The second part is a real pleasure. Everyone is riding his own horse in the surrounding forests. Mostly, we ride off the trail and through the leaves. We cross the canals, creeks, steep uphills and downhills, beneath the branches ... This stage of learning has a working title "a twinkle in the eye", a confident look in the new rider's eyes, „whipping“ through the surroundings, familiar only to those who are on the top of the food chain, which gets lost only in the rare occasions when the students realize that I'm not joking when I say "now we descend this slope... one by one .... "
While learning to trot in the round pen, a bond has been made between the instructor and a student. Student now acts as a remote controlled car. That connection is very important for riding through the forest. Each rider rides on his own horse. Obedient execution of instructions keeps you from falling off and getting injured. The connection must be stronger than the possible fear in tricky situations.
In the first trail ride, specifically, the first two hours (all trail rides are double classes), we teach neck reining, then some uphill and downhill trotting and we jump a creek, just enough to break the ice and that scholar's imagination doesn't go wild. At this class, scholars usually understand all the truth and importance of the link between lowered heels and security in the saddle. Riding impression is that it is a pure joke but you learn a lot. This phase lasts as long as the student does not begin to pester with demands to learn gallop.
I have noticed that if I force the early learning of gallop, it usually ends up with a fall off the horse. So now I wait for the student to decide when the time is right. Some reach that stage very quickly, while to the others, it's not important, and they spend years only trotting in the nature. There are many types of riders and it's essential that we all have a good time ...
