By ourselves!!

View from Stacks Rock Trail

Due to some scheduling conflicts, Sunny and I have made the jump into riding out by ourselves.  We need to do this for training and partnership building for both of us, but I think we both prefer having a friend along! On Tuesday we trailered about 15 minutes from home to the National Forest for short 7 mile loop. Poor Sunny was so confused, he kept looking for the other horses that 'were coming'.  They never showed up, despite his lovely intermittent squeaks, squeal, snort combination noises for the first mile or so (think little girl excited and squealing! Definitely was not a whinny, LOL!).  Other than the creative singing he settled in and was fantastic.

Video of Stack Rocks Trail with its beautiful views, and at the end you can see the 'big-rock' which makes the trail a little narrow for a few feet.  At times this trail can be bit narrow with a steep drop-off, a little scary when the edge is soft-mud that gives way...

Today, we were due for a harder ride and climb, so I took the plunge and decided to ride Falls Ridge/Stacks Rock trail by myself.  For those Old Dominion 50/100 riders, it is the big climb before you go into the Laurel Run Vet Check, but using Stacks Rock Trail as a bypass to get back down avoiding the terrible rocks of North Mountain Trail (I know you remember THOSE rocks!!).  I like this trail as it has good footing, lots of exercise potential, and has cell phone service almost the entire trail which is important for safety when riding alone.

North Mountain Trail 

 No weird noises from Sunny today, he was ready to ride!  We even passed 2 other riders returning to Laurel Run parking and he didn't hesitate leave them behind.  The renegade viper hoof boots are continuing to work well, I did have to replace the velcro on the hinds after the last ride and everything stayed put nicely today.  Sunny had fun playing in the creek by Laurel Run, but I have to watch him carefully as he gives every indication he would like nothing better than to have a nice lay down in the creek!  He is drinking better each ride, today he even drank out of puddles several times (yay!!) and he chose to stop and take a few bites of grass (normally he likes to keep going and I have to practice stopping until he takes a few bites).  He is developing a nice 5 mph gait downhill, that became a bit intense on Stacks Rock Trail! We did became bored with all the walking and I decided to start throwing in some trot transitions. I think this was a good idea as he needs a lot of practice with the transitions themselves (mostly the downward, LOL!!!) as well developing a slower, more cadenced and balanced trot.  The trot in the arena is coming along nicely, but on the trail he has a lot of 'forward' and always wants to trot full-speed ahead (think 11+ mph).  My goal is to develop his slower (6-8 mph) trot on the trail, building his core posture muscles, then slowly transition into the bigger trot while maintaining balance. Right now he tends to throw himself on his forehand at the faster speeds, with muscle development and practice he should be better able to stay in a more neutral body balance.  It is also very important to have practiced different speeds within the gait so that we have options depending on the trail (or if I am stuck behind slower trotting horses on single track trail!).  Can't wait to do more!!!  Plan to play in-hand tomorrow pending weather, then some dressage on Sunday and back to the trail next week :)