Today, 10/22/13, I would like to discuss what it is we want in a well trained trail horse. I see so very many people out on rides who are just being conveyed by their horse for the duration of the ride. The horse gets to decide when it will change gates without correction by its rider. When it comes up on an unusual obstacle it balks and put up a fight about getting past it. Sometimes they bolt and run away with the rider. I have both seen this second hand as other rider's horses ran away with them and first hand when Fancy bolted on me and slid down in a turn going about 40 mph knocking me out and knocking out the vision in my left eye. The moral? It behooves us to be sure of our horse's training, and take extra care when we know that we are riding a green horse on a ride. And we should always keep in mind that we are always training our horses, if we allow a bad behaviour it has just learned that it can do that, will do it over and over until it is corrected.
So what is it that a good trail horse should know?
I will list what I believe is important in no particular order, and you can feel free to add to this list if you think I may have left something out.
- The horse should stand still to be mounted from either side. The rider may hurt the normal mounting leg or foot and have to mount from the off side. The rider should be able to get off and back on regardless of what the other horses are doing.
- It should not mind being around strange horses.
- It should not kick at other horses, but if it does the rider should tie a red ribbon to the base of its tail.
- It should be able to cross water unhesitately.
- It should be able to cross ditches, even if the ditch requires a jump.
- It should be able to let other horses run past it without thinking it is a race. It need to know that it does not need to be the front horse of the group.
- It should not change gates until the rider asks it to do so, and it should stay in that gate until the rider asks for another change.
- Conversely it should not hesitate when ask to change gates.
- It should be accustomed to dogs, because as you pass houses with dogs, the dog is just doing its job by raising the alarm.
- It should be able to stand tied for hours at a time.
These are the charististic of a good trail horse that come to my mind, if I have overlooked any please comment on them.
Atribures from this point come from the suggest I have received:
- It should know and respond to leg cues.
- It should be able to go off trail and through the bramble without concern.
- Be able to abide traffic around it without being concerned.
- To be able to ride with ease away from and back to any group of horses and people.
- To be able to back up when requested.
- To be able to walk unconcernedly through mud and mud puddles.
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