so relaxed! That's no small achievement in a young horse.

Shame about the tantrum, as you say... but, young horse brain, it hurts sometimes.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It does. Especially when young horse is a mare and she has learned enough to be very clear that you're doing it wrong. We went for a very long ride yesterday where we took an exceptionally twisty route that went through all the main places where a we would normally turn for home, and turned away from home then waited until mares were able to accept this plan before carrying on. Hopefully this will help her change her thinking. It's certainly worn me out.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether you ever have recourse to bribery?

My brother's in the process of helping my sister-in-law clicker train a mare who Does Not Like The Farrier - he says spearmint polos have special properties when it comes to establishing new neural pathways...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's not an area I favour- its fine for trick training ( I'd say picking up feet is pretty much a trick and there are a few other atomic tasks that it works great for ) but I find clicker work to be a little bit of a dead end for most ridden work. In this case I'm quite happy that Iris will get the idea soon enough, she has just got confused between a hack being "go along a certain well-established route" and it being "go along the route you are directed on." That sounds a bit right-wing, but it's an important distinction- if we have to turn back one day because the trail is blocked we can't be having bucking fits and tantrums.

She's discovering that taking over the steering always ends up being a lot more work and never seems to actually get her home any sooner ( or even if she does get home, she just has to do laps of the school for a while and then go back out again ) and she's a very smart mare so I don't expect this to be a long-lasting problem. It was far worse with Zorro who got quite determined about taking he home for a while. A more intensive version of the "if you take me home it won't be as good as you expect" approach changed his mind really quickly.