Conditioning trail ride

I had a 4-day weekend last week, and took the time to ride. We went out on the trails Thursday and Friday, on Thursday with Charles and Judy (Charles rode Beau), and on Friday with Elisabeth. We were out for almost 2 hours, but it was 2 hours at a walk, windng through the skinny trails at the back of the park.

On Saturday morning, however, Lily was suuuper stiff. She fought me every step of the way in the arena, yanking the reins out of my hands by dropping her head, but never engaging, immediately popping her head back up and hollowing her back. We worked for a long time, longer than I originally intended, close to an hour, as I struggled to find some common ground with her, something that she would do well, that I could choose to end on a good note. It was one of the most frustrating rides I've ever had on her so far, especially given our recent dramatic progress. It didn't matter what I did, from squeezing her forward to massaging the inside rein, to actually see-sawing on the reins, to just leaving her alone-I couldn't get her to give, even in the space of a circle (if she won't give on the long side of the arena, she will give on the circle. Always), and I couldn't understand why, when all we'd done the 2 previous days was ride on the trails, and mostly at the walk. Her trot was pogo-sticky and anything I did with the bit resulted in her throwing her nose in the air. Judy was riding Rose at a walk in the perimeter of the dressage arena, and she shouted out instructions every once in awhile, but nothing worked for more than a few seconds. The only good note I could find to end on was doing a figure 8 at the canter with a simple 4-trot-stride lead change in the middle. She was still inverted while doing this, but picked up her canter and the correct lead immediately when cued. We were both exhausted by that point, and I felt like a horrible rider. I palpated her back and haunches afterwards, trying to figure out what had gone wrong, and that's when discovered afterwards that her left hip was significantly sore-this was her worst side during the session. The right side was also sore, but nowhere near as dramatic-even just brushing her croup on the left side elicited a considerable flinch.

On Sunday, I took my time grooming her and stretching her. When stretching the left hind backwards, I felt her give, willingly extending her leg into my hands on her own, without me having to pull her leg into position, and was really glad I'd decided to stretch her, because she needed it. This made a big difference later. I threw her on the longe for a few minutes to warm up & watch her move-she was pinning her ears going to the left at anything faster than a walk, but was not lame. Her willingness to trot to the left improved after cantering. I have an old chambon which I pulled out of retirement and tried it on her while longing as an experiment, but decided I definetely prefer the way she works in side reins. I removed chambon, stretched her again, got on, and warmed up at a walk in the arena for about 15 minutes.
I had intended to ride in the arena, but completely changed my mind and took her out on the trail by herself. She was a little skittish walking down the road, as the park train was going (they give rides every 3rd weekend of the month, and it brings crowds of people), but she settled down as soon as we were inside the park. We took the back entrance, where it was much quieter, away from the train and crowds. I nudged her into a slow collected sitting trot on the powerlines, and she responded-in the arena, it is nearly impossible for her to trot that collected. We went up and down the powerlines at this same trot, then turned into the main trails. Her mindset was very different from the times we've gone by ourselves in the past-she has always been timid, preferring to walk so she can look at things, but this time she wanted to trot. So I let Lily choose when to trot, but she had to trot correctly. Whenever she "inverted", I'd massage the reins lightly, and her nose would come back down and she'd arch her neck, her trot becoming smoother as she became a little powerhouse. Really, really cool! Initially when we came to a fork in the trail, I would have her go in the opposite direction she wanted, to take us deeper into the trail system. She was so cute throughout the ride-she'd ask to walk when she felt insecure so she could look at things, but as she became more confident, she stopped needing to slow down, and would just cock her ear at tree trunks and palm fronds on the ground as we trotted past. I could feel her enthuthiasm as she made this discovery-she could have real fun while being ridden by herself. I was smiling like an idiot as I started to post to allow her to extend her trot when she asked to go a little faster. Eventually I had no idea where we were, so I started to let her choose the way, still asking her to work correctly, but letting her decide what she preferred to do in terms of gait. I tried to anticipate when she would need to slow down to look at things next to the trail, but she made me smile by just cocking at ear at these things and continuing to trot. Halfway on the way back however, she actually requested to walk and went for a few minutes with her head down, stretching, then picked up the trot again. We trotted the rest of the way, riding past an exit (she hesitated when I asked her to turn in the opposite direction) to choose the exit that leads to the powerlines (she picked up the pace again when she realized we were still heading out). Once out of the woods, we walked the rest of the way home, Lily with her head head down and back swinging with huge strides. She was such a good girl! It was a really good ride, and a really good bonding experience for us as we worked together on the trail.

Back at the barn, I gave her a liniment bath, and she had Monday off. She more than deserved it!