Trail Dressage Mule

I took Jetta on her first trail ride in a very long time. She's been super good all week, so while I didn't ride yesterday I thought she'd be fine. I was a little worried I should have lunged before I left because she was a little antsy for getting her legs wrapped and hoof boots on but I shouldn't have worried. I have the best trail dressage mule! (I think this should be her new title: large ears + riding dressage + trail rides = trail dressage mule)

Are you done taking pictures yet?

We did my favorite little trail and it was perfect. We were having some boot wardrobe malfunctions plus I want to work on building those butt muscles so I made her walk all the way uphill. Finally got the boots all fixed so when we popped out the other side of the hill to the logging trails, I let her trot for quite a ways and even canter. She was pretty much on her best behavior the entire time! She had to do a nice, dressage quality trot the entire time, which at first she resisted with her best llama impression, but soon settled down into a nice soft trot.

We didn't go all the way to the lookout, which I think is about 7-8 miles round trip because I didn't want to make her too sore, but she was raring to go the entire time. I forgot to turn my tracking app on, but I think we went around 4-5 miles. She then proceeded to speed-walk the entire way back down the hill which I must say is incredibly uncomfortable to ride. 

Best thoroughbred mule beast

At the very end as I was untacking her, this older couple came over and the wife asked to pet Jetta. They were super nice, telling me about the history of the area and talking about how she wished she had a horse at my age. The husband proclaimed that he knew Jetta was a "trail horse, trained to cross bridges and things". As they started to walk away, the husband said "Oh! She's got sandals on!" to which I replied that they were her tennis shoes! They thought that was pretty funny.