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[RC] Trail help - k s swigartBuffy said: This colt is not currently being trained for endurance riding. I have been training him for all around (western pleasure, hunter under saddle, western riding, etc) with him. Trail riding for us right now is simple "pleasure" trail riding. .... I am simply on this list to listen and learn .... I was simply hoping because of the experience level on here prehaps I could get some ideas... Well....as much as you seem unwilling to hear it, what the experience of most of the people here on this list have been trying to tell you is that you have been doing too much, too soon with this young horse. So, just as an aside, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to ask for the opinion of experienced endurance riders of what your problem is, and when they tell you what they think, to then respond, but I am not training my horse to be an endurance horse, so that opinion doesn't apply to me and my horse in this situation. However, since I have started lots of horses (including young QH colts) in lots of disciplines (including such diverse things as dressage, hunter/jumper, reining, cow horse, endurance, police horses, and yes, just plain "pleasure" trail horses), and judging from some of the things that you have alluded to, but not actually come right out and said (so I am doing a little bit of assuming here), I will try to answer your question: of why he's having the problems he does on the trails and doesn't at home training for the show ring. You do not say how long either the arena training sessions are, or how long the trail rides are; but your comment about bringing a portable panel instead of tying to the trailer suggests to me that your trail rides are all day/over night excursions, while I consider it unlikely that your home training sessions last that long. So it is entirely possible that he is encountering the evidence of over use (that is what stocking up and a sore back are, evidence of over use), simply because of the length (not in miles but in hours) of effort and that to get these things to go away, you need to shorten the effort. It is irrelevant that there are other horses (even some of the same age and same breed) that are not encountering the same difficulties from doing what appears to be the same thing (so, yes, this post IS relevant to endurance riding and endurance riders, because endurance riders often make the same mistake of thinking that their horse can do it because the other guy's horse is doing it). A sore back at the loin (the back of the panels on an english saddle) is, in fact, a common complaint of even endurance horses that go out for too long of walks. Hours and hours of walking under a rider is extremely hard on a horse's back, and as a three year old, his back is very much still in the formative stage (the ~27 joints of a horse's spine don't "close" until the horse is between 5 and 7 years old). If he is long in the loin (which lots of appendix quarter horses are), this may be a conformational predisposition that he has that explains why he is having more of a problem than the other horses doing the same thing. Additionally, an english saddle has much shorter panels, and therefore a much smaller bearing surface than a western saddle. So a western saddle, even if it is heavier, may distribute the rider's weight better, allow him to use his back better, and reduce the liklihood of making his back sore. You do not mention what type of tack you are using for his arena work at home. You also mention, however, that going down the trail, he sticks his nose up and hollows his back, while at the same time, he doesn't do this when you are working him at home. So yes, this may be why you are having these problems on the trail but not at home. You need to stop letting him do this. It is MORE important for him to use himself correctly on a long trail ride, than it is for short workouts in the arena. It is totally counter productive (even if it weren't giving him a sore back) to let him use himself in this way, as it will develop all the wrong muscles and will make it more difficult to get him to use himself correctly; and you are setting him up for a life-time of having a sore back no matter what his intended use. It is unlikely, at this age and stage of his training, that you are going to be able to get himself to use himself correctly all day and/or for multiple days (if I am understanding your portable panels statement correctly). So what I would suggest (if you are determined to take him on trail rides...which I would rather do than spend a bunch of time in the arena), is that you take him on trail rides and make him use himself correctly, but if it gets to the point where he says, "you know, I just don't have the strength to keep this up any longer" that you need to STOP (ideally, you should have stopped before he got to that stage). What you shouldn't do is let him stick his nose out, hollow his back, and carry on down the trail. You may find, that if you make these changes in your trail riding program to get rid of your horse's sore back, that the stocking up in the legs goes away by itself, but if it doesn't, wrapping his legs for the ride is treating the symptom not the cause, and it isn't what I would recommend. When (if?) I get around to it, I will compose a second post that will address how to mitigate the over use of the legs that is evidenced by the stocking up. But to do this, it would help to have more data on how long the trail rides are (both in miles and in hours), what the terrain and footing is like, and some information about the conformation of the horse's legs and feet (including how/if he is shod). In case you hadn't noticed. I am also saying that you are doing too much, too soon with this horse (possibly because he is young, but that is obviously not the only reason since other horses of the same age are not showing the same problems from the same regime). However, I hope that in addition to telling you that you are doing too much, that I have given you some ideas of what you might want to do instead. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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