My horse, Prophet, used to hate to go on trail rides. Asking him to lead the group was the equivalent of asking me to lift a car over my head or sing in key. It just was. not. happening. I’m talking full-on tantrum – spook like it’s his job and he’s looking for a promotion, back up like a cat with its face stuck in a yogurt container (see video below), spin like a champion reining quarter horse, try to bolt home like he was reliving his racing days, and several times we ended up in a ditch that he refused to get out of.
Prophet is not stupid. Hey, leading the group? That’s a lot of responsibility! Don’t you know that the lead horse always gets eaten first by the lion/bear/leaf blowing in the wind? Just because he’s a thoroughbred who is supposedly bred to want to be out in front doesn’t mean he ever agreed to that!
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/330662797611032039/?lp=true
Prophet and I worked very hard to get him comfortable just being on a trail. (More on that in another blog post!). Once he felt comfortable going outside the ring he found his natural place in the group – last. Some horses love to lead and others prefer to follow. I think it’s important to acknowledge your horse’s preferred place in the herd and to understand that as you work on their trail training. On a normal trail ride Prophet can generally be found bringing up the rear in a fairly lazy fashion (until someone mentions cantering or galloping! Then being up front is okay). Even after all of this work to get him used to trail riding in general, if he were to find himself at the front of a group on a trail ride suddenly everything would become terrifying and he would forget how to walk.
Skip to 0:49 to see a dramatization of this process (video by SmartPak).
Over the past 5+ years Prophet has really blossomed. He can now lead a trail ride with a group or just one other horse confidently in a new place. What got me thinking about this was a trail ride that Monica and I did in Jeffersonville, Vermont last weekend. Monica and I usually end up riding with at least a few friends. Generally, out of that group there is at least one horse who really wants to lead, and that’s just fine. However, this time it was just the two of us and our two wonderful steeds. Tupelo wasn’t really wanting to lead, so Prophet took over without complaint. We ended up riding about 8.5 miles over the course of about 2.5 hours.
I love seeing those ears lead the way!
For the ride, Prophet was confident, walking forward and not spooking at any of the potentially scary things like a tree-stand in the woods or a bike in a tree.
A bike that someone jammed into a tree for.. reasons?
A few times he felt like he wanted to relinquish his leading responsibilities, and we let Tupleo lead for a bit. Inevitably though, Prophet would outpace Tupelo and end up in front again without missing a beat.
This transformation from a horse whom I could not bribe to lead to confident trail navigator didn’t happen by accident, and he is still happy to trail along at the back of a group. However, I wanted Prophet to be able to lead in the event that another horse had an issue or, heck, just because it’s nice to not always be looking at another horse’s butt. It took countless hours of riding and ground work to get him to a place where he could happily step outside of his comfort zone and lead the group. A few things that I think helped in making him more confident are:
- Doing a lot of groundwork where I ask him to walk over or through things that he wouldn’t normally, e.g. tarps, poles, barrels, ditches (we have some cross country jumps at my barn), and anything else that’s a little weird for him – but safe! I like to start on the ground and let him gain confidence. Did he want to walk over a tarp the first time? Nope! Will he now walk over one without hesitating? Yup! They key here is patience. Maybe it will take your horse 2 minutes to walk over the tarp. Maybe it will take 30 or 40 or 50. That’s okay!
- Ride with confident buddies! We all know that horses are herd animals. They want to be with their friends and they learn from their herdmates. If they see their buddies happily and calmly walking down the trail, that is going to help them relax and gain confidence.
- With a green or timid horse, I like to play a leap frog game while out on the trail. Start out in back or in the middle and move around in order. Take a turn in the front. Maybe at first your tentative horse only leads for one or two strides before another more experienced horse takes over. That’s fine! You can build from that. What you don’t want is your horse to be terrified and you kicking them to get them to lead while they are still afraid and spooking at the sun or the wind or the flowers. That’s not helpful for horse or rider and doesn’t help your horse or you to gain confidence. Maybe on the first several rides you only lead for a short stretch while heading back towards the barn. Most horses are more comfortable heading towards home, so I encourage you to use that motivation.
- Miles and hours! No significant behavioral transformation happens overnight. Have patience and work at a speed that works for you and your horse. The more miles that you and your horse put under your belt, the more your confidence will grow.
- Keep calm and ride on. If your horse spooks or has a bad experience, the best thing that you can do for them is to remain a calm cool and collected rider. If your emotions get frazzled, your horse will respond in kind.
https://irockdecals.com/keep-calm-and-ride-on-decal-sticker/
Happy trails!
Kerrie
