Onion Breath

First trail ride of the year for Jetta! The weather this week is AMAZING. It's supposed to be in the 70's all week and for our trail ride today it was a perfect 72 degrees. Love it.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a trail ride so I asked my BO where some good trails were that are close and she recommended this place that was 30 minutes away.

It reminds me a lot of Elijah Bristow where I took Queenie a couple weeks ago, it's also a state park on a river. It ended up taking me 50 minutes to get there because I took the long way, but only 40 minutes on the way back so I feel like Elijah Bristow is worth going to instead just because it takes the same amount of time, the drive is easier and you don't have to pay a day fee.

With that said though, it was a nice park and I had fun. It's good to try someplace new. Two other places we're going to try in the near future: a BLM property that's supposedly 5 min from our barn but starts out rocky, and Silver Creek Falls which, obviously, has waterfalls!!

Jetta was great. She's usually pretty spooky in the spring after getting shut inside all winter but she was barely spooky and was quite the good girl. I was proud!

Here are your complimentary ears photos:

Starting out

Jetta says "I iz not water pony" notice the tell tale ear flicked back

I made her walk through a puddle, oh the horrors

Shaking it off after our ride

My "endurance pony" after our ride

I set my run keeper app to track the ride, my first time using it and I really liked it. We went 7.5 miles in about an hour and forty minutes. We slowly walked the last two miles behind another pair of riders which was okay since Jetta needs to learn that it's ok to walk slowly behind others, lol.

But this marked our first conditioning ride for endurance! Supposedly you're able to just take any horse out of the pasture to do a limited distance ride, but I'd like to make sure Jetta's in tip-top shape even if it's unnecessary since it will help with cross country too. We mostly trotted with a couple canters thrown in and then spaced each trot set out with some walking. Jetta was very well behaved with just her Myler snaffle which I had been worried about, thinking that I might want to put in her cross country bit just for a little bit extra security but we probably won't end up needing it.

The dressage saddle and pad configuration worked out perfectly. The only thing to do before our first ride on May 25th is to swap out my regular irons with my MDC ones since my knees were aching towards the end of the ride. Then I would also like to find a cushy neoprene girth instead of the fleece one since the current one soaks up moisture like a sponge. 

So basically a perfect way to spend the afternoon! Oh and the title refers to Jetta grabbing a mouthful of onion grass when we were back at the trailer. Apparently she thought they tasted good even through in large amounts they're toxic to horses apparently. After loading her in the trailer she gave a big sigh and she smelled like she had been nomming on some onions.