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RE: [RC] Can a horse get "mentally" conditioned to a certain trail? - Catfish DanielsYou're right on the button. Just the other day I drove my horse to some old trails that once used to be our regular training loops - about two years ago. In those training loops were certain stretches that we would canter on, others that would be trotted on, and other spots that we would slow down to a walk to recover. After two years of not riding these trails, he was still on auto-pilot, starting to prance when we approached the running stretches, and would come to a screeching halt at the spots where we used to slow down. It was quite amazing. But then again, I always thought that he was smarter than me - so go figure. I think it's really good if one concentrates on not letting their horse get too used to certain loops. Alter them, change it up, and just when he thinks he's supposed to slow down and come to a stop, make him go further - when he thinks he's supposed to run, make him walk that stretch. Catfish DBL Realtors -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Paus Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 10:01 AM To: Karen Casemier; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC] Can a horse get "mentally" conditioned to a certain trail? Well, of course! Horses know their way and learn the trails we ride. they learn to read trail ribbons too, i'm convinced of that. Think about it this way. If you go to grocery store you've never been in before, it takes you twice as long to find everything compared to shopping at the store you go to every week... Yes, horses learn every rock, every log every twist and turn. I had the hardest time riding one of my geldings on the local trails for an endurance ride because he knows those trails so well, he knows where all the short cuts back to camp are... he'd argue with me at the short cuts, LOL... My other distance horse knows every trail we've done. We once went to a trail for a pleasure ride at a park where we used to compete. We hadn't ridden this trail for 2 years, but he remembered where camp had been and kept insisting that we should take the path that went to the camp area. I guess he expected someone to be there with a stethoscope, LOL... chris- -- Karen Casemier <kcrazzmatazz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 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. ===== "A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot Chris and Star BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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