Made it out to the barn to ride both horses today! Yesterday I was planning on riding Jetta since I hadn't ridden her in oh, six days. But after locking myself out of my car and having to walk 40 minutes across campus to my house to get the spare key and then 40 minutes back to get my car... I decided it was probably better I stayed home.
Poor Jetta, seven days off. I was expecting a bit of a fireball today but she was near perfect. She was soft and floaty for the most part. I worked on getting her a little more responsive to my leg and seat. I was thinking about it and it's kind of funny I'm working on sensitizing her since when I started her under saddle just the smallest amount of leg or sitting too deep on her caused her to explode. Funny how that worked out... Anyways, lots of transitions, she was very good about halting nicely from the trot. Canter transitions were beautiful. After our last ride she was doing them really well and today whenever I asked her for a little more lift in her shoulders she felt like she wanted to canter.
Almost had a few "accidents" - the BO's put the mini in one of the stalls at the end of the arena that had been full of hay for him to clean up the few pieces left, and left the door open. Jetta thought he was terrifying. At one point in the canter I asked for a trot and she slammed on the brakes then proceeded to spook backwards a couple steps when her sliding stop kicked up some dirt that hit the banner on the wall. Lovely pony. Almost smacked my face into her neck. Take two. We walked up to the pony and stared at it for a little while. Jetta determined that it probably wasn't a threat (couldn't be too sure though). We cantered around some more and I practiced my two point - I was sure that the pony was going to move, Jetta was going to spook and I was going to eat dirt. I was lucky though, no such thing happened. I did almost smack into her neck again when the BO's dog (who is the cutest thing ever by the way) yelped from the stall that he was relegated to.
Next up was Tux. No lunging since the BO was lunging her horse and I didn't want to have any accidents with the whole running out on me thing. He was also a very good pony! Very spooky though too, must be something about it being Halloween. The BO was washing her horses in the wash rack which is apparently even more terrifying than actually being in the pony torture chamber. We worked through it though we got our first sidepass though! And a canter leg yield too, lol. Love it when they show off their athleticism on their own :)
His canter is just improving in leaps and bounds (literally). He is still having some trouble with the right lead so it's not as relaxed as the other lead. But he is doing so well! December 1st is hopefully going to be his show debut. I hope this will be the one dressage show I get to make it to this whole year...
Sorry for the lack of pics! Hope you had or are having a great Halloween :)
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