I have four
horses to exercise and, most of the time, it’s
just me, myself and I.So my
horses are ridden alone more often than not, both in the arena and on
trail.As TBs
tend to work in “strings” on the track, weaning them off of other
horses and giving them confidence to go out alone is really important. I try to do it slowly, often on foot, but
generally my horses quite enjoy the experience of trail rides once they realize
how much fun we can have.
Of course, “alone”
for me sometimes means accompanied by between one and eight dogs, and carrying
my cell phone (which rings incessantly with phone calls from my clients).So “alone” is pretty
relative….
The flip side of
this, of course, is that it can mean that the horse can get over-excited in
company. For this reason, I truck
them to shows together with the competing horses from an early stage, and I try
to get them used to working in groups wherever possible.But it is good to know that they’re
focused on me, whether alone or in a group.
