Sue – How Much Do You (and maybe me) Improve with Every Trail Ride?
Trail Ride again today! Just my good friend and I out in the one Kansas City area park that isn’t too muddy to ride!
Sue was calm going away from the trailer. She was fairly calm when we made the turn and started back toward the trailer…calmer than she ever had been before!
We had a couple of “startles” and I’m happy to report that the intensity of my reactionary “startle” has calmed down quite a bit. Today, I was able to think about pulling on only one rein during most of our startles. We even had a few startles where Sue “unstarlted” before my reactionary startle could occur. I feel really good about that.
On all previous trail rides, we have gotten up into a nice flat foot walk, but hadn’t suceeded in going faster without going into the pace. When Sue is nervous, she paces.
Today my trail riding buddy was able to gait forward. Sue and I brought up the rear at a dog walk or a flat foot walk. I’ve learned to just keep her going slow at those two gaits and she keeps her left brain. It is sort of sad that my lower back is in pain right now and I did have suffer quite a bit of dog walking…it wasn’t that bad.
Here’s the miracle one story…we fox trotted for a short distance on the way back to the trailer. That is a miracle as she had to relax to do it.
Miracle two is that my knees didn’t hurt. Usually coming back to the trailer is a nervous sort of ride and my legs tense up. That’s when my knees start to hurt. That’s when my conscious brain realizes that I’ve been bracing my legs at the knees…a big no no in my world.
When I got off Sue at the end of the ride, I could walk! This is the first time for that!!