Quality Time

Got to spend some quality time with both ponies today!

Jetta got her haircut done. It was surprising the amount of hair she'd already put on. Normally she doesn't get that much of a winter coat but she definitely did this year! I decided to go with a blanket clip this time around - last year she got a trace clip and while I liked that, I wanted to take a little more hair off this year but not do a full body clip.

What did you do to me??

Left side. I don't know where I went wrong with this side, but I don't like it very much.

Right side. This side looks really good I think.

So I don't know how I managed it, but her left side doesn't look very good. I messed up in the hip area and didn't get the lines as straight as it should be. But I think if I tried to fix it, it would make it too far up her side, so I guess I'll just live with it. Her right side looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself :) I am definitely not that good at clipping, so I'll take it. It was hard enough to get one side done well - I even managed to accidentally shave off part of her mane when she bobbed her head. Oops.

After I got all the clipping done I hopped on and had a good ride. Her canter transitions to the left are really good but the right lead transitions aren't so hot. I'm hoping we can get those ironed out by Wednesday so that JB can see that we've been practicing when we have our lesson. Afterwards, even with all that hard work, Jetta was still dry. Yay for no hair!

Tux was up next. His clip is looking really good. Since I don't have actual body clippers, mine leave lines but they grow out within a couple days so you can't see any evidence that there were lines anymore on him. He was also really good under saddle. I dragged out some poles for him to trot and canter over and he was a champ. He pricked his ears and stared pretty hard at them when I asked him to trot over them, but after a couple times it was no big deal and he did it with no problem. I started out with the trot poles at his normal trot stride width but then spread them a bit more so he really had to reach and engage his abdominal muscles and hind end to get over them. I really do think he could go far in dressage since he has so much try and for being a drafty he's really athletic (just not very fit quite yet...). After he was comfortable at the trot I spread the poles apart even farther so we could canter and he was so good! I think he'd also make a fun little jumper pony - we got some tight turns in there :)

Overall, a good, productive day. I love days like this!