Trotting: advice please!---by the Spooky Pony

[spookypony]

I'm a bit confused. We went for a trot in the woods today, which was a nice trot, but it brought up some questions I have about trotting.

I understand what the Carrot Lady means when she says "terr-ott!". It's pretty obvious. And when she's sitting on me, I understand when she wants me to trot too. But often, she's apparently not happy with how I'm trotting! When she asks me to trot, and I oblige, often, she'll keep nagging me, and I'll try to trot faster, but apparently, that's not right, and she really wants me to trot bigger, or maybe longer, and I don't understand what that means, because as I've said several times, I'm already 147 cm long, and I can't possibly be any longer! So then I get annoyed and I trot slower or I buck, and then I get smacked. That's mean!

Now, I can do lots of different kinds of trotting: I can do the normal kind, and I can do the kind where I go really really fast, which is what I do when I go for a trot with really big horses, and I can do the kind which I do when I want to run and she won't let me, which is really really slow and bouncy, and I pick my feet up really high! I can even trot backwards! And I can trot sideways. But I'm really not sure what kind the Carrot Lady is after when she gets after me so much. She says something about "medium" trotting, but I'm already doing my normal trotting when she says that, and surely "normal" is about the same as "medium"?

Can anybody help me?

Carrots,
the Spooky Pony

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Hiya Spooky,

Thanks for the carrots! I can't really be any help - as a coblet myself I tend to only have warp speed trot and dragging my hooves trot. I would ask my brother as he does all that nancy stressage stuff and is bound to know - only he is having a kip!!

To me it sounds like it is all part of the Carrot lady's 'plan'. Has she mentioned a 'plan' recently? As I have said before be careful of these 'plan' things - they sneak them up on you and then expect you to do all sorts of stuff.

Woukd you like some salt lick?

The Coblet.

 

[LauraWheeler]

oh no spooky. Lucy here it sounds like your human is trying to get you to do the boring circly thing in the school my human calls dressage. Oh it's soooooooo boring and never involves a jump of any kind I hate it and have a good trick of refusing to move when we are at competitions I just stand there till the human in the car rings the little bell and says i can leave. Mummy gets anoyed but i think it's fun. As for the smacking just buck when they do it i find thats a good way to make them stop.
Oh and don't let the crafty human trick you into thinking it's not dressage because you are out in the woods and not in the school. My mummy tried that with me They can be crafty these humans you know you have to watch them spooky.

 

[YorksG]

HI there,
medium must be half way between slow and fast, so I think you are right about normal trotting being medium trotting. I haven't tried the trotting backwards while the person I own is sitting on me, that sounds like a very good idea, now that she has persuaded me to walk backwards when she wants, rather than when it suits me I enjoy the sideways trotting (again she doesn't often seem pleased about it)
You seem to have the opposite problem to me, mine wants me to be shorter from front to back, and to bring my head in, I like it where it is, she can't stop me as well when it's where I want it to be.
I think that these humans are very odd and don't know what they want, and they certainly don't explain it well. Mine has made me trot over poles a lot this week, she appears to have forgotten that they are there to be JUMPED over, daft bat.
Good luck with yours and I hope you get her sorted out soon, you could try trotting with your neck stretched a loooooong way out in front and see if that is what she wants (you would be longer)

Special treats
The Current Appy

 

[spookypony]

Dear Coblet,
I think you may be right about the "plan" thingy. I haven't heard her mentioning one, but lately, I've been going in the stall on wheels more often, and I gather "plans" sometimes involve those?

Many thanks for the licky thing! The little yellow mare wrecked mine.

Dear Lucy,
I'm worried the bucking trick may not work much longer. She tends to insist I go on anyways. The Pole Lady was telling her to make me.

Dear Appy,
Thanks for the treats, and the advice! Maybe I'll try the neck looooooooong thing. The sideways trotting is actually sometimes something she wants me to do! Like the bit where you go along with your bum to the wall. Does yours make you do the thing where you go along with your bum to the wall?

Somehow, I'm even more confused than before...