I was happy to see her more responsive to my cues to continue on her way, even if she was apprehensive about what may lay ahead. She refused to go around a huge boulder on the outset (a sure place for a cougar to be hiding!) but then she decided to trust me. I am asking a lot of her: most young green horses would have older, experienced horses to go out with them.

Our first intentional obstacle was a birch tree I knew was down over the path. According to the training book I’m using (John Lyons On Horses), if I want a versatile trail animal, I am supposed to provide trail problems for her to solve.

To our right was an old fieldstone wall buried in dirt and leaves. I thought it was a mound of ground, but she quickly figured out that it was rocks underneath. She was reluctant to face the path again with such a dolt on board, but I steered her to the left this time, indicating that I was aware of the problem and we would not be scaling a stone wall.

To the left was part of our woods. She entered calmly and we picked our way through the trees. I noticed she naturally did not get too close to the tree trunks with me (or try to “scrape me off,” as some would say.) I am relieved and proud of her for this. She also avoided low hanging branches which would not have hit her, but were a problem for me. Can I hope that she is being considerate of her rider? I believe she is, which I found to be true later.

Eventually we saw a spot to get back on the trail and continued on our way.

She does not take my cues to increase her speed yet, but will increase speed at her own will! I could not allow her to jog downhill as she is wont to do. My training book says to let her jog or lope (in Western tack, the term is lope- in English tack it’s a canter, a bit faster: she is tacked Western) at will just so she can learn to carry a rider. This is the most- um, exciting part to my riding her right now, but I am adjusting. I’ve known her since the day of her birth (and we bought her at 10 days old) or else I doubt I could trust an animal like this.   

Yesterday she loped with a rider on her back for the very first time. She tried to buck as she ran; I think I was spoiling her good time by keeping her speed reasonable. She had a little “pop” with each stride. I kept her head up and talked to her.

Something had told me to use our sheepskin saddle pad on her. Now I know why: it’s so that what happened to me yesterday will never happen to one of my kids! The pad is too thick for her and makes the saddle slip.

As Ebony loped downfield and we navigated a turn, I was suddenly a rider at 2 o’clock when I should have been at 12 o’clock.  She didn’t like the feel of a saddle working its way down her side and started to shrug me off even more, from the shoulder, mid-stride. By now I was dealing with the situation from her shoulder (I’ve never had a saddle slip on me before.) I was trying to stay astride but realized it would be more prudent to bail, so I did bail off!

Ebony was a good girl, then. I think I still had the rains as I fell (you’re supposed to hold on to them) but as I land I let go, so as not to get trampled. I was on my feet again in no time, but the important thing is, Ebony stopped as soon as she lost her rider, and stood there looking at me! I was happy to see that a riderless horse would not be galloping into our yard (the only condition in which I told my husband to come looking for me in.)

I unsaddled her and re-did all the tack out in the field. She stood quietly and did not try to graze. She did not move when I re-mounted her. All of these things are really good foundational trail riding traits. She rubbed her head on my shoulder as I saddled her. No hard feelings! She’s as capricious as any woman.

No more loping for today with that fat saddle pad on there! So we moseyed home.

All in all I learned a lot about her riding issues, which are improved and which are not: she learned the lay of the land more, and that we would be obliged to stay on her at a jog and a lope, if you please.

I have phone calls in to local trainers who may be able to help me with her cues. I would definitely like to switch to going faster paces when I ask.

Maybe I will ride her on most Sundays, except those Sundays when I am not feeling up to any death-defying feats. I did get that jolt to the system I needed, in the form of ground meets rear. Yee-haw!