By Randy Winter Trail riding with horses, like many other ways people enjoy being with their horse, is a skilled discipline not to be taken lightly. Some of the trail skills for your horse are: trailering, obstacle negotiation, control of spook response, maneuverability, gait control, sure footedness and group manners. These are all equine-specific skills to be worked on and improved upon to enjoy time out on the trail. There are also trail riding skills for the rider, such as riding posture, tack suitability, group manners and clothing choice. But in this article, I’d like to specifically emphasize a rider skill that is often forgotten but extremely important, and that is Attitude! As a middle school teacher I learned the importance of controlling my attitude in the classroom and had this poem by Charles Swindoll on the wall by my desk for about 20 years: “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we
