slip sliding

One good day of rain, then a surprising break. The sun came out and we were able to explore the wet trails.

And wet they are. Not in complete mud stage yet, but the top layer was pretty slippery. Heading out Major was happy to be going, and following my SO. Major completely thinks he is another herd member, and must follow him, can't lose sight! So we worked on that.

We got to use the newly-cleared trotting trail. Someone cut up the big fallen pine, and it is such a nice trail to have back! We were trotting along and I slowed Major, in case the cut tree looked weird to him. He walked right through without even looking, and we headed for the lake.


Nice view, but we stayed on the upper trail, then turned for home. And Major left his brain at the lake. He just wanted to trot home through slippery mud, so we had some discussions and some slip sliding away. Going up one hill I knew it was ok to trot, but not more than that. He tried to canter, back feet sliding out, caught himself as I pulled him up. He didn't learn from it, but I did! So we kept it slow, to his annoyance.

This winter let us do more trails longer than usual, but reality is setting in. Many of the trails become impassible, Major wants to move out, and we start arguing about speed. It will be good for both of us to work on some refinement of listening. Maybe even some (gasp) arena work!