Fall Back

Gah, I hate the time change. Nothing like riding in the pitch black, right?

Nothing too much new in the last couple of days. Ponies are happy at home, I finally rode today, my first time since Tuesday. More on that ride later.

I didn't get to mention my previous ride on Jetta on Tuesday, long ago as that seems! We had a really good jump school. Warmed up at 2'6" to 2'9" and she was really good. No rushing and she was very good about maintaining a reasonable speed (just rode in the Myler). Bumped the jumps up to 3'3" and 3'6" (that's the problem with only having jump blocks and no actual jump standards because I can't make them into 3' jumps). Regardless, she was awesome. She refused the first attempt at the 3'3" oxer, though I know she'd have gone over it if I had kept my leg on. My confidence is always the issue - if I make her go over it, she will. Second attempt she cleared it, jumping me out of the tack and landing me on the cantle of the saddle. Ouch, other than that, she was awesome! The 3'6" vertical she took out on the first try, but every other time she was absolutely perfect and tucked her feet up without touching it. That's the highest I've ever jumped on a horse! So I was excited, needless to say.

Maybe someday I'll be on her doing this?

It was interesting that she was much better at jumping the 3'6" vertical rather than the smaller oxer. Usually she's much better with oxers, but I think that was just showing my problems. I was more comfortable with the smaller height so I was trying to regulate her speed too much. I need to stop picking at her when I'm 3-4 strides away and just let her be. With the 3'6" height I was just crossing my fingers and toes that she was going to jump it so I just let her be, therefore she was able to jump better. More practice in the works for sure, potentially a jumping show on the 15th? I know I'm probably going to take Misty for sure on the 16th for the baby hunter classes, but I'd like to take Jetta for the jumper classes that are Friday night if possible, so we'll see. Then the next weekend after that I'm planning on taking a lesson from KO. I think I have to work on the Saturday so instead of doing the full clinic (a dressage lesson and two jumping lessons) I think we can just do a jumping lesson on Sunday.

So yay for jumping!

Tonight's ride however... was awful. She was a twit and a half.

I whistled for the horses to come up and they trotted up. I had put hay in their stalls and let them in, tacked Jetta up while she was munching. I led her over to my neighbor's arena on the hill and Misty started freaking out, spinning and racing around her run. It was slightly worrying hearing her literally bouncing off the walls, but I knew she had to figure out that that kind of behavior would not bring Jetta back and after a minute she stopped. Jetta however got super amped up with hearing Misty rattling around. She pranced her way all the way to the arena with her tail in the air. I considered letting her gallop around but decided against that, because while it lets her blow off steam, she doesn't actually settle down, she just stays hyper.

So I hopped on.We did lots of walking around, trying to get her to focus on me, rather than on Misty. Every time she popped her head up she got a firm tap of my heels to get her to go forward into the bridle and listen to me. Trotting was absolutely atrocious. She either wanted to do her pony trot with her head in the air, or her freight train trot on the forehand and charging full steam ahead. We ended up working at the far end of the arena on a 20m circle going around and around and around until she finally gave me some semblance of a nice trot, then we'd work our way down the long wall towards the barn and start circling again when she popped her head up to stare at the barn.

It was a frustrating ride, but I was at least glad I handled it well despite wanting to kill my nitwit horse. There were several moments of almost rears and sideways rocketing, but I held it together. We only cantered to the left because she was being so bad to the right we I just couldn't get it together enough to allow her to canter as much as she wanted to...

Monster pony was a monster. Maybe she looks apologetic? Probably not.

She's always been a brat in that arena, there's just something about it that makes her act awful. I have literally probably only had one good flat/dressage ride in that arena with her in the three and a half years she's been under saddle. The footing's nice, it's fenced in, there's nothing scary about it and she's the only horse that misbehaves there. I'm hoping once she settles into the routine of being there she'll get her $#!& together and behave, but we'll see.

Misty wants attention, but Jetta just wants food.

I hope to ride on Tuesday and/or Wednesday. I think Jetta will definitely get lots of lunging with side reins the first day and the second day I'll lunge then ride. Hopefully that will instill some sanity in her. And then I will ride Misty one or both of those days.