The "heavy" horse and the hunter ring

[skydy]

Well done!

[EmilyM]

Wow. so fun! congrats. He’s such a cute nugget.

[IPEsq]

So much improvement! What a good boy in the handy, too!

[Djones]

I loved the narration, too! Great fun to see your growth as a team. Well done Lyric, and well done, human!

[Janet]

@Ponyplusaninch

I had a trainer once make me sing around an entire course as a kid.

It also keeps you breathing. Something many riders forget to do.

[JBCool]

Yep! I need to remember this trick more often myself. My trainer likes to say, “I never thought I’d have to specify that you need to keep breathing. Until you.” We’ve been a team for the better part of 25 years, so we can get away with saying, well, almost anything to each other lol

[Djones]

I have a gelding who gets very excited about going back toward the barn-even if our entire crew of three horses and the donkey are along on the trail ride LOL. this week I sang a version of ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ that was actually "it’s beginning to look like your mar–bles, are falling from your ears, so let’s not dosey doe, I wonder if you might whoa" he was so perplexed and I was so amused that we both got more relaxed LOL

[phoenixrises]

I just sing song talking, things like and now we’re going to a twoooooo stride a twoooo stride it’s only two strides. And my horse doesn’t mind and it keeps me breathing

[SonnysMom]

Little Bunny Foo-Foo is my go to on trail rides. I sometime change the lyrics to Little Kitty Sascha and cat instead of rabbit. Sascha is my 21 year old cat.

[NoSuchPerson]

My go-to is Simon & Garfunkel’s 59th Street Bridge Song:

Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last…

[skydy]

It interesting how some horses will match their footfalls/cadence to your song.

When I was a kid, hacking my pony, it started to rain when we were at least a mile from home.
It wasn’t a cold rain but it started out as a bit of a downpour.

I sang B.J. Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head”, featured in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which was popular at the time.

Pony quickly began to clip clop along to it at the walk. It’s a great memory.

[Annie10]

@SonnysMom

Little Bunny Foo-Foo is my go to on trail rides. I sometime change the lyrics to Little Kitty Sascha and cat instead of rabbit. Sascha is my 21 year old cat.

I sing Bunny Foo Foo also and Happy Trails

[OverandOnward]

Lovely !!! You two are like a different pair. The communications is so much nicer.

I liked your commentator – since I agreed with what she was seeing!

It’s great when the commentator is saying "… be good, please? behave! … ", and the horse does!

[OverandOnward]

@JBCool

My trainer likes to say, “I never thought I’d have to specify that you need to keep breathing. Until you.”

A long time ago I had a trainer with one student who had to be reminded of the same thing. He figured out that she didn’t do as well in the show ring as at home, because she wasn’t breathing at all during the round. So right before she went into the show arena that was his last admonition – BREATHE! Between every jump, BREATHE!

[JBCool]

I got those same instructions a couple weeks ago! I tried to remember “breathe in two strides, breathe out two strides,” but I forgot by jump 2…