Firsts

I rode Jetta for the first time in about 8 months!! It wasn't too bad. Definitely had to remind her how to stand at the mounting block, not pull on me and get off my leg. Kinda like starting all over again, but hopefully in a month it'll be like we never took a break!

It was so nice to sit on my own horse again. She is a difficult horse to ride, but I still love her. We mostly walked and trotted, worked on shoulder-in and getting her off her front end. I wasn't going to canter but towards the end of the ride I decided to ask for it and she cantered off down the long side of the arena like it was the most fun thing she'd done all week. I missed her!

Baby had some firsts too! She got tied for the first time and didn't care one bit. While leading has been a lot better now that she's weaned and doesn't have mom distracting her, I wasn't really sure she really understood pressure 100%. She definitely has learned more than I gave her credit for! It's so fun to see the gears turning in her head. I "tied" her (I was holding the end of the lead rope and it was just through the tie ring) and she pulled a little backwards, realized she couldn't so she stopped. Pulled a little to the left and realized she couldn't so she stopped. Pulled to the right and realized she couldn't. So she stood there super quietly and explored the lead rope and tie ring with her mouth. Then I snapped the tie ring closed (it's a Blocker tie ring) and went and swept the barn with no peeps out of Miss Maisie. That was easy!

She also learned a little about ground tying. I need to add that to my goals this year for her. She was quite offended about being told not to move when I was not near her head and we were not in her stall, but she eventually figured it out and stood perfectly.

"What iz this??"

Babies are fun! Minus the stress that you're going to ruin them completely ;)