Trail Horse in the Making

Another week has ticked away, and Eli and I continue to make progress. I've been working on cantering a bit. Eli has a nice canter, very smooth, but convincing him not to break gait has been a little tough. We worked out on trail first, where there were some straightaways with good footing to help his motivation. After a few tries, he would pick up the canter with a light aid, and keep going until I asked for the trot. In the arena, his canter departs got pretty good, but Eli sometimes got his own ideas about steering, so it was back to a slower gait to get him listening again. Something to work on this week...

Last week was really hot and humid here, so one of my "daycare mornings" was spent on beautifying Eli a little. A shampoo bath, conditioner, and sheath cleaning, all of which were tolerated well. Afterward, I let him mow some tall grass in a ditch while he dried, and he cleared a 10 ft. area in no time! Eating is surely his favorite activity! The pasture that he gets turned out in is pretty bare, so I let him graze in a grassy field by the barn while I'm doing barn chores each day. It's the only time I can't get him to come to me when I whistle.

On Saturday, some of my friends from the barn wanted to have a last outing before I head to Tx, so we loaded up and hauled our horses to Raven Rock State Park for a trail ride. Eli made me proud once again, acting like an old pro, crossing water, logs and bridges with no hesitation. We did have one little incident - a couple of the girls got ahead of us and disappeared around a curve, and Eli decided that the quickest way to catch up would be to cut trail and go crashing through the brush. He turned quickly and hit the gas, straight towards trees and brambles, and ignored my protesting aids (and a few bad words), but a hard one rein stop got him back under my control and we were on our way again.

In our past outings on trail, I noticed Eli had been pretty tenderfooted on any rocks. His soles are pretty flat right now. I don't think he's been on any kind of hard, rocky ground in quite a while. So for our ride on Saturday, I put Easyboots on his front feet to help him out. At first he hesitated to move out on the rocks, but as soon as he realized it didn't hurt, he chugged right along. I also put my heart rate moniter on him to check out his working heart rates and recoveries. Of course, I found myself comparing him to Ranger, who because of his bulk, cools down and recovers slowly. Eli's heartrates were slower and his recoveries faster than Ranger at his fittest.

All in all, another good day on the trail with Eli. He really carried himself well when the trail got a bit technical, and cruised up and down hills with ease. He takes care of himself, eating and drinking at every opportunity. And he's got nice feet, they just need to toughen up a bit. All good things in my book. Makes me want to spend hours on trail with him, but we've got lots of other things to do before this 100 days is over!