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[RC] Can a horse get "mentally" conditioned to a certain trail? - Karen Casemier

Boy, I'm full of questions lately.

I'm wondering if I should be concerned about my mare's behavior/recovery rates on the trails we use for regular conditioning, or if this is just something that comes with the territory when you ride an intelligent horse on the same trails a minimum of once a week.

First, she is a joy to ride on new trails. She is eager, forward, and wants to GO, but will also listen to me and let me set the pace. After a few miles, she generally settles into a really nice trot. She is new to distance riding, and a Morgan, so she doesn't have the longest stride, but over the summer she has shown a few moments where she really seems to "get it" and starts pushing more from behind and actually taking longer steps (instead of just getting higher and higher in front). Her walk is also coming along nicely... she can get pokey at times because she likes to be a little "looky lou" and look around at stuff, but she's getting better about keeping a marching pace. Her recovery times are also usually quite good. This weekend, I rode her on a completely new trail, and though I forgot to put on my heart rate monitor before the ride, I checked her as soon as I got her saddle off when we made it back to the trailer, and she was already at 58. By the time the tack was put away, she was in the mid 40s.

However, I think she has gotten "mentally" conditioned to the trails we use for conditioning. We trailer out at least once a week to a local rec area which has three loops for a total of about 20 miles - we don't always do the same loops, or go in the same direction, or go at the same pace (we may do anywhere from a fast 6 miles to a slow 20 miles) but we have done all the loops multiple times at this point. While she generally starts the ride fine, she definitely seems to know when we are nearly the end of a loop - she gets herself worked up, and although I do not allow her to canter or run to the end, her heart rate still goes up because she's excited (you know how a horse's heart rate spikes when he comes across one of those man-eating deer? Same thing happens when she realizes we are nearing the "finish line"). Regardless of which loop/loops we do, her heart rate does not come down nearly as well at trails she is less familiar with, and I'm assuming it is because she gets herself worked up the last mile or so of a loop. She also can get sloppy on the trails - they are narrow trails with a lot of tight twists and turns, some rocks (but not many), and when she starts getting excited she feels like she's just throwing her legs around and not watching where she is going (anyone remember the Friend's episode where Phoebe and Rachel went running together? You'll know what I'm talking about). Note - while I don't consider myself a great rider, I do take regular dressage lessons and have a fairly good seat. I do try and keep her together when she gets like this, but it ain't much fun. It takes her MUCH longer to recover once we return to the trailer, regardless of what pace and distance we have done. I believe this is because she gets so excited near the end of a loop.

I guess I have 2 questions: 1) Is this normal behavior once a horse becomes really familiar with a set of trails (she is EXTREMELY smart), and 2) should I worry about her recovery rates when she recovers so well on every new trail I've taken her to? It is behavior I can deal with - she never does anything that scares me, she just frustrates me because I know how lovely she can be when she settles and relaxes. It isn't for the entire ride, just near the end of a loop (regardless of which loop and how long we've been riding), and the only thing that really concerns me is her heart rate at the end and her recovery rates.

(I've considered going halfway on a loop and turning around, but since we often do the loops from different directions, I don't think it would help much.)

Thanks!

Karen and Mazzie (she doesn't have attitude, she has MAZZITUDE)

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