In Which We Have a Scarily Good Ride

It's very rare that I combine *scary* and *good* in the same sentence when talking about Jetta. Usually it's just *scary*. But we had such an amazing ride today!!

Before I went out to ride today I got all of the horsey blankets washed. I sat at the laundromat for an hour and a half to wash all four blankies! But I'm happy that it's all done.

Then I headed out to the barn to ride my girl. While I was planning on riding her yesterday, it never really happened :( There never was a break in the rain. It poured! And I didn't really feel like riding because of all my homework. I felt really bad though because I know she probably didn't get to go outside so she had to hang out in her stall all day. Poor pony.

Anyways, I made it to the barn while there was a break in the rain! Woo, sunshine! I walk, trot, cantered in the arena and she was ah-maz-ing! She didn't do her whole, trot faster and faster until I give her a big half halt and then start trotting faster again until I half halt and so on. But she was so good! It was almost too good to be true. We did leg yield at the walk and then we did some leg yields at the trot on the circle, as per usual. We then had an awesome leg yield at the trot on the straight away - yes! First time success. We also did some stretchy trot circles, which was great. That kind of deteriorated over the summer, but it was great today.

Cantering was even amazing! She transitioned up nicely and it felt so good that I even asked her for a lengthened canter - so great! She feels like such a warmblood when we lengthen at the canter because she's just so light on the forehand and you can really feel her come up under you and round and push from her haunches. She was just amazing. We only did a short ride because she was being so good so I wanted to reward her. She was such a good girl and so laid back that she had me a little scared. I was thinking that maybe she didn't feel very good.

When we went out on the trails, the BO's dog came with. She is the cutest, sweetest little Weimaraner ever! I'll have to get a picture of her sometime. Her name's Paris. We started trotting with Paris running in front of us, and Jetta wanted to race really bad. Uh, no. She wouldn't listen and kept trying to break into a canter and not listening so we ended up walking the whole time, which was fine with me. I think she's feeling just fine, despite how calm she was in the arena :) The ground was a little slick from the rain so walking was the better choice and it was just a nice relaxing ride out in the open.

It always smells so good after the rain. Jetta had her giant walk goin on. It feels like I'm almost riding a Tennessee Walker or something because she has like a 8" overstep at least. Paris was super good on the trails, trotting in and out of the Christmas trees and coming when I called. I hope I can have such a good barn dog someday! Jetta kept a cautious eye on her and really wanted to race her, but was well behaved. Not trying too hard to stomp on her, which was good!

It was just such a nice ride. Made my whole day just so much better. ♥ my pony