Today’s ride included several short trot transitions — literally 5 to 20 strides of trotting between longer walking. I notice that I am worried about whether he is going to trip, especially on the downhill part of the driveway. However, he didn’t stumble today, so I’m not sure why I was getting more nervous.
I hope my misgivings are related more to the process of starting walk-trot-walk transitions, hitting up against my own lack of strength, stamina, and most importantly, balance. If that’s the case, then I will continue to improve, and so will Rocky’s ability to move without tripping.
I’ve decided I will ask Erin to do a couple of training sessions with him, and see what she thinks. She rode him once years ago and he was perfectly smooth, so it’s possible it’s just me.
Hm, how interesting.
We are up to 45 minutes now, and will stay at that duration for this week and probably next week. I want to increase the amount of minutes we are trotting without taxing him (or me!) by also increasing the length of time we ride.
Go us!
Horsegirl on a Journey 