To ride or not to ride???

My first goal of the year is to ride the Michigan Shore to Shore Ride. The ride crosses the entire state of Michigan from Lake Huron in Oscoda to Lake Michigan in Empire. The first June ride is completed in 10 days riding from 20-30 miles a day. I rode this trail 2x as a teenager with my family, and again in 2006 with Topic. Topic will be 26 this year, so it is time to turn the torch over to one of my young ones.

Last September I sent my gelding Rocky to Tri C/V farms for two weeks. Rocky has an awesome mind, and is one of those horses that really want to please. I had done a ton of ground work with him, and even had ridden him in the round pen a few times. Velvet worked with him to give us a little jump start on the trail. The same day I picked him up from Velvet I trailered out to Hadley Hills and went on a 2 hour trail ride with my friend Linda. He was awesome. We rode every weekend until the 2nd week of November when I started having some health issues.

We had a very harsh winter with tons of snow, and lots of ice. I was able to trailer over to Velvet's once or twice a month to ride in the arena, but it was a struggle for us. Rocky does great out on the trail when he is with other horses, but he does not seem to understand what to do if he is not following someone else. In the arena he would walk a few steps and then stop. Each time we rode we were getting better and better, but we just were not able to ride often enough.

Now it's April, and there is only 5 weeks until we are supposed to leave for the shore to shore ride. I have been riding Topic every weekend while ponying Rocky alongside. After a mile or two I change horses for a few more miles. When we are getting close to home I usually change back to Topic again. This is the only way I could think of to desensitize him to our neighborhood, and try to condition at the same time. The problem is that it has still been a struggle to get him to move out. Once again he may walk 5 steps, or he may walk a 1/2 mile. Then something catches his eye and he stops dead in the middle of the road, and I have a problem getting him started again. I've been dealing with this for a month, and things have not gotten any better. In depair I called Velvet last night and asked for help. This afternoon I dropped Rocky off at the farm. He was very animated, pacing the stall and throwing his head. Not typical behaviour for him. Velvet isgoing to ride him for a week in the arena and down the road on his own. When he starts making progress Velvet will work with the two of us. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and hopefully we will be ready for the ride.