Easter Trail Ride

A few people from the barn went on a long trail ride at the Russel Lands at Lake Martin. I chose to take Riley as I wasn't sure if Moose was ready for that kind of ride and May....well she isn't much fun on the trails because she is sooo hot. So I chose Mr Dependable and off we went. My friend took her really nice walking horse JoJo and we got a few pictures but nothing spectacular. The trails were great, very shaded and plenty of places to offer water and nothing too rocky or difficult. Riley LOVED the hills. Launched up them every time we got to one. I tried holding him and just having him walk up, but nope, he was determined to run up them than stop and go right back to a dead walk at the top. Silly boy! The first pic is of JoJo and Riley in the water and they both turned and looked at the same time. These were taken with a camera phone so their crappy :\ (I am getting a friend to take good video and pictures with her awesome camera of Riley doing all his "tricks" on Friday so I will upload them on here :) )but better than nothing I guess. The second pic is right after I cued Riley to sit. I thought Erica had already taken the pic so I was rewarding him and he was getting up. The third pic was after I cued him to lay than I was sliding off.  The last pic is a pic of Moose with his summer coat. He is so shiny and healthy looking. Totally different from last year. I hope he stays that way. With good nutrition and grooming it should. I rode him yesterday and it was an interesting ride. He did great at first but to the right he was pulling a lot especially in the canter. I worked until we got a decent canter both ways than just focused on the trot and getting him to relax and really use his hind end. I wanted him to soften and give me a few laps of nice trot work to the right and than we called it a day. Hopefully with time we will get into a good rhythm. I haven't been able to afford our weekly lessons with P lately but have been taking with N every other Sunday in return for working her horse. She has been helping us with our downward transitions which is sometimes the biggest problem. After a few though he usually softens and does some OK transitions. Not the best by any means but we are both learning. At this point I'm mostly happy that he is happy and healthy.