Trail Ride

I took Sydney for a "trail ride" on Saturday morning.  Even though he's been living in his new barn for more than six weeks, he is very tense if I ride him anywhere other than the arena.  So on Saturday I put my endurance saddle on him (whoa, and now it's from dressage to endurance?) and walked him around the barn. It's hard to tell from the video that he's tense, but if you'll listen to his hoofbeats, you'll hear them speed up and see him lean towards the barn. 

I had to put the camera away to do the second half of the ride which included walking out of site from the barn down a hill into a ravine and back again.  He was very anxious about that and I had to give him some pretty good whacks with my legs to keep him pointed in the correct direction.  We did get some excellent opportunities to work on our whoa! from a previous lesson.

While walking around the barn, I was very pleased at how forward he is at the walk as compared to when he is in the arena.  That boy can really boogie and stretch forward when he's motivated!  Anyhoo, here's a clip of us walking around.  You might have to take some Dramamine as my video skills while mounted on a slightly nervous pony aren't that great!