Too much excitement

I didn't get to talk about my ride the other day (two days ago). Since Jetta got the day off because of our beach ride yesterday, now is a good time as any to talk of it! It was... interesting.

Near death experiences. If you've been around horses for long enough, I'm sure you've had at least one. You know, the moment when you're hurtling through the air after being thrown off your horse or when their hooves are flashing above your head as they rear. That moment. Here's how our ride went.

I set up a tiny cross rail in the arena since I'm trying to mix things up so Jetta doesn't get bored. We haven't jumped in a really long time so it was interesting. Our walk and trot is getting so much better. We're still doing lots of transitions to make sure she's listening to my aids and coming back to me when I ask. We headed towards the jump and - leaped over it and took off bucking, with an unplanned exit from the arena. Add in that of course my neighbor (it's her arena) stopped over to watch us. Lovely... But I was laughing the whole time as I walked her back into the arena.

Then we cantered. To the right she was doing super well. She's recently been leaning on my hands and not even trying to carry herself properly and cantering way too fast. But she actually did pretty good. Then we changed direction. Not as good in the other direction but I got her to carry herself a little better. We were about to transition gently down into a nice floaty trot, when "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzap!!!" My dad is very proud of his new mosquito/bug zapper. You know one of those giant purple light thingies that electrocutes buggies whenever they touch it. It apparently got a very large bug. Jetta stopped and did a rear spin while I grabbed her neck and told her to "Ho!". It was quite impressive I'm sure. I officially hate that bug zapper. So that was near death experience number one.

After my heart stopped pounding I cooled Jetta out and then asked my brother if he could help me put the jump away. He came jumping across the fence between my property and our neighbor's and Jetta just about ran me over, trying to take my arm off as she scrambled to get away from my brother. She thought he was going to kill her and every move he made was surveyed by Jetta and met with snorts and an arching tail. Geez horse! It's a person, not a killer! It was way too much excitement for me! I started riding at 7:30 in the evening, hoping it would be a little bit cooler out, but I was sweating before I got on, not to mention how hot I was after I rode the little monster, lol.