One of the skills any good trail horse (not to mention a good endurance horse) has is the ability to go quietly down the trail alone. In that vein, I have been slowly preparing Ruby for this skill. In all honesty, this is something that she should have been exposed to by her fifth or sixth year at the latest, but with all of the other holes in her training I am sure it hasn't been done. Today's ride was a test - I rode her by herself through the gelding pasture. This is a pasture that she does not graze in and there are areas from which you can't see the barn, so she was definitely outside of her comfort zone. She did try to duck back to the barn a few times but there were no spooks or hissy fits. When we turned around she tried to rush back to the barn and was so adamant that I made her trot back AWAY from the barn - if there was going to be a fit, it should have been then. Instead, Ruby did me proud so tomorrow will be our first attempt at trail riding completely alone. I'm not going out there thinking that we are going to get down the trail without incident, instead I plan to ride her in the parking area to feel her out. If she has a meltdown, we'll do our usual arena workout close to the trailer. If she seems good, we'll still do our usual workout but then we'll try the trail. The place I'm going is small, completely fenced (including the parking area) and has no asphalt or gravel. Fingers crossed that things go well! In the meantime:
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| Ruby bran-mash-face... |
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| and Bourbon bran-mash-face! |
P.S. Miss Anti-PDA now lets me hug her neck without pulling away. And she comes to me when I call her, even if I'm not in sight. Huge leaps of faith for her - I officially feel special.
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