Arena hire & first trip out in the new trailer

With the arrival of our new trailer last week, on Saturday we went on our first trip in it to our local indoor arena. Getting there was a bit of an ordeal, as although we'd practised loading and unloading the night before, for some reason Erik decided that he didn't want to go on the trailer with Rama already being inside. After several attempts, we decided to try again so that Erik would go on first, and this time he loaded on the second attempt! Such a relief, I hate the struggle of loading an unhappy horse so it was good that we found out that he prefers to load on first. Luckily the place is less than 5 minutes away, so Erik and Rama didn't have to be in the trailer for a long time which meant that it was a nice first trip for them!

 All I wanted to work on was something easy for us both, so that we could have a nice and easy time on our first outing. I didn't want to work on anything difficult or frustrating, so transitions it was! I believe transitions are a key part of the horse's education - no matter how experienced your horse is. So I focused on getting good transitions both within and between paces. Riding forwards down the long sides of the arena and collecting at the short sides. The more I did this the more I could feel Erik becoming more supple in his body, but also more responsive and reactive to my aids 👏🏻 But then he has started to think it would be fun if he didn't slow down for the short sides as going forwards and fast is much more exciting, so I started varying where I asked for transitions and what I asked for (not just collected canter to medium canter, added in canter to trot and a few canter to walks), as this kept him focused on me and what is going to happen next, rather just doing a medium canter around the arena!

This trip was further proof that things become more bigger in your head when you're worrying about them, so don't put it off! Instead, just go for it. Your horse will more than likely prove that all of your worries were wrong. When we arrived and Erik wouldn't stop shouting at every horse that he could see, and honestly I didn't even want to get on him... But I wasn't going to waste the hire fee, so off we went and wow did he do some good work! It goes along the lines of the training that I've been doing at home, that if there are areas that are more challenging or things which the horse finds more scary than others, like one corner of the arena that Erik always tries to spook at... I've stopped avoiding it, and instead I've been riding near that corner constantly until he stops thinking about spooking. It's all about that firm AND fair training and I am definitely going to insist a bit more often that he pays attention to me at home and not someone driving their car down the road more than 200m away!