**Lindsey Forkun Equestrian advocates for you to wear a helmet

Trail riding is an excellent way to mentally stimulate your horse, build physical fitness for both you and your horse, build a better relationship, practice your skills, and challenge yourself – the trails can be a lot of fun when you and your horse are relaxed… but anxiety just creates a tense ride that will leave both you and your horse just hoping you can go home.

I use trails regularly in a variety of settings with all of my horses – riding on roads, through forests, in water, through open fields, etc

Each type of trail has something different to teach you and your horse –
provided you are ready for the challenge.

Trails have many benefits – and to stay safe, here are some guidelines to help you have an excellent ride!

1. Consider physical fitness:

Preparing your horse mentally and physically is very important before hitting the trails. First make sure your horse is sound and physically capable of the trail you are asking your horse to do. Horses can ‘tie up’, strain muscles, and injure themselves if they are not strong and fit enough for the ride.

When thinking about physical fitness, these are the hardest types of trails for the out of shape horse/rider:

• ·Hills
• ·Deep footing (riding in water, deep sand, plowed fields, mud)
• ·On trails without shade (if it is hot) – horse’s feel the heat MORE than riders do… so if you are feeling hot you can bet your horse is feeling
  hotter
• ·Trot and canter

These are the easiest types of trails for an out of shape horse/rider:

• ·Flat paths, or with few hills that are gently rolling
• ·Firm ground – like riding on grass, packed dirt, or thinly sand covered trails
• ·In the shade
• ·Walking
  

Before you head out on a trail, make sure you are picking a trail that is suitable for both you and your horse.

2. Make sure your horse is mentally prepared:

If your horse isn’t paying attention to you before you start riding, then things won’t get any better once you start riding, nor when you hit the trail.

Check your horse’s attentiveness on the ground by moving the horse’s feet (forehand turns, haunch turns, sideways) – if your horse is paying attention and being respectful then you can get on and start riding.

Before you go on the trail spend some time doing a little warm up double checking your steering and brakes. The horse needs to be listening to your cues – if your horse is having trouble stopping or staying at the
walk because he is so excited, then you need to do some tasks to get him focused before you go on the trail (try some circles, patterns, transitions – anything to get the focus of your horse on you).

When you can comfortably ride your horse (steering, stopping, and moving forward) then you are ready to go on the trail.

3. Choose the right buddies:

Choosing the group you go on a trail with is just as important as picking a trail suitable to your physical ability. If you have an anxious horse, an unfit horse, or a green horse you probably want to go with a group of riders that will be okay with walking most of the ride, and will be
patient with you if your horse needs to stop and take a breather.

Groups that ride at faster paces should be for experienced horses and riders that are physically capable of the demanding ride.

In general, the rule should be to suit the ride to the most beginner/anxious rider/horse. This will keep everyone safe. If your horse is nervous or you are nervous, riding with really confident horse/rider combination's will help to give you and your horse confidence. Taking two green horses that are nervous on a trail together is a bad idea because that anxiousness and tension from the horses with just make the horses even more anxious and tense.

Taking an experienced and calm horse with a nervous horse will help to calm the nervous horse down because the nervous horse can sense the confidence from the other horse. Horses tend to take cues from other
horses, so if in general the groups of horses are all calm, then the nervous horse will be calmer because everyone else is calm.

How many should be on the trail? The choice is up to you – but the group needs to be well suited for each other. When riding in pairs or small groups of 3-5 horses it can be easier to get members that work well
together and it is easier to communicate within the group – for example, in a small group of 5 horses, it is easy to yell to the front of the group to stop or slow down if your horse is getting anxious, but in a large group of 10-20 horses it could be difficult to get the trail to slow down or stop for you.

When you ride with a large group of 10 or more horses, your horse might get excited when the group starts to trot or canter, so it is important that your group has good trail etiquette and will slow down, stop, or allow you change up the order of the trail to suit your needs.

4. Choose your spot on the trail:

Choosing where to position your horse on the trail is very important in teaching your horse confidence. An experienced horse can learn a great deal
about being confident by following the lead horse on a trail.

If your horse is ready, leading a trail or being the tail (at the back of the trail) can be valuable learning experiences while challenging your horse. It is important that if the lead horse gets nervous, that the group is patient while the horse waits and revisits whatever is making the horse scared until the horse can continue leading.

We want to teach our horses to safely overcome their fears – if you just have someone else start leading then your horse may learn that he never has to lead because someone else will just take over – this will not build confidence in your horse and will make your leadership look poor.

At the same time, if you bully your horse past something scary (by kicking or smacking the horse past the scary thing) then you can actually make your horse more nervous because now your horse can be
scared of you and not feel they can trust you as a leader – so you have to be patient and wait for the horse to realize there is no danger, and the horse will offer to go forward.

If you can anticipate what might be scary (like crossing a stream, or going over a log), you can have someone else take over the lead before you get to the scary obstacle, and have the other horse lead you through – this can be very helpful for a horse crossing water for the first time (to see another horse go through first). Then after the scary obstacle you can take back the lead. You just need to be thinking a head!

It is important to be consistent throughout the trail – whoever leads out should lead home, or if you change up the lead horse then you should consistently change up the lead throughout the ride. You shouldn’t let one horse ONLY lead the way home all the time. Especially if the reason is “well he walks fast on the way home” – definitely don’t let the horse lead the way home – this would be teaching the horse quite poor behaviour to hurry home. Instead show great leadership by keeping the horse’s focus (you can do transitions, circles, leg yield, practice slow and fast walk, etc all to keep your horse attentive to you – you can even dismount to do some ground work to help calm your horse and build a better relationship with your horse).

5. Check the weather:

Don’t forget to check the weather!

You can plan your trail and be ready for a great ride, but if a thunderstorm hits mid ride then you could be in for some trouble – check the weather before you saddle up to make sure you aren’t in for any special surprises from the weather man.

6. Practice great trail etiquette:

When riding with others on the trail it is important to be considerate. Let the group know if you are planning to trot to catch up – or if you are in the lead you should double check with the group it is okay to start trotting or cantering. You should also let the group know if you are stopping or slowing down so that the riders behind you can prepare themselves, or so that the riders in front of you can wait for you.

It is also polite to warn riders behind you about any obstacles in the path coming up – whether it be a hill, log, or a low branch, warn your fellow riders!

If you have considered all of these 6 things when trail riding then you should be able to enjoy yourself. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!

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