No Frills 30 mile LD Endurance Ride

We completed our first 30 miles together!!! 

Pre-Ride Thoughts...

My biggest goal is to have Poptart stay relaxed through out the ride and start, and maintain his comfortable 7-8 mph trot and not get dragged along into the bigger horses 10 mph trots... Even if I have to go over time to work him through things, it is more important to me to set things up so he learns to be good at future rides rather than just push through this one. But hopefully we will succeed at both goals of staying safe and relatively calm (both Poptart and me!) and complete the ride.

I am also concerned about saddle fit, saddle fit is a continual work in progress. I had it shimmed so it seemed to be working, but then I checked the fit again without shims last week and it seemed significantly improved with much less sideways/diagonal rock... Maybe he gained weight and muscle changing the fit? He also had skin twitches at the shim area after the last ride and did not move out as easily downhill. I decided to go shimless, and put them in the saddle pack in case he showed signs of soreness at the vet checks.

Day 1
Thursday morning, after my appointments, I am finally packed and ready to go.  A quick lunch and I loaded Poptart and off we headed on just a 30 minute drive to Star Tannery, Virginia.  After our arrival I settled Poptart in on his Easy Care Hi-Tie System, got our registration packet, then walked him up to the vetting area to have him vetted-in early so I could get to work vetting the other horses in!  Poptart was a little nervous as he was the only horse up at the barn and the ride had just laid out a fresh stonedust trotting lane that contrasted sharply with the surrounding clay/shale footing;  Poptart seemed to think it might be a long horse-eating strip that he must avoid.  However he did well for the exam and danced his way down the lane through his trot out :) I then left him hi-tied and hurried back up to the barn to get to work vetting in all the other arrivals. Poptart seemed to be settled in well during the afternoon and during the pre-ride dinner and meeting.  I am not sure either of us slept well, he was a little nervous being in an unfamiliar situation and I was nervous he was going to get hung-up in the hi-tie or panic any time I felt the trailer bump -- eventually I figured out he was just moving his hay-bag aggressively, rocking the trailer :)

Day 2
Friday morning dawned early, thankfully, as I accidentally set my alarm 30 min later than I thought... After waking to the morning light I fed Poptart his breakfast, took him for a walk around camp and then met up with the volunteers and ride management headed to the away vet check.  A lovely junior rider watched Poptart all day while I was at the away check vetting horses, and she walked him several times throughout the day (Thank you!!!).  I returned to camp and chaos as the 55 mile horses were finishing, the head-vet was doing best-condition judging, and all of Saturday's riders were waiting to have their horses vetted in... I  quickly glanced at Poptart and he looked very relaxed with plenty of hay and water, standing with a hip-cocked despite being right next to the chaotic vetting area with busy porta-potties and loud generators starting (or trying to start!). I was very impressed with his relaxed attitude, I think he feels better being right in the thick of things and he frets when left behind.  After the pre-ride dinner, my husband arrived to support me through Poptart's first ride. He volunteered at the away vet check on Saturday and helped crew for me and all of the riders. He looked at the weather forecast prior to coming and saw that it had a decreasing chance of rain after 9pm, going down to 20% with a low around 58 F.  We packed the away vet check bag with careful thought and placed it in the designated ride management trailer. We had decided put Poptart's rain sheet in the bag along with his electrolytes (and a soda for me!) as I was concerned with him getting chilled at our 45 min hold and the chance of rain seemed low.

Day 3 (the ride)
Very unfortunately the weather did not do as earlier forecast and it rained all night.  About 3 am Poptart seemed fine, eating hay and not cold, but when I woke again at 6 am he was shivering.  Once again neither of us slept well -- he was miserable in the rain without his sheet and I was worried about him.  And it was still raining... I hurried through the rain in my pajamas and found my crew bag in the pile of bags in the trailer, dried him off (in the rain...), put his sheet on with a polar fleece underneath and started to hand walk him to help him warm up. I felt terrible, he should have had his sheet on all night, what a mistake! Graham left to go to the away vet check about 7:15 am and I braided Poptart's mane and his tail with a green ribbon, then put his renegade viper hoof boots on, and it still continued to rain, and rained harder... I was very glad I had a 9 am start unlike all the riders doing the 55 mile that started in the pouring rain at 7am! About 8 am the rain lightened and then changed to a foggy mist. We were tacked up and in the saddle by 8:30 am, first starting with some ground exercises to help both of us relax.  He did great in his warm-up, even happily eating grass during all the commotion (I believe about 47 horses were entered in Saturday's LD ride). Once again he likes to be in the middle of everything.

The first 10 miles:  We started a few minutes after 9 am to let the front runners and fast horses get on their way.  He happily trotted up the road for about 1/2 mile until we were then passed by several horses.  Poptart and I then had to have discussion that included a several baby rears on his part, a very quick and fully intentional emergency dismount on my part, and then a prolonged discussion that resulted in an in-hand groundwork session up the mountain for the next mile or so... We did lots of walk/trot transitions and some backing up until he could, once again, stay next to me on a loose lead like normal trained horse :) After all the horses seemed to pass us and I figured we must be last on the trail I remounted and Poptart and I compromised on a steady forward trot that did not include any rearing. We then turned off the road onto the trail that led up to the mountain ridge.  The trail was much more challenging than during on fundraiser ride last week (on the same portion of trail) due to the night of rain.  I describe the trail footing as brownie batter with walnuts (or rocks...), that had been freshly churned up by many previous hooves. On the bright side Poptart had to think about his footing so he stopped fretting so much about the other horses, he truly tuned back in to me when we approached a large horse-eating boulder/monster.  I think his lack of confidence about the large boulder helped him look to me and we safely went past the large rock (which somehow was different than the hundreds of other large rocks he already had passed!).  The trail was a bit eerie at this point, I was all by myself and the fog was closing in so we only had about 20 feet of visibility.

We then turned onto a forest service road prior to connecting to the Tuscarora Trail that would lead us up the mountain ridgeline.  A little ways in Poptart heard hoofbeats behind us, I was surprised as I truly thought we were the Turtle rider at that point!  Later I heard that a group of LD riders had missed a turn and had to catch back up, so that might be what happened.  Poptart was very happy to settle in with a group of other riders and he kept pace very well.  We then turned on the Tuscarora trail, crossed highway 55 and headed up the mountain.  The trail was full of walk-trot transitions in order to make time wherever the rocks allowed.  At the top of the ridge there is a well known rock which Poptart and I both learned about, I wish I had a picture but let us just say that was not the moment that you take your phone out for photos!  It was on top of  the ridge on single track brownie-batter trail with steep mountain up on the left and steep slope down on the right. I saw all the others horses navigating the trail slowly and carefully, sticking to the left and picking their way down the rocky incline.  Then my turn came and Poptart and I walked up the rocks and I saw "the big bad rock". I would describe it as a straight and sheer rock about 3' x 3' set just shy of a straight drop (maybe 30 degree incline?), it dropped onto a section of loose muddy trail that abruptly gave way to the steep right hand mountainside.  In my naivety I assumed Poptart would carefully pick his way down the left side of the rock as did all the horses in front of him. No, he likes to be dramatic, so he takes a magnificent leap down the rock and lands precariously on the edge of the slick mud mountainside, scrambles for his footing and thankfully the edge does not give way and we continue down the trail, albeit with my heart pounding for a few minutes.

After several miles we hit the downhill trail that takes us to the vet check.  There I meet my riding buddy, Kaitlyn and Lucky, who we joined for the rest of ride. Our horse's paced well together and became best of friends during the ride. This downhill seemed less rocky, perhaps it was just my perception after the previous ridgeline, but it was still quite muddy and slick.  This is where Poptart really figured things out and excelled. For those of you that know Rogan, know he would have crept down this at a walk, slipping and sliding the entire way. Poptart balanced himself, engaging his hindquarter, and kept a 7-8 mph balanced trot down the slip n' slide mountain never missing a step, I just tried to remember to breathe and maintain a neutral pelvis/seat, and stayed of his way.  At the bottom Kaitlyn and I picked up a nice canter on the forest road to the vet check. Then I felt an abrupt hopping and we quickly came to a stop where I saw the left hind boot had come off and was wrapped around his pastern.  I am very thankful that Poptart handled this well and did not become overly reactive to the boot suddenly attacking his hind leg. I put the boot back on and we trotted into the first vet check, just a 10 minute hold after pulsing down.  Poptart is an endurance machine and was already pulsed down by the time we were at the check and he trotted very sound, so up the hill we headed for a few minutes of rest. The fog had cleared and they weather was looking great. We completed the first 10 miles in about 2 hrs 8 min, including our late start, impromptu training session, and boot repair stop.

The 2nd loop and 13 miles: Graham headed my way to help crew for me at the vet check (he is wonderful!!!). We quickly stripped Poptart's tack, which was not required, but I was worried about saddle fit and needed to check his back for soreness and dry areas to see if I would need to put the shims in, etc. Fortunately, his back looked great with even sweat patterns and no soreness. Tack went back on, Poptart was inhaling the provided hay and grain/beet pulp and it looked like left hind hoof boot might hold up for the next loop.  The boot had a frayed cable but was still intact.  We left after about 20 minutes, instead of 10 min, because it took a few extra minutes to check his back and the boot but we were still okay time-wise for completion. The 2nd loop was home-territory and Poptart and I have ridden this trail twice in the last few weeks (thank you Wendy for accompanying us on those expeditions!).  He recognized the Wilson Cove Trail as soon as we turned left off the single-track from the vet check and both horses kept up a great forward 8-10 mph trot until we reached the left-hand turned up the Old Virginia Mailpath trail which is a steady climb with some rocks up to the next ridgeline.  Poptart was very comfortable with the this trail, took the lead of our group, and very handily trotted up the mountain.  The left hind boot strap came loose about 2/3rds of the way up so the group passed (except for Lucky and Kaitlyn) while I fixed the strap, then we continued on.  This part of the trail went very quick and smooth for us, it was nice!  I had planned on dismounting once we turned right onto Racer Camp Hollow trail due to the terrible stream beds and rocks, but the trail seemed slightly better than a few weeks ago, perhaps due to all the horses ahead of us or maybe a change in perspective again, so I stayed on. Poptart did great picking his way through the rocks, but my boot strap kept coming loose so eventually I just removed it making the renegade like an easyboot glove with a gaiter.   However, as we traveled down the rock stream bed washes (aka trail) it became increasingly muddy eventually turning into cannon bone deep quagmires.  I was pretty worried I was going to loose a boot, heck this mud would have sucked my boots off! By a miracle all 4 boots stayed on, including the broken left hind boot. We eventually came back out onto the fire road and Poptart was very thankful to be on nice trail again. In fact he was so thankful he wanted to race forward back to the vet check so we had our 2nd discussion of the ride.  He had another baby rear and I led him for a bit, then remounted with Lucky in front. Again we compromised on a nice forward trot which worked when he stayed behind Lucky and with time he settled back down again and took the lead. My boot came off again about 30 ft before the vet check, this time the cable was completely broken. This loop took us about 2 hr and 20 min.

The 3rd loop and 8 miles:  We came into the hold, stripped tack and headed to the pulse station. Once again Poptart was pulsed down and I went straight to get vetted. Unfortunately, this upset Lucky who was still getting pulsed so I returned and she pulsed a few minutes later. Both horses looked great at vetting and we went back up hill to rest for our 45 minute hold.   We spent a bit of time figuring out how to get the hoof boot to work for the last 8 easy miles of forest road.  We ended up pushing the broken end of the cable back through its slot, tying a knot in it so it wouldn't slip out and then I strapped the heel captivator velcro diagonally to the remaining tensioner piece.  Poptart ate like a machine, got his electrolytes, and I got a quick snack as well and a bathroom break. We then headed back out on trail at 2:37 pm.  This part of the trail was very simple which was refreshing after the previous technical portions of trail. Just 7-8 miles of rolling hill forest road.  Poptart was settled and had a gorgeous 8-10 mph trot on a nice loose rein that just ate up the mile (notwithstanding his abrupt stops when he spotted a tasty drinking puddle). The hoof boot stayed, despite a few more mud quagmires right before reaching ride camp.  We completed at about 3:45 pm (I don't have the official time yet) and Poptart was eager for more with all A's on his vet card.


Post Ride:  About 30 minutes after completion Poptart started to act a bit off, he rolled a few times (normal for him), but would stop and stare at the ground with glazed eyes. He urinated a small amount of concentrated urine and passed 2 small drier poops.  He would not eat or drink anything including grass or carrots. I gave him more electrolytes, checked his heart rate and gut sounds which were all good.  However, he kept acting not right and started to park out a little in his stance. I was worried about a low-grade colic since he was not eating, was parking out, and had rolled a few times. I took him up to Dr. Lynn Johnson, the treatment vet, who ran bloodwork and gave him a small amount of banamine and oral electrolyte solution.  His bloodwork looked great, no electrolyte imbalances or dehydration. We decided he was just exhausted and coming off the adrenaline of the ride.  I took him back to the trailer to let him rest.  When Graham arrived back at camp Poptart was starting to fall asleep standing up.  I don't mean just resting, his head would drop and his hind end would start to collapse, then he would startle awake and right himself.  We decided to just let him rest and Graham watched him while I headed home to shower and feed Rogan and the cats.   When I returned to camp, I heard that Poptart had continued act very oddly. He had layed down, but was making odd movements with his mouth and body while laying down.  Graham didn't think it seemed like seizure activity and Poptart would respond to stimulation.  He did get up and then layed down again, then while being hand walked he rolled. Graham took him back up to Dr. Lynn who checked his vitals which all sounded good. However, on the way up to Dr. Lynn Poptart's adrenaline came up because he was leaving the other horses. We were pretty concerned but when I returned to camp he was resting quietly so elected to keep him in camp and watch him closely throughout the night. Overnight he did lay down on the Hi-Tie and rest, then about 3 am he was eating grain/mash and hay again. In the morning he seemed back normal and had finished most of his mash.

Day 4: Our original plan was to stay in camp and help ride management clean up, but with Poptart not being quite right post-ride we headed home soon after first light.  He was very happy to be home and started mowing down the back yard while I was taking his sheet off.  Once turned out he had a good roll, reaching his preferred state of being covered by mud and leaves, and then had a good gallop around the field with Rogan. He has been normal all day and ate all his breakfast and dinner.  I spent the rest of the day unpacking and cleaning loads of mud off all my tack and boots and clothes, etc. Also managed to get house chores done to prepare for the work week ahead. I feel very happy and tired, and have loads of information to process so I can successfully prepare for our next ride and hopefully avoid repeating the same mistakes!

Thank you Becky Pearman for the great ride photos!  http://www.beckypearman.smugmug.com/

Confidence Building and Saddle fit

We did some confidence building today while Poptart's back gets a rest.  Poptart has a history of being reactive to things such as sticks touching his legs on the trail, even on the last trail ride we practiced 'airs above the ground'. Poptart has an excellent move (someday I need a to get a video) where he leaps into the air with all 4 legs, levitates forward about 5 feet and lands, similar to a deer bound or a 'fraidy cat jump.  We did this on Friday while passing between 2 large (horse-eating) boulders meant to stop vehicles from accessing the trail, unfortunately a stick happened to lay between the boulders and had the audacity to touch his leg during his passage.  My riding buddy, Wendy, got a great view of our leap and I found, once again, Poptart is taking me with him when frightened.  Hence our practice... (we also practiced with dragging the hay net at a walk and trot, dragging pool noodles by the hind legs, hind-leg hobbling, and walking through the tires). Next time I will take him through the woods and work with larger branches.

Also, on Friday's ride I tried the Torsion Treeless saddle with a Woolback pad with ultracell inserts. I was very confident this would work for Poptart, as it has always worked well for my other horses, so I went for a full length training ride which hindsight was a mistake. The saddle with that padding was a terrible failure, Poptart was so very sore after that ride (see video). Thankfully he is already doing much better, almost back to normal.  I have worked on re-adjusting the shims on my ATH saddle and also have another trial saddle in transit.  We will get something to work out, hopefully in time for our first LD endurance ride at No Frills!

Saddle fit (again)

Poptart has been doing well since his time-off, he seems to have gained weight and muscle and is in high spirits!  We have been returning to conditioning and he is tackling each challenge with relish, and when he spooks or is scared he now takes me with him.  This is a big change from several months ago where each spook necessitated him ridding himself of his rider.  I think we have had big gains in trust and comfort with each other, hopefully our partnership continues this way! For example during our last ride a branch (or monster) grabbed his leg and held on for a bit, instead of having a bucking/kicking fit, he just scooted forward rather quickly and listened very well to a 1-rein stop and after 3 circles he was good to go -- as if he said "it was just a little fright mom, we are all good to keep going".  Also, during our saddle fitting trials I came out onto the run-in overhang porch area with the saddle in hand.  He saw that I was carrying a new and improved horse eating monster :) I retreated a few steps and he was confident enough not to flee.  I then approached and he was comfortable with me then stroking his neck  while he checked out the saddle-monster.  He then sighed and licked/chewed and let me place it on his back while I checked out the fit of the most recent shimming (all loose at liberty without any restraint).  Progress is the little things!

Back to saddle fit... While I love my About the Horse Saddle by David Genadek, as-is it started to cause loin soreness on challenging mountain rides (see the orange outlined area in the picture).  The first soreness I found was in February after a particularly challenging ride in both distance and elevation (13.3 miles with 4900' elevation change in 4 1/2 hours).  David then helped me out and sent some shims.  I played with those and found that I could velcro them to the wool underside of the saddle using the rough side of velcro sticky strips which I adhered to the shims.  This seemed to be working well, but unfortunately after our last ride Poptart was very sore from mid-back almost to his hip (he is much better already!).  As I figure things out about saddle fit I noticed that the saddle seems to have a lot of diagonal rock, meaning when his shoulder movement lifts the left front of the saddle then it pushes it into the right loin (I think).  We will see what shimming may help this new challenge!

 In the mean time I am trying demo saddles from Trailwise saddles -- they make really interesting
lightweight endurance saddles with shimmable panels, adjustable seat shimming, and adjustable rigging position. I really like the idea of being able to easily tweak the saddle, but we still have to accomplish a good basic tree fit.  I tried the flat-bar tree and its seems to flat, it is tight in the shoulder and bridges a bit -- more than can easily be corrected with shims.  The other recommended tree style is being shipped for Poptart and I to try. The seat was comfortable and while the saddle is the stripped down lightweight model everything is of very nice quality.  In the meantime I fit my old standby treeless Torsion to Poptart today, adjusting the stirrups and breast collar, putting on the sheepskin seat instead of the OEM seat, etc.  We will try the Torsion out on our rides this weekend, it is not my favorite as far as riding position and stability. Hopefully it will work for him and see us through No Frills (or I will be able to shim our ATH saddle appropriately).

12 second video, 8 months of teaching and trust!

 Poptart's brain is still exercising during his rest period!  I am so excited that he finally got to the point where he can drag something!  8 months ago he was a very non-trusting fear kicker and to be confident enough to finally drag something behind him (where all the horse eating monsters live!) is so amazing :) 

Anaplasmosis, renegade hoof boots, and saddle pressure

It has been an interesting last few weeks. Most recently both Rogan and Poptart have Anaplasmosis, a tickborne disease transmitted by the deer tick caused by the bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum. This was discovered by running routine annual bloodwork on both horses and finding minor abnormalities in their white blood cell count, low platelets, and slightly increased muscle enzymes. While having their annual dentistry, sheath cleanings, and osteopathy session Dr. Ann-Marie (Rectortown Equine Clinic) thought Poptart's muscles felt unusually stiff and tight. In light of the muscle tightness and bloodwork abnormalities she suggested screening for tickborne disease; both horses tested highly positive for Anaplasmosis.   Luckily both horses are mainly asymptomatic (horses can have fever, lethargy, muscle stiffness, anorexia, edema, and skin hemorrhage/petechia among other signs) and they are readily eating their antibiotics in their special antibiotic feed mash twice daily.  In just a few weeks they should be back to normal.

Prior to this, Poptart's pair of hind hoof renegade hoof boots arrived. The quality of the materials seemed excellent, very top-end!  I carefully read the instructions for correctly adjusting the cable tension and boots to your horse's hoof.  After several hours of frustration of trying to adjust each velcro strap overhang to be between 1/2 - 3/4" and having the cable tension of the heel captivator piece be just right I was just about ready to send the boots right back. Then I realized the velcro strap can be shortened too, oh...  Needless to say that solved the fitting dilemma.  On the first trial run we had a hard 13-14 mile ride in the snow/mud/slush (and don't forget the loads of rocks!) with almost 5000' elevation change. I had to replace the old easyboot epics on the front hooves 3-4 times as they came off in the difficult terrain. The new renegades never budged. After the ride Poptart's feet looked excellent, no signs of rubbing or chaffing from any of the boots. Success!!!!

But then I palpated Poptart's back and I paid careful attention to his loin area as Dr. Ann Marie had found that on the right side his last rib was 'out'. Poptart was sore on both the left and right sides (maybe worse on the right?) at the edge of the back muscle, about 4-5" down from the spine.  His sweat pattern was great but obviously we were getting some inappropriate pressure on the back.  The next day I examined the saddle and Poptart and found that the bottom edge of the saddle bar at the rear of the saddle was putting pressure in the sore area, the saddle bar seems slightly steeper than Poptart's back :(   I am working with David, www.aboutthehorse.com, the saddle-maker and he is fantastic and helping me shim the saddle to correct the problem. Right now the shims are in-route via USPS.  I am looking at some other saddles too as my current saddle (while amazing quality and comfy) is almost 25 lbs and possibly not quite right (but maybe workable) for Poptart. There are some really nice, adjustable/shim-able, very light weight (10 lbs) endurance saddles on the market that might hopefully be a good fit.  Poptart only weighed 806 lbs at the vet, and while he probably could stand to gain at least 50 lbs he will always be a small horse. I would like my total rider + tack weight to not significantly exceed 20% of his weight. At 850 lbs of horse that means all my stuff and I can only weigh 170 lbs (and right now I am 142 lbs of that!) so having a lighter saddle may really help us out long-term. 

On the bright side, Poptart's back soreness should be gone by the time he is done with his Anaplasma treatment and the riding weather is not the best recently... so a good time for a break if one must be had! Hopefully, we will be full steam of head for No Frills 30 mile Limited Distance ride on April 23!

Diversity Training

I was fortunate enough to get home from work a few minutes early to day and it was still daylight!
Unfortunately it was 23 degrees and blowing snow flurries... I have been wanting to spend more time building Poptart's confidence with obstacles and different situations, but do not always have the time (read this to mean I take him on a trail/conditioning ride instead!) With my few extra minutes tonight I decided to see if I could adjust Rogan's harness down enough to adequately fit Poptart.  Amazingly the harness had enough adjustment that it can fit both horses (Poptart may need a few more holes punched in it if he were to actually pull a load).

This was Poptart's first time wearing a harness or a crupper and he was a little nervous but never took a misstep. The straps touching his flanks and then the traces falling down around his legs bothered him the most, but he still only tensed and turned his impressively flexible neck around to see what was touching him.  The crupper did not phase him at all. Someday I would like him to be able to pull my light horse-drawn arena drag, not for his 'job', but just so he is okay with things dragging behind him, as 'behind him' is where the horse-eating monsters come from :)

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! :)