The ponies were both fairly good today. Jetta was on her best behavior and I had a really good ride on her - it was almost magical too!
I ended up not riding Jetta yesterday, but I just let her run around the arena for a bit. It's amazing how much her movement has improved just at liberty - she seems much more uphill and freer in the shoulder. Such a pretty girl :)
Pretty or not though she just loves being muddy. She got turned out all morning/afternoon and she was so filthy. I almost didn't even want to touch her. A bath is definitely in order soon!
 |
| warm weather = no blanket = this awfulness |
 |
| She even had it smeared all the way down to her tail bone |
Today I just rode dressage, but she must have heard about the jumping reward if she was good because she was very good. We warmed up a lot at the walk, asking her to halt softly, making "square" corners and then doing shallow serpentines along the wall. When we went to trot she was soft and carried herself but didn't drop contact or rush. Such a great feeling! Did a few trot-halt-trot transitions and they were very nice. Did some loops and 10m half circles to get her bending nicely and then cantered.
Her canter was really nice too - very uphill and soft. It felt like I could easily ask her to go forward and come back to me, which she did, and we did some 15m circles and I asked for a couple 10m circles but she got a little unbalanced with those. Her downward transitions to the trot were awesome. Her right lead canter seems to be slowly but steadily improving and is fairly respectable at the moment. And get this: no spooking today! It was just an all around great ride!
Queenie is getting there too. We worked on mounting and desensitizing yesterday and today she was much better. She didn't move a muscle when I got on which was nice! Also yesterday we went for a walk across the street to the weigh station and she was very well behaved. I brought my dressage whip and wore gloves just in case she decided to be naughty, but while she was very snorty about everything, she was on her best behavior and I only had to tap her on the shoulder a couple times to remind her to stay out of my "bubble". She has a "please save me!" personality when something is scary. It's slightly adorable, but less so when you realize this 1700 POUND HORSE (I weighed her!) with dinner plate sized hooves wants to sit in your lap.
 |
| Just being a good explorer pony |
I decided to try out some spurs on her today since it's hard for me to get her 1700 pound self to move off my leg. They made it a lot easier but almost backfired on me when I pushed her to trot "RIGHT NOW" and she started bucking. Yeehaw! She just doesn't have a very good "forward button" and her response to a lot of things is to whirl her butt around, effectively disengaging her so that is now on our to-do list: install forward button.
Other than that little bucking episode she was pretty good. She has no concept of carrying herself when on a circle. She really wants to stick her nose to the outside or if she bends in she falls in with her shoulder and then our circle gets tiny and she thinks it's time to stop. So hopefully I will put her in side reins soon to help her figure out that she can carry herself on a circle without me trying to hold her head to the inside and push her barrel to the outside - I tend to try and help too much so it's better if I just get out of the way and let her figure everything out herself. We had minimal spooking today, the only scary thing was when the BO started washing off horses that had been outside - water eats ponies don't you know!
 |
| Pretty sunset today |
Tomorrow is the big, bi-annual tack sale, aaand I don't think I'm going. There's nothing I really "need" at the moment - I have more than enough blankets now that Grady's gone, both Jetta and Jazz have a fly sheet for this year, I don't have any basic needs - I kind of want a second hunt bridle and a second dressage bridle, I've been thinking about getting a D-ring or eggbutt waterford to use instead of our loose ring, I kind of want a scrim sheet. But it would be pretty hard to find those things there (though I have been lucky in the past) and with finals starting on Monday I feel like I could use the time better for studying. And my more pressing wants - like some Equilibrium Stretch Flex wraps or a Vespucci breastplate would be near impossible to find there. It's an almost painful decision for the tack whore in me - "Don't need anything?! But you always get such good deals on everything!" But who knows, I could always wake up at 6am with a burning desire to go drive for an hour and a half in each direction to look at stuff I don't need and spend money that I really shouldn't spend...
No comments:
Post a Comment