More Great Rides

Jetta continues on her well-behaved streak. Friday I didn't have time to ride so I just worked with her at liberty. It's something I haven't really done a lot of recently. Jetta, after running off a little steam at first, will use only a small portion of the arena to go around me and will listen to voice and body aids for walk, trot, canter and stop/come in. It's so neat to know that you can control your horse in a large arena with no halter or lunge line! Here's a video of her running around. This is mostly before she started to go in a circle around me. It's very long, but slightly entertaining :)

Ok... it won't upload. Grr. I'll try tomorrow so if you're really dying to see her running around check back soon!

After "lunging" both ways and consistently listening to my aids, I asked Jetta to follow me around the arena as if I was leading her, but again, sans halter or lead rope. She was super good about sticking close to me and trotting, walking, halting, even backing up in step with me! This is something I played with a lot doing Parelli and while a lot of people might say that it's ridiculous and has no practical basis, my reasons for doing it are: 1) It teaches the horse to listen to your body language rather than a halter so you gain better control over them in more situations, 2) you gain your horse's respect, you know that they choose to be following you rather than running away and 3) it's just plain fun!! Why would you not do it when it's just something fun to do when you're bored or don't have time to ride?!

Running across the arena with your horse trotting at the same speed, then stopping quickly and having your horse stop too is a pretty neat feeling. Jetta was just so good!

Then I rode again today and she was very well-behaved in the saddle. She didn't try to rush or lean on me at all! That is, until I asked her to go across a cavaletti someone left out. It was about 2" tall and she kept trying to catapult herself over it. Sigh. Eventually we had trotting over it all sorted out, but cantering was a different story. We worked it out, but it had started out so nicely! This is why we need to do lots of rides with jumps and poles so that she realizes that she doesn't have to launch herself over them. Silly pony. But it was still a pretty good ride and she was so good that I didn't even bother cross-tying her when I unsaddled her and picked her feet out. Such a good pony! Of course, I made sure to check that the barn doors were closed, just in case...

I'm really liking these nice rides. I'm hoping that they're not just a fluke and that it's just a sign of Jetta growing up! Let's hope that there's only upward improvement from here! Oh, and I forgot - we signed up for a dressage show next weeked. Eek! Let's hope this goes well.