First trail ride!

Maddie settled in at the Nelson' very quickly.  We stopped out last night and loved on her for awhile.  She had already made friends with another mare and seemed very calm overall.  I am really impressed at how quickly she can accept this change.  The Nelson's is absolute chaos--at least 5 dogs, usually loose; a goat was loose when we stopped there; over the fence are about 20 head of cattle; the adjacent pen has a week old foal with her dam in it; and there are always tractors and such driving right past her pen.  I am really confident that all this exposure will pay off for her big time.

Soooooo....today's ride went as well as it possibly could.  I saddled up and spent two minutes in the driveway checking her flexion and asking for a bit of shoulder in from the ground.  Then I led her across the street to the hay field and hopped on.  She was dancing and tense, but after a few circles in both directions I started to get some control.  She backed away hard from a jump made out of tires in one corner of the field and after that I put her to work.  Starting with a strong trot, she started to stretch forward and offer canter.  It took a bit, but I eventually started to ease up on the death grip I had on the reins and let her go.  The edge of the field winds and twists and we were able to follow the tree line fairly well at a medium canter.  It was really heavenly.  I was on a mustang, cantering in an open field.  Wow!

I hopped off to walk her across the street and hooked up with some other trails.  I trotted her through a wooded section and did some more cantering along the edges of the fields.  She was very solid in the woods.  We also passed several farms with horses in the fields.  At Soderberg's we did some walk work in their outdoor arena.  Maddie was super calm and attentive for this.  The right side pass is so solid that I am going to leave in alone until the left is better.  Right now both renvers on the right rein and the left half pass are just barely there, so I need to get that left bend better.  Shoulder in on the left rein is pretty good, though.

She was a little spooky and giving me that drunken walk and trot on the way home.  At this stage of her training, those quiet moments (like walk work in the arena) need to be used judiciously.  Once things quiet down, she starts looking for things to spook at.  She is best kept busy.  But I was very pleased that we did this ride successfully and without an escort.  She will learn to listen to me and no one else.