Four Years

Yesterday was the four year anniversary that I lost Grady, my first horse, and the absolute love of my life. I can't believe it's already been four years already, it doesn't feel like it's been that long and I still miss him like it was yesterday. He was certainly the greatest horse I have ever owned and likely will ever own.

Sorry for the downer post, but it popped up on my Facebook and made me really sad. I've been thinking about him a lot lately and that Facebook memory confirmed why.

In happier news, I've made it to the barn three days in a row which is a minor miracle. And not only did I go three days in a row, but I rode two of them! You know I haven't ridden in a long time when I was sore after the first ride...

Proof I actually sat on my horse!

Jetta was pretty bracey and strong on Tuesday. She was getting pretty frustrating, but we added a bunch of walk-trot-walk transitions and some serpentines in and she started getting softer and lighter in the front end so we ended the ride on a good note.

Today was much better. I went at the worst possible time when almost every single person at the barn who actually rides was there. Two people riding, one person leading their horse in the arena, another who was just finishing her rides and then me lunging. Plus feeding time. A little bit of a mad house. Jetta was actually very good. She is notoriously spooky when it's feeding time with the BM throwing food down from the loft, to the point that the BM sometimes goes and does something else if I'm riding when she goes to feed. But Jetta held it together super well. I lunged her really quick since we were cramped for space and I wanted to get on as quickly as possible without running anyone over.

She was much lighter and much less braced. We did a lot of shoulders-in and I tried my hardest to push her forward whenever she got braced, as hard as that is for me. You'd think I'd been riding this horse for 7 years, I would have figured out how to ride her forward even with out hot she is, but it's still hard!

Hopefully the good streak will continue! The weather has been crazy - we got almost 3 inches of snow at my house on Monday morning. It quickly melted luckily and now it's just been raining non-stop, which looks like the forecast for the next couple of weeks. I wish it would be dry enough for a trail ride!

No more snow please. Thanks.