Usually on Sundays I’ll take it easy and go on a trail ride for a two main reasons: 1) I really believe that horses should periodically have relaxing and less-strenuous rides and 2) Sundays are one of the few days during the week I’m not in a time crunch between work and school.
Caesar has been very relaxed and happy on trail rides lately, and I did a fair amount of trotting and a bit of cantering as well as going all over the place today. The area I trail ride on is a fairly spooky area with dogs, ducks, geese, other barns’ horses, ponds, etc so it goes to show he’s a pretty brave horse.
Personally, I have always thought it is important to have some of your rides be more relaxing for the horse rather than always doing more strenuous training rides/lessons/flatwork, etc. I’m very glad the barn I’m boarding at has trail access, because Caesar and I both love to trail ride and I don’t want him to get arena sour. I also don’t want him to think that every time I get on him, it’s going to be strictly work rather than some leisurely riding. I really think that hacking out helps both their minds and their bodies; even though I live in Texas, I’m able to do some hill work out on the trail.
That’s pretty much all for today – now to get back to reality tomorrow with work, school and tons of homework…sigh.
Love this photo. It’s like, “are you done???” 🙂
You’re right about having days off from the training regime with horse being a horse days and trail rides. Gives them a chance to relax. BTW, thanks for your visit.
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Thank you! And yes, sometimes I think he gets tired of my endless photo taking. 😉
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