Road Trial Training...at the Beach!!

Yesterday, Jazz and I had the opportunity to do some road trial training on the beach in Frisco, NC! I had called Hatteras Island Horseback Riding, because their website said they specialized in customizing your riding experience. Well, what I was looking for was custom, all right! The owner, Jeff, was very interested in the concept of Dalmatian Road Trials when I described it to him (he is training one of his horses for endurance riding events) and agreed to allow Jazz to train with his horse Gus.

Here's Gus and Jazz. Gus is a 9-year-old Norwegian Fjord Horse. He was an absolute delight to ride, and he really liked having Jazz along! They greeted each other nose to nose several times, and Gus even playfully goosed Jazz in the bum, which got tail wags and a play bow from Jazz. I'm absolutely thrilled with how comfortable Jazz is around horses. She has a healthy respect for these big critters but seems totally at ease with them, also.


Here's Jazz on a down-stay getting ready to practice the recall exercise.



Here's our recall...wait for me, here I come!!


You may notice that Jazz is dragging her leash in these pictures. While she behaved wonderfully with all the distractions on the beach (seagulls, people, other dogs), this beach is a federal park and dogs are required to be on leash. Of course, no one said you had to be holding the other end of that leash ;)



Here's me and Gus and Jazz riding off into the sunset (ok, so it was morning, but it sounded exotic) after an exhilarating training session at the beach.


Many thanks to Jeff, Susie, and Alex from Hatteras Island Horseback Riding for "customizing" my ride to include some road trial training for Jazz. It was such a pleasure to meet them and Gus, and we look forward to seeing them again next year!