Tennessee Walker | Western Trail Rider

Fifteen tough trail miles on Bandit today!

It was such a fine day I decided that Bandit could use a good training ride. I wanted to take him far enough to get him tired, so he would burn off some of his excess energy and find it easier to pay attention to me.

We started up into the foothills east of Salem, Utah to head up the canyon into Loafer Mountain. The first mile of the climb is steep and rocky. Bandit had a very good sweat on by the time we reached the first cellular repeater station. I let him rest there for a few minutes before continuing on up the canyon. We got another mile along, before it became apparent Bandit was getting pretty footsore from the rocky OHV trail, so we turned around and headed back down.

At the cellular tower, however, instead of following the OHV trail back down, we went off-road and made our own trail down the steep hillside. I found Bandit was plenty sure-footed on the steep mountainside, but he knew we were heading homeward and tended to get in a bit of a rush. He wasn’t difficult to hold back, but his attention wasn’t 100% on the trail ahead…which is why we were doing the training!

There is an interesting story about this area. In 1914, a man named John Koyle, who was a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the time, claimed he was visited by two heavenly beings, who told him there was a large deposit of gold in these hills that would someday save the entire church. Koyle, his family, and many members of the church invested nearly all they had and created the “Dream Mine”.

The mine itself can easily be seen on a nearby hillside. The story is quite interesting and lends a bit of interest to the surrounding hills. Bandit and I passed a small monument, set up in honor of Koyle’s vision, located a little way off the trail. You have to know where it is to find it.

While the mine corporation still exists and one can actually purchase shares in the mine, it is now more of a historic foot-note of the area and a novelty. No gold deposit was ever found and eventually Koyle was excommunicated from the church, because he would not give up the idea that he had received a divine commission to find the gold. The church never officially acknowledged the vision nor encouraged the exploration for the gold. Koyle, however, maintained that he had seen two heavenly messengers to his dying day.

Once we got down the hill, we headed out on the canal road to work on Bandit’s gait a little. He has smoothed out significantly and his run-walk was very nice. He was very compliant and it was easy to keep him in a very nice gait with just a little tuning. We worked on his run-walk and his walk mostly.

At the apex of our training route, in the bed of the canal, we suddenly came upon water! Turns out today was the day they started the flow in the irrigation canal for the season. We were lucky to be able to reach my end-goal of the training for today: a long, dark tunnel…which now had about 3” of water flowing through it!

With just a little coaxing Bandit went on in and once inside, he kept a steady pace through to the other end, about 50 yards. I took a video as we made our return trip through it. No hesitation at all! Nice!

On the way home we gaited a bit, then walked a bit, then back to a gait. It was an enjoyable ride. Despite his propensity to push, I was able to do most of the ride with either a slack rein or light pressure. He is responding well to consistent training. One thing about Bandit, there is no problem with his steering! He steers with very fine cues on the reins and leg cues. In fact, you have to be a little careful that you don’t inadvertently tell him to turn – he can turn on a dime!

On the last long straight before we got back to the stable, I let Bandit loose a little in his strong, wonderful rack. We reached about 15mph in a smooth even gait. Then I pulled him back to a walk and we finished the ride at a leisurely walk, while Bandit cooled off.

It was a very pleasant ride and we were both pooped at the end. I sure enjoy riding Bandit! He’s a horse that always makes me proud to be on him.

I’ve had my new horse, J, out a couple times over the past week, for both pleasure and training.

Last week, my wife and I took Lizzy and J out to Santaquin, Utah for a short ride. Due to inclement weather, the ride turned out shorter than expected, but it was still a nice ride. Both Lizzy and J performed to expectations and the ride put some more miles on J, which is what he really needs right now.

The area we went to is also frequented by shooters for a target range. There were several families out enjoying their firearms when we arrived, so J and Lizzy got a little exposure to the sounds of gunfire while we saddled up. Shortly after we arrived, though, the wind came up and it rained for a short spell, driving all the shooters back to the shelter of their homes. Once the rain let up, Linda and I headed up the trail.

During that ride, J showed me that he has that smooth running walk the Tennessee Walker is known for, but I had a hard time keeping him in it on the rough terrain we were riding in. We were going either up or down all the time, which is not optimum for working on gaits. What he needed was some mileage on a long straight, level trail, where we could fine-tune his gait and teach him what we were looking for.

So, this morning I had some time. I headed out to do a little work with J.

Today’s training goal was to transition J from the D-ring snaffle bit to a bosal hackamore. I like to do most of my horse training in a bosal, because I feel like I am able to teach them to be more sensitive to bridle and rein cues without working on their mouth. Once I get a horse to the point at which I am comfortable with their neck reining and responsiveness to bridle cues with the bosal, I transition them to a curb bit. I may ride the horse in a bosal for a year before going to the solid bit.

A couple days ago, I tied my 5/8″ rawhide braided bosal over a wooden form, to set its shape. This morning I tied my new 5/8″ horse hair mecate to it and adjusted it to my liking. When I put it on J’s head this morning, he couldn’t quite figure it out for a few minutes, but adjusted to it quickly.

I spent about twenty minutes riding J around the pasture, getting him accustomed to the bosal and teaching him basic signals, which he quickly interpolated from his earlier training in the snaffle bit. I worked on flexing his neck both directions, pressure-release method, to teach him how to relieve the pressure on his nose by giving to the pressure. He already stops to my verbal and seat cue, so the ever important “whoa” command was a piece of cake.

We had to work on his directional signals a bit, though. After a few figure-eights with a few sharp bumps on the nose, he began to understand that he needed to lead with his head, rather than turning while looking off in the other direction. I feel this is more effectively taught with a bosal than with a snaffle bit, since the snaffle tries to pull through the mouth when plow-reined. The bosal is used to bump the horse on the nose, teaching him to look away from the pressure and toward the direction of intended travel. Very quickly the horse begins to respond to light pressure on the nose, rather than waiting for the bump.

On J, I decided to try something I have read about, but hadn’t yet tried. I bought a 5/8″ 6-strand horse hair (mane hair) 24′ mecate to use with my rawhide bosal (Click here to link to similar mecates on Amazon.com). I have read the prickly feel of the horse hair mecate is more effective than a smooth rope for training the horse to neck rein. As the trainer plow reins with one side, he lays the opposite rein against the horse’s neck. It feels the prickly mecate on its neck and more easily associates that touch with the turn in the other direction. The transition from the bosal/mecate to a bit and smooth leather reins is then a simple matter.

Once the horse handles with light cues on the reins under all conditions, and I no longer need to “bump” the bosal, I feel like the horse is ready to transition to the curb bit. Again, I do not train for shows and am not a reining expert. I ride trails and do pack trips. I train for all-around good, reliable trail horses.

After a few minutes of getting-acquainted-with-the-bosal time, I decided J was ready for a ride outside our arena and pasture. I was looking forward to getting him outside and onto some long, straight roads to see what we could do with his gait.

I was pleased to find that J was easy to handle riding away from his herd and our home base. He did so with no argument and kept his mind on what was ahead of him. He decided that he preferred to step-out in his natural gait, which I have been told is a “stepping-pace,” so I let him have his head. The stepping-pace is not an unpleasant gait, however, with more speed it evolves into a full pace, which is very uncomfortable for a rider. I have been hoping I might be able to work with him and find that smooth running walk in him the Tennessee Walker is famous for. Regardless, the reason I bought him was to get a horse whose walk could keep up with Lizzy’s on the trail. J definitely has that box checked.

As we got onto a long paved road with little traffic, I used the reins and spurs to be able to get J coaxed into a good running walk. It was a little slow, but it was definitely a running walk. When he wanted to go faster, he slipped into the pace, so I kept his head in, flexed at the poll, to check his speed. When I did this he slowed and got back into the running walk. I let him hold that for a bit, then slowed to a flat walk for a while. We kept speeding up and slowing down without allowing him to get into his pace. Before long, he was speeding up his running walk. I found that a light touch with the spurs, while keeping him flexed at the poll, collected him just enough to produce a good running walk with good comfortable speed. I was feeling pretty good about things.

We rode around some low hills for a while, working on things like crossing logs and looking for witches and spooks. I also worked on J’s canter. He simply does not know how to do it with weight on his back. I finally got him to canter up a hill, but he didn’t like it. He prefers to gait. I’m ok with that, since I will be using him for trail riding and pack trips, however, I have always felt a well-rounded horse should perform well at a canter. We’ll continue to work on that.

After a little over an hour, we headed back toward home. I was quite pleased when J settled into a nice running walk and, since we were headed toward home, even picked up his speed a bit. I was able to keep him dialed-in to his running walk, rather than slipping into his pace, by light cues on the reins and a touch or two with the spurs. I estimate we were moving along very smoothly at about 8-10 mph.

That will match up very well with Lizzy’s Fox Trot.

Back at the pasture, J had a very nice light sweat on him. We finished up with a good brushing and hoof cleaning, before I turned him back out with his pasture buddies. After a good roll in the dust, he was off with his friends.

I like this fellow more every time I ride him.