Being a Bad Blogger

I have not yet perished from the disappointment of my organic chemistry class. Gosh, I can't wait to be rid of o chem! I blame my bad posting all on that class...

Anyways, updates. I've ridden Jetta twice this week - very sad. But both were very fun rides.

I'm pretty sure this is how Jetta view's herself

Wednesday we had a jump school. I have lunged Jetta over jumps a couple times since recouping from her abscess, so at least she's still used to jumping, although sans a rider. We finally decided to break out the jumps for real though after a very nice warm up on the flat. Jetta was quite good although there were still a few speed bump issues to smooth out. Overall though I'm pleased with her. She has a hard time jumping over the two barrels on the side, she just wants to go around them so we worked on really getting her to go over the middle. Lots of halting after the jump so she remembered that she couldn't zoom off afterwards. The other problem we were having was collecting before the jump. I try to establish a nice rhythm beforehand but Jetta would rocket over the jump once she was within a couple strides of it, so we worked on halting before the jump. Then she would have this mincy little trot up to the jump, then at the last second rocket over it so then we had to really establish a better, more forward pace. And then Jetta decided that she was going to lock on the jump and ignore all attempts to get her more balanced or collected, flinging her head in the air with her best "You can't make me!" toddler impression, resulting in us completely demolishing a jump. Oh pony. But that was short lived and our jump school went really well, ending with me raising two out of three jumps to 2'9" and popping over them once, with a cool, collected pace, no attempts at refusal and no rocket pony imitations! So proud :)

Then today we went on another trail ride with ML and Dr. P. They came to my barn (since they only have a two horse trailer and mine is currently being borrowed by the parents) and we went on a search for the trails that were supposedly close by. It ended up being 1.3 miles down the rode (I drove by first to check it out!) and it was much more my length of trail ride, only two and a half hours instead of four! And no scary stallion so it was even better. Jetta was such a naughty pony. I was really disappointed in her, though I guess I can't blame her too much since this is pretty much her first trail ride in maybe six months? She was looky at pretty much everything - the light splotches on the ground, fallen branches, mud puddles, logs, you name it she probably spooked at it. And when we did trot or canter she tried to run away with me, I had very little control and just had to attempt not to get my arms pulled out of their sockets. So we now know what we are going to work on - coming back to a reasonable speed and just because we're not within four walls does not mean we have to run pell-mell around with no listening skills.

I really liked the trails and I can't wait to go back. After you walked the 1+ mile down the gravel road to get to the forest trails, then trekked up the hill, the rest of the trails were all clay so I think next time we'll wear the boots for the first half of the trip, then when we reach the trails, ditch the boots. At one point one boot got completely twisted around so I had to get off and fix it, then Jetta decided she no longer would walk forward and didn't want to be lead pony any more. It was strange, though she did get over it. I was very disappointed in the gel pad I got for her sore hoof - it was pretty much shredded by the end and is not useable for another ride. I am still a little worried about her hooves. Even though the pasture is completely dried out (for the last couple weeks) and she's being turned out every day, I'm diligently treating the thrush and her hooves look awesome, her hind hooves were looking a little chewed up after our ride and she's just still not getting any more comfortable on gravel. I know it takes a while for their hooves to change but I'm just being impatient. I want my pony's rock-crunching bare hooves back! :(

So anyways, that has been my week! I'm not sure if my next week is going to get any better horse-wise (why do I keep signing up for more things?!) but I think Dr. P, ML and I are going to keep on doing the Friday ride thing and may go cross country schooling next week. Yes! At least there's one thing I get to look forward to :)