Sometimes I Wonder

Today was an interesting ride...

I didn't ride Jetta at all this weekend because I didn't feel good and didn't even make it out to the barn to lunge her or anything so I guess this is what I get for that!

I lunged her first and there were some acrobatics including suddenly spinning off into the other direction (awkward since I was lunging in a bridle with the lunge line fixed to one side). Usually I can get her stopped and reversed even with the lunge line on the wrong side but she threw in a giant buck and got the lunge line under her back legs so I had to let go resulting in her doing a victory lap around the arena before prancing up to me. Such a dorky horse, but I love that she came to me on her own. Show off.

She settled down so I hopped on. We warmed up and after reversing we were trotting around and she pulled a giant spook. Sometimes I wonder about this horse... She's not a spooky horse but every so often she just has to act like an idiot just to get it out of her system I guess - there was nothing to spook at and no weird sounds so I don't know what happened but she spun around on her haunches like she was a cutting horse and went leaping and running across the arena to the other end before I could get her stopped. Sigh... It doesn't help that she's inside all of the time so she's lacking exposure to random "stuff" so I can't wait till it dries out a bit. She did get turned out in the sunshine on Saturday but now the weather is back to being cloudy, rainy and colder :(

But once we got that spook out of the way everything else went smoothly for the most part.

We ran through our Training Test 3 a couple times since we've mostly been focusing on First Level. First Level is probably going to end up pretty rough so we might as well have a nice Training Level test if nothing else! She was attentive for the most part but I think the main problems we're going to have is her bracing against me every so often in our turns (specifically corners and our loops) though we'll try to work on that in the 5 rides we have until our show. And our right lead canter for some reason was really rough, both up and downwards transitions weren't quite the prettiest but oh well. As long as she doesn't buck when I ask or launch into it a little stiffening will have to be ok for this show.

We got our ride times though! We ride at 1:19 and 2:08 which is perfect because I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn and since it's on a Sunday I can get everything ready at my leisure on Saturday. Plus we don't have a ton of time in between, just enough for us I think.

And I found out that there's a videographer there so I will make sure to sign up for our tests to be taped. Hopefully I will be able to coerce convince a friend to come take pictures too. I can't wait!