Last Saturday, Max and I had another opportunity to try out our trailering techniques when Lori, a trail buddy from the NATRC ride a week ago, invited a few of us to come out to her place in Malibu to go riding (originally we were going to go to Paramount Ranch but there was a banjo festical scheduled that weekend so we had to change locations). Naturally, I jumped at the chance.
Max got into the trailer with no problems (it was a three-horse slant-load) and was soon travelling down the road with his buddy Molly- they were so quiet that you couldn't even hear them moving around, something that's pretty unusual.
Basically, we drove out northwest up US 101 until we got off at the Kanan/Dume off-ramp and then followed Kanan Road towards the ocean. Next, we took a right on Mullholland Highway until we would up at the entrance to our friend's ranch. Because the driveway is pretty narrow, we unloaded the horses in a field accross the road and tied them to the side of the trailer.
After the usual grooming and tacking, we met up with our friend Lori and her horse Shyster and were making our way up a series of narrow trails. The views were beautiful and we were cutting accross a combination of private land (with horse trail easements) and public land. As we approached the ocean, it got cooler and more cloudy.
As we rode along, Max was excited and got more so as we got closer to the ocean- the cool air, strange location, and different horses put him into the "superhorse mode" and there was constant jigging. We did some trotting but Max was definately up for more so it was a real challenge to keep him within limits.
The trail finally took us to the edge of a series of cliffs overlooking Pacific Coast Highway. According to Lori, she sometimes rides at night when there's a full moon and on several occassions they've managed to sneak the horses onto the beach although getting them accross Pacific Coast Highway can be a bit of a challenge.
Overall, the views were fabulous even though the cloudy weather prevented us from seeing too far down the coast. I can see why people want to live there and why there's a lot of sentiment to restrict development. Definately a million dollar view!
We then curved away from the cliffs and proceeded to make a loop back towards her ranch, or more properly, split-level ranch. Due to the all the hills, the ranch facilities are broken up into various areas separated by various hills and trails. It was a crazy layout, to say the least, but pretty neat. Apparently there are five small houses on the property that she rents out.
When he realized that he was heading back to the trailer, Max really started to act up and become a real pain to deal with. At one point he tried to back up on me when we had to stop for someone to adjust their girth strap. A smack of the riding crop and spurs stopped the backing up but it was still tense.
We finally arrived back at the trailer after about 2 1/2 hours a and having travelled about 8 miles or so. At this point, we fed and watered the horses and got them ready to go home. I thought I was going to have problems loading Max but he loaded fine and was probably happy to be going home.
The trip back went without incident, even though we got stuck in stop and go traffic through Calabassas/Woodland Hills on the 101 Freeway.
Overall, the trailering went excellent but the actual ride wasn't the best because of Max's acting up. After discussing this with my trainer, we agreed that it would be a good idea to cut back on his feed the night before (which I hadn't- the usual 3/4 bucket of Omolene 100 and A&M) and that I should lunge him vigorously before loading him.
I guess I should have expected something like this but he never really acts this way at home so it came as a bit of a surprise. The more I take him places, the more I'm going to have to work on various training to keep Max's focus on me rather than allowing him to act like a jerk. We've made good progress in the past so I have all the reason to believe that Max will eventually calm down.
Max got into the trailer with no problems (it was a three-horse slant-load) and was soon travelling down the road with his buddy Molly- they were so quiet that you couldn't even hear them moving around, something that's pretty unusual.
Basically, we drove out northwest up US 101 until we got off at the Kanan/Dume off-ramp and then followed Kanan Road towards the ocean. Next, we took a right on Mullholland Highway until we would up at the entrance to our friend's ranch. Because the driveway is pretty narrow, we unloaded the horses in a field accross the road and tied them to the side of the trailer.
After the usual grooming and tacking, we met up with our friend Lori and her horse Shyster and were making our way up a series of narrow trails. The views were beautiful and we were cutting accross a combination of private land (with horse trail easements) and public land. As we approached the ocean, it got cooler and more cloudy.
As we rode along, Max was excited and got more so as we got closer to the ocean- the cool air, strange location, and different horses put him into the "superhorse mode" and there was constant jigging. We did some trotting but Max was definately up for more so it was a real challenge to keep him within limits.
The trail finally took us to the edge of a series of cliffs overlooking Pacific Coast Highway. According to Lori, she sometimes rides at night when there's a full moon and on several occassions they've managed to sneak the horses onto the beach although getting them accross Pacific Coast Highway can be a bit of a challenge.
Overall, the views were fabulous even though the cloudy weather prevented us from seeing too far down the coast. I can see why people want to live there and why there's a lot of sentiment to restrict development. Definately a million dollar view!
We then curved away from the cliffs and proceeded to make a loop back towards her ranch, or more properly, split-level ranch. Due to the all the hills, the ranch facilities are broken up into various areas separated by various hills and trails. It was a crazy layout, to say the least, but pretty neat. Apparently there are five small houses on the property that she rents out.
When he realized that he was heading back to the trailer, Max really started to act up and become a real pain to deal with. At one point he tried to back up on me when we had to stop for someone to adjust their girth strap. A smack of the riding crop and spurs stopped the backing up but it was still tense.
We finally arrived back at the trailer after about 2 1/2 hours a and having travelled about 8 miles or so. At this point, we fed and watered the horses and got them ready to go home. I thought I was going to have problems loading Max but he loaded fine and was probably happy to be going home.
The trip back went without incident, even though we got stuck in stop and go traffic through Calabassas/Woodland Hills on the 101 Freeway.
Overall, the trailering went excellent but the actual ride wasn't the best because of Max's acting up. After discussing this with my trainer, we agreed that it would be a good idea to cut back on his feed the night before (which I hadn't- the usual 3/4 bucket of Omolene 100 and A&M) and that I should lunge him vigorously before loading him.
I guess I should have expected something like this but he never really acts this way at home so it came as a bit of a surprise. The more I take him places, the more I'm going to have to work on various training to keep Max's focus on me rather than allowing him to act like a jerk. We've made good progress in the past so I have all the reason to believe that Max will eventually calm down.
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