Training update

No drama today!!  Poptart has started the trotting phase of his training and conditioning and it is going well. Today the pre-ride training plan was to start with 1 mile of walking to warm-up, then start 10 minutes of walk/trot transitions to progress towards eventually having beautiful balanced transitions using my seat only. Next the plan was to walk for a bit, then start a 10 minute segment of solid trotting with the focus on  relaxation and engagement of the hindquarters resulting in forward rhythmic trot with an appreciable cadence. Then walk again for a while and do a second 10 minute trot segment, followed with a nice forward loose-rein walk to finish up.

What actually happened... the trail had much more ice/snow/slippery mud-slush than anticipated!  We had a nice 5 min of walk/trot transitions before the turn-off to the water-logged and rocky single track trail, so the transitions were much more spread out and we instead practiced mud and water crossings.  I also really appreciated the 'real-life' transition practice - I decided to use the trail to my advantage and whenever a 10 ft segment of trot-able trail appeared I used it to practice our transitions.  I think it really helped Poptart understand the 'why' behind the transitions -- "if you don't decide to listen to my walk request then you will either slip in the mud-slush or stumble over rocks, etc." And that is what will actually happen in an endurance ride (at least in my mountainous rocky region)- we will have to do a million transitions to take advantage of every single step of trot-able terrain and when he really understands this new transition game over terrain he (hopefully) will learn to manage himself this way.

Unfortunately in the first bit of really decent mud-slush both of the well-broken hind hoof easyboots disappeared into deep muddy grave. More fortunately his new hind renegade hoof boots have already shipped out... so hopefully they will stay on better.

The remainder of our trot segments panned out about the same, I think we managed about 5-7 min of solid trot time before a slippery snow slush downhill section let us practice walking again :) But the transitions are great learning too!

Probably the best experience was playing 'leap-frog' with Wendy and Lynn.  At first I practiced trotting on ahead of them and we learned the real reason of having a mecate rein with a popper (ie rope swatter).  Poptart was not too keen to move out ahead of his friends but a small touch of the mecate to his hindquarters reinforced my prior seat/leg cue to continue trotting.  It wasn't the most beautiful trot (yet!)  but I was very pleased that he listened and somewhat willingly moved out of sight of his new horsey friends. During this period he initially was not 'forward off my leg' meaning he felt braced against me and not relaxed, but it was the very first time I have ever asked him to trot away from his friends. I am very optimistic he will continue to relax and then more softly move forward in this situation and then he will be able to start engaging his core...  And when he is behind other horses we are starting to have steps of very nice trot :)

Poptart actually handled being left behind by the other horses better than having to leave them himself.  He did request that we trot to catch up, but after I explained to him that we are going to walk only he offered a very nice forward walk on a loose rein (with only an occasionally, "please let's trot to catch up" request)  He remained very calm and listened to the lateral flexion, stopping/standing, and hindquarter yields that I used to re-focus him on me and maintain our walk-pace. It was great practice to just barely see the other horses ahead through the trees and around turns. This gave me more confidence that he will be able to keep his emotions under control at a ride when he will have horses moving behind and in-front of him and we will need to ride our own ride and not worry about the others. Yay! More progress and I am proud of Poptart.

At the very end Wendy graciously allowed me to practice loading in her trailer so Poptart gets used to all types of horse trailers. He was happy to walk right in and came out easily! :)