All very good stuff....important to have person to
ride with you trust, and yes, the walking out is wonderful, as the horse bonds
to you too. I also pony them out a lot to see new things by the side of a
buddy, hang weird stuff on their saddle, go over really tricky and rough
terrain; all before I really start riding out on a young horse. Even
alternating riding and walking is great and gives them a rest on their
back.
The thing quite a few folks don't understand is
that this all takes a whole lot of time!! And work.
I start all of my horses with a "safety" rider. Someone who has a
completely trained, controllable and safe trail horse. The rider is also
someone I trust implicitly so that I know that they are focused on me, my
horse and our safety. I only have a few people that fall into that
category. I know that if something goes drastically wrong that this
person/horse will do whatever is necessary to keep me safe. That
includes letting me go first or last, block the trail if the horse gets out of
hand and also includes chasing us down if necessary. We have a set of
code words so that if I am talking to my horse and saying "stop" to the horse,
the safety rider keeps going. But if I yell the safety riders name,
followed by "stop", then that person knows I am in trouble.
But even before the safety rider, I do what I call "walking trail rides"
with all of the horses I start. This is taking them on the trails, tacked up,
but in hand, not mounted. I do this as much as I think each particular
horse needs. They learn the trails in a safe way. What the woods
are like, what obstacles will we encounter, people, dogs, baby carriages,
wildlife, bridges, etc. They get used this stuff first on their training
loop so that when we do go out under saddle for the first time, the only thing
that is new is being under saddle instead of in hand. Some horses get it
after only one time out. Some require weeks of hand walking before they
can be calm enough to be ridden on the trails.
I also start with a very small training loop in the woods. Maybe 2
- 3 miles, we loop around it to the point of it being boring so that the horse
has a comfort zone. It is much easier to get them used to trails if you
can give them a comfort zone and then expand the zone.
