Meet my new trail horse... Jetta!
While we did do a lot of trail riding on the trails around the barn we were boarding at, they weren't like the trails that we have here! These are some "real" trails :)
Yesterday my neighbor asked if I wanted to go on a trail ride with her today and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take Jetta! I certainly didn't want to go alone our first time out. I also decided we would test out the western saddle. I've never ridden Jetta western so it could have been interesting.
She was amazing! Couldn't have cared less about the saddle - I lunged her before we headed out and she didn't buck or barely flicked an ear at it. We headed out on the trails and she was looking around and had her humongous walk going on, so I had to hold her back a bit so poor Danny (my neighbor's horse) could keep up!
They're haying next door finally so we had to walk past all the scary machinery. Jetta barely glanced at it but gave the flower beds a wide berth, haha. I was so proud of her! We had a couple minor spooks at imaginary thing where all four legs went in different directions and she stopped and snorted, but for the most part she lead the way fearlessly!
We did have a little sticky spot when we had to squeeze past the horse eating log (read: walk past a small log on the side of a trail that's about 10 feet wide and Jetta had to walk right on the edge, as far from the log as possible!)
I am also super happy with Jetta's rock crunching bare feet. When I got her she had giant paddles for hooves and they cracked and chipped at the drop of a hat. She had thin, flat soles and it really hurt for her to walk on gravel. She barely even noticed the gravel today - strode right out and only landed funny on a couple large rocks. Yay! Her feet are getting so much better! They still have a ways to go, but we are almost to our "perfect" hooves.
Here are a few pictures of my new trail horse :) Is she not the cutest thing ever?!
I love barefoot! I think it's better for the hooves (unless you're doing something that you NEED shoes for). She looks super cute with her western tack on!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your ride went so well. I love it when you try something new and they do much better than you expected - my gelding will have to start going on trails soon, probably in the spring. I'm a bit worried about how he will do - he's normally pretty relaxed so maybe he will be alright with it. We have kangaroos on the farm that seem to pop up from nowhere though and he's only seen them once before, so I don't know how he will manage if that happens lol.
she looks so adorable in western tack :)
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