Why Walk/Trot only?

Reba has headed off to her amazing new home and as I start over with a new pony in 2025, I have had to remind a few people that I will be back to only showing walk/trot this year. I get a lot of questions about why we spend the first year of showing our ponies under saddle, just doing walk trot. I have lots of reasons and as usual - I'm always willing to share my unpopular opinions.

Reason number one is centered on the longevity of the pony. We start our two year olds under saddle because I am not a big fan that the strain of lunging in a circle puts on developing joints. We do lunge our yearlings, but limited lunging at home and we hope for the best at the shows. Sometimes that pays off and sometimes.... I do not love the idea of lunging two years in a row, so we lightly start our 2 year olds under saddle. Part of that lightly starting is leaving the loping out for a good portion of the year. It also means super short sessions - no more than 10 or 15 minutes under saddle. This is good for the pony but means it takes us a really long time to make a broke pony.

You may ask, wow - that seems like pretty easy stuff. Kind of a waste of a year under saddle? Wrong. This first year is where we start building all the things to carry over into their first year loping under saddle and becoming that super broke pony. You can do a LOT walk/trot. As many of you know, we don't believe in using training forks, draw reins and the like except in limited circumstances here or there. So with that means we need time to get our ponies looking like a true show pony. Yes - it takes us longer to make a broke, round, collected pony but the hope is that we make a sounder, healthier in body and mind and handier pony in the long run.

If you focus on walk/trot there is so much that you can train your pony to do in that first season under saddle.

Things that we work on mastering throughout the year include:

training them to have different speeds at the walk and trot all with their rider's seat

softness/relaxation to the bit and bridle

pivots on the fore and hind

sidepass

two track

hip in, hip out

shoulder in, shoulder out

stopping and backing with legs/spur

trail obstacles

desensitizing

standing quietly/patiently under saddle and at the hitch

and of course - showmanship

We don't consider ourselves professionals or even all that knowledgeable so while professionals can get all of this done AND do it at the lope, we have to take it a little slower and just focus on walk/trot. Of course if you're only working 10-15 minutes a day, a few times a week, that's still a lot to try to get mastered in one year!

We understand that others are on different timelines and that our way isn't perfect. Heck - it probably isn't even perfect for us but it is what we do and what works for us now. We are constantly learning and trying to do better by our ponies. That's all a person can ask for in a horsewoman/horseman I think. When we think we know everything will be the time when we need to stop riding and sell the ponies.

Nani's fifth ride