Trail Riding

Trail riding is an important factor in any working horse’s life. Trail riding allows the horse to relax and get exposed to many other factors and obstacles besides work. That’s right, barrel racing, jumping, roping and any other competitive riding is work for a horse. Allowing your horse to take a slow trail ride will let the horse know it doesn’t have to work every time you spend time together. You horse should love doing its job, but it should respect and appreciate you more. Getting a horses respect means respecting the horse’s needs.

Horses need a break from their jobs just like humans need a break from theirs. Trail riding will help the rider and horse build a better bond and further develop their communication skills together. There are many obstacles that may present them on the trails such as wild animals or rough terrain. A rider must work with the horse to keep the horse calm and collected through the trail. Learning how to communicate with your horse through the trails will allow you to work more efficiently and effectively with them at work.

Here is a picture of my barrel horse after a long trail ride! She’s not even tied just standing there looking at me sitting in a tree. She respects me and will wait for me in any situation.




Rachels Horse by Rachel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.