Bad Girls Club

First off, Happy New Years! I have really high hopes that this is going to be an absolutely wonderful year!

Exciting news - I finally rode Jetta in the arena! It has been MONTHS since she's been ridden inside. I seriously need to kick my butt in gear and ride her consistently. She actually was not terrible. I've been lunging her in side reins and finally decided that she looked sane enough to climb aboard. It felt so good to be back on her. We only had a few minor spooks and  I even felt comfortable enough on her to let her canter, something I didn't think I was going to do.

Fuzzy monster

Foamy lips

Now, the bad girl part comes the day before. I stuck her on the lunge line and she took off bucking and kicking. Not unusual for her. But this time she actually kicked me, right in the thigh. Now, I always say that Jetta kicks. But she has never actually kicked any one, much less me, in the 6 years I've owned her. 

It didn't hurt too much at the time, she just gave me a glancing blow, but later that night my entire thigh went numb and it hurts quite a bit now. Luckily it doesn't interfere with riding and it's not all that bad but still, it'll make for an impressive bruise. I was in shock that she actually kicked me. Bad, bad pony.

Now with Misty... we also had a good day and a bad day. I was lunging her and just felt like hopping on bareback in her halter. I even mounted her from the ground without a mounting block, something I've never been able to do successfully with another horse without the use of some hill or ditch. She was quite surprised that I was running at, then jumping on, her but she stood without fuss and I had a fantastic ride on her. I was so happy. I put the lunge line around her neck and rode her as if we were bridleless (or I guess halterless). She was so incredibly responsive, I had a blast.

She had her listening ears on

So, of course the next day I thought it would be perfect to step it up a notch and actually do it completely tackless. It did not go as planned. She was being so sassy and bad (for her). She trotted along with her nose dragging through the dirt and when I asked her to raise her head, she tossed it and hunched her back as if she was going to buck. Her spins and stops were ok, but a little lackluster. She decided more than once that she was going to take a detour and go stare at herself in the mirror whether or not I actually wanted her to go in that direction. Then another horse came in the arena to lunge and she became completely enamored with him and kept trying to get close to him despite my protests. Sigh. It was not a good ride.

The plan is to try again with Misty, first starting out with the halter on, and then taking it off after we warm up. And not doing bridleless work with another horse in the arena until I feel like her responses are better in tune to my requests.

With Jetta, I'm going to try and keep up some consistent rides! And hopefully neither of us attempt to kill each other.