want your opinion on situation.

[Nezzy]

@Hilary

If she had said something during the ride but the people in front ignored her, then she has a right to be miffed but if she neither asked nor made an effort to move her horse along, then I don’t think she gets to whine after the fact.

Applies to lots of situations, actually!

The correct answer from the front people probably should have been something like 'Why didn’t you say anything, we would have waited but we didn’t know you couldn’t keep up".

The word “couldn’t” is important because it lets her off the hook a teensy bit if her horse really does have such a slow pace he would have to hustle the entire time, and it lets slow person know the fast people thought she wanted to stay back. Some people are entirely happy by themselves at the back with their slow horse.

It’s also, sort of a moot point because if you are in a line, you can’t really converse more than 1-2 horses around you. The front/back people can’t possibly hear you.

When we yell, we can hear each other.

[trubandloki]

@Hilary

It’s also, sort of a moot point because if you are in a line, you can’t really converse more than 1-2 horses around you. The front/back people can’t possibly hear you.

If you are all the way in the back and you want the person in the front to hear you there are ways for that to happen.

[McGurk]

The rule that I was taught, and always taught students, was that you passed comments up and down the ride - in other words, if the last person in line had something to say like “Hold up, please!”, it was the responsibility of the next people in line to pass the comment forward to the head of the line, not for the last person to yell louder. Same thing if the leader said something; that should be passed back down the line, not yelled.

I thought that was common trail ride (and hiking) manners. Also, anyone leading the ride needs to master a few simple hand signals for the benefit of the people in the back of the ride.

Classic traffic cop signal for stop, raised fist for slowing down, raised arm pushed to horizontal twice for moving up a gait, turn signals, etc. Just makes riding in a group more civilized.

The other thing that baffles me about Nezzy’s original anecdote is that there are horses in the back of the ride that don’t mind being left further and further behind. That is very un-herd like and un-horse like behavior. Horses WANT to be with the group; and it’s actually harder to discipline a horse to accept being left behind - wanting to catch up is natural.

So either the horses in the back of the ride are so uncomfortable/unsoulnd that that natural instinct has been dulled, or they are being actively restricted by their riders.

If you are such a tentative rider that you can’t allow your horse to walk out or occasionally trot to catch up to the group, I’m not sure you should be riding outside the ring, or perhaps only do so with one other similarly inclined rider, not in a group.

[Palm_Beach]

@McGurk

The other thing that baffles me about Nezzy’s original anecdote is that there are horses in the back of the ride that don’t mind being left further and further behind. That is very un-herd like and un-horse like behavior. Horses WANT to be with the group; and it’s actually harder to discipline a horse to accept being left behind - wanting to catch up is natural.

So either the horses in the back of the ride are so uncomfortable/unsoulnd that that natural instinct has been dulled, or they are being actively restricted by their riders.

If you are such a tentative rider that you can’t allow your horse to walk out or occasionally trot to catch up to the group, I’m not sure you should be riding outside the ring, or perhaps only do so with one other similarly inclined rider, not in a group.

A well trained horse is relaxed and not herd-bound. This is good for trail riding in case someone needs to return to the trailer, or the group needs to split for some reason. I occasionally meet friends from a nearby farm in the woods, and my horse MUST be OK with splitting up at the end of the ride so I can return to my farm and they to theirs. It has nothing to do with being uncomfortable or unsound or dull and everything to do with good solid training and safety. If your horse can’t handle being separated from the group it should not be trail riding.

[McGurk]

I think you have misunderstood what I am trying to say.

A well trained horse is relaxed and not herd-bound. This is good for trail riding in case someone needs to return to the trailer, or the group needs to split for some reason. I occasionally meet friends from a nearby farm in the woods, and my horse MUST be OK with splitting up at the end of the ride so I can return to my farm and they to theirs. It has nothing to do with being uncomfortable or unsound or dull and everything to do with good solid training and safety. If your horse can’t handle being separated from the group it should not be trail riding.

I agree with everything you’ve said here.

I used to do a lot of exercises when riding out with students like Guilherme describes, making sure all the horses would lead, go behind and go away from the group. That is also basic manners for a good trail horse or hunting horse. Those kind of manners, however, are not terribly common.

But I still have a problem with riders not being able to keep up with the group at the walk. Something is going on there.

[Hilary]

My short lazy haflinger has NO desire to walk as fast as the other horses. When we are trotting and even cantering he has no trouble - he can trot as fast as they can canter - but he does not walk fast, does not want to walk fast and doesn’t care about being behind. Doesn’t mean he’s in pain. Could I get him to walk that fast? Probably, but I don’t want to work that hard! So sometimes we fall back. If I want to keep talking without shouting, I hustle forward. Still think the person should have spoken up at the time if she wanted the forward group to wait.

[Guilherme]

Three resources for trail riding etiquette when part of a group:

https://horseandrider.com/health-and-advice/essential-etiquette-trail-rides-52827

http://www.bchu.com/Trail%20Etiquette.pdf

http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-news/2013/09/13-trail-etiquette.aspx

G.

[Mukluk]

In my experience, horses are happiest going at their normal pace. It is nice for the faster folks to stop every so often to let everyone catch up.