Jetta Jumps!

I don't know why I love this picture so much, but I really do!

I actually got to jump Jetta for the first time in forever! My friend at the barn who owns Dundee told me that she was going to set up some gymnastics if I wanted to join and I couldn't pass that offer up! I was pretty worried that Jetta would be awful, but I figured we couldn't go wrong with some gymnastics. Of course when I got to the barn it was super busy and in addition to not being able to find my lunge line, all the lunging areas were taken.

Jetta warmed up extremely spooky. Not that I could really blame her though. There was a horse being worked with on opening a gate so the gate was clanging, the horse was dancing around whinnying for it's buddy who was just outside the gate and the owner yelling at the horse. Then there was the horses being brought inside, the little kids running down the aisle... So I couldn't really blame Jetta a whole lot.  

Warming up I just focused on doing a lot of half halts and if she didn't do them, then we'd halt and back up before going back to whatever gait we were in. This helped tremendously. I was worried she would try to refuse the jumps since we haven't jumped in like... a year or two? But she was game. We just needed to work on not rushing the jumps. Originally we started out with two trot poles to two tiny little fences, then just gradually kept bumping things up. 

After halting Jetta a couple times in front of the trot poles I finally got her to listen to my half halts in front of the line of jumps so she didn't rush... but we still had to deal with her rushing after the jumps. 

Knees

I feel like I'm learning how to ride all over again almost! Misty was so different - it was all about riding Misty forward, forward, forward where as with Jetta is a balancing act in getting her to not rush and not be on her forehand. 

That hind end though

Finally once Jetta took off bucking after the last fence (once it got raised way up - Jetta was so proud of herself for clearing it) I told MS's roommate who was graciously helping us, to yell at me to sit up before I went over the last jump. That helped immensely. I just kinda want to curl in the fetal position and let Jetta take me over the jumps, but that's not really going to work. I needed to sit up and give her a strong half-halt before that last jump so she wouldn't take off. After going through the line cleanly without taking off, I called it quits. That last jump looked HUGE to me, even though it probably wasn't all that big. I'm hoping it was 3' but now that I look at the videos it really just looks like it was barely 2'9". Oh well. I was proud of the monster pony!

I really need to work on my leg position, I probably should shorten my stirrups a bit to help with that! 

Videos got in a weird order. The 1st and last are of the smaller jump, the 2nd and 3rd are the large jump, with the 2nd video being the one she took off bucking over, and the 3rd is the one she jumped well and we called it quits on.

 

 

The Cold, Wet, Miserable Schooling Show

I took Misty to a H/J schooling show. Because why not take a major study break at a horse show on a day with the worst possible weather?

I had a lot of fun. The weather was really that awful (there was no covered area except the show arena so we all got soaked). ML came and rode a couple classes and did a good job for not jumping in 6 months. And Misty was only jumped once before the show after not being jumped since the little derby we did a month ago. So I was happy.

I rode the Hunter I class in the 2'6" division. It was rather bad. I didn't ask for any leads so we got lots of wrong ones. It was pretty ugly. We placed a deserved 4th out of 5. But Misty didn't try to refuse anything, didn't spook at the fun Halloween decorations on the fence and didn't pull any rails.

ML rode in Hunter II and did a very good job. She's been riding Misty occasionally since I don't have time. But she's never jumped her. Their only issue was a chip in on the very last jump. The lines were all set at 4 strides, but Misty was riding them at 5. She also likes to back off about 1-2 strides away so if you don't anticipate it and keep her forward, it messes up your perfect approach you had planned. Placed a 4th out of 7 in the class.



She also rode in Eq. over fences. It was not quite as good. Misty was losing energy. It was cold. She was backing off and chipping in to almost every fence.

Then we switched horses again as it started to absolutely pour. Misty was soaked. I was soaked. ML was soaked. It was miserable. I rode in the 2'6" jumpers. I am definitely not a jumper. I enjoy it, I love jumping, the courses are fun, but I love eventing. (I love having ride times or estimated class times at the very least!) and I find the different Tables weird. At least this wasn't the table where if you went clear, you rode your jump off immediately after your round. But we did go clear, only one other girl did.

Misty was great for the jump off too. She was being lazy and I was really pushing her to pick up the pace. She jumped clear again. The great thing about her is no matter how sloppy the distance I give her, she will still do her best to not hit anything. And we won the class! I was happy. There were six riders and only 2 of us made it to the jump off.



So it was a fun show. There was also Misty's mega-me twin there. I've seen her at several jumper show/clinics. The horse has the same exact coloring as Misty (bay roan tobiano) but is a draft cross. She's absolutely adorable. I don't know if she competes in dressage, but if she does, I think we need to get in contact to do a Pas de Deux. How freaking cute would that be?!

Videos!

Finally got some videos of Misty uploaded from the derby we did! Nothing too interesting. She's definitely got some stuff to work on with issues that came from being leased out, but nothing too hard to fix.

ML rode Misty the other night and hopefully will continue to do so every so often. I also rode, hopping on Jetta after she had 2 weeks off and then riding her in the field with Misty. Poor horse just about lost her little mind. It was pretty terrible, though I did at least manage to get a little bit of good work out of her and didn't get reared with, bucked off or run away with, though Jetta tried to do all three. Oh mare. She just really needs to be ridden consistently because then she's a near angel, and currently her nickname of monster pony really does fit her.

Finally Jumping Again

Yesterday was a great, productive ride. I finally got up the motivation to have an actual jump school on Misty because so many people have been wanting jumping videos. I've jumped twice maybe in the past month or two and they were just hopping over one little jump, not actually doing a course (albeit a small one).

You know you haven't jumped in too long when you set a course at 2'6" only to measure it and discover that it's only 2'. Wow. 

I set up a three stride line, a singe oxer and some barrels across the centerline on a diagonal. Misty was just so good. Not anywhere close to perfect, but I'll take it for what little time we've spent jumping.

We hopped around the course at 2'3" after a brief warm-up and stroll past all the jumps. She was great, save for a bit sassy. She gets so proud of herself she just has to toss her head a bit!



I bumped the jumps up to 2'6" and ran through it a few more times. And we had two refusals. She was being naughty! She ran out on the barrels the first time through, then the second time through she ran out on the second jump in the combination. She has NEVER run out on a jump. Refused yes, but usually it's a gradual rolling stop that I can feel coming from a mile away (just fail to prevent somehow). It wasn't a dirty refusal, I could feel it coming, but by then it was too late to fix.

I decided that the picket fence jump needed a ground line once it got raised up to 2'6" but, typical lazy me, I decided to just drag it over on Misty. Gosh this horse is awesome. (Apologies for the lack of video editing. I have neither the software nor the patience for it, so start at 0:15 and stop at 1:00)


The third time through however was great, but by this time she was getting tired. I ran through it once more just to make sure I had a good enough video. Of course, in the process I had a major brain fart and completely forgot the "course" I had decided on, so we had some fun squiggly work all over the place.





Lastly, I bumped the oxer up to 2'9" and jumped it a couple times for good measure. She didn't bat an eye and jumped it easily. What a good girl :)

Heart of the Valley - Part 2

Super long recap of Friday/Saturday here

Day 2 of the show was much sunnier and nicer than the day before. Luckily I didn't have to ride until 9:55am so I had a little bit of time to sleep in before showing up and giving Misty breakfast, cleaning her stall, etc.

She was being such a beggar!

My first ride was in the terrace arena unfortunately. I heard of a lot of people scratching their rides in that arena because of the deep footing and supposedly one horse tore its suspensory during their ride. Yikes.

Misty was pretty good though. I lunged her first this time around so she could get all her bucks out without me on her back, resulting in a much quieter warm-up. I would have rather have ridden in the sand arena which had dried out, but at least the terrace ride was the first ride of the day so she wasn't too tired. Still had a moment or two where she wanted to canter to get out of the deep footing, but better than the day before. One more bobble in the last corner before turning up the centerline where it was like a sinkhole and she tried to walk, meaning we got marked down half a point from a 7 to a 6.5. The test was all 6's and 7's except for one 5 where she jumped into the canter before I brought her back down.

All 6.5's for collective marks except for a 7 for rider and the final comments: "Maintain verticle balance in canter circles. Tension in back creates some irregular steps at times. Work to supple this and develop a consistant reach to bit. Energetic ride."

I was super happy to see we got a 65%. Of course, only person in this class = automatic first place. Oh well. I think this was our best ride (well, not just because of the score, but how it felt). I wish we had gotten a video but my camera died.

We had a little time so she got to hang out in her stall for a bit then we got back on. She warmed up really well, before we took a group picture then we headed down to the indoor. Once in the indoor warm-up arena... Misty was AMPED. I don't think she's ever had this much energy in her entire life. I thought she'd be tired but noooo, she was a little fireball. We did serpentines and long and low and transitions. Nope. Nothing calmed her down. So we zooooomed around the indoor arena in our final test. She didn't make any mistakes but she was TENSE.

And our score of course reflected that. 60% and last place. Bummer. All the comments were "tight" "tense" and "hollow". Final comments: "Attractive horse who must be more relaxed and balanced and reaching to the contact. Too tense today. Keep working!" I don't think it was just the indoor that made her so tense because she's not typically scared of new places. Honestly I think it was the hot walker that terrified her! (They have one of those awesome Eurocisers). She just couldn't tear her eyes off of it whenever it was in her view and she was so antsy after seeing it. She was convinced the horses were being tortured and needed to be rescued!

Doesn't get any better. Hanging in the sunshine watching the 3rd level classes.

Overall, a really fun weekend. It was a great learning experience for Misty. I love that every show something new finally "clicks" with her. The last show it was transitions, this show it was the free walk. By the end she was finally "getting" what she was supposed to do. Great group of people I was with and I was happy with how Misty did. I just wish I could afford to do more recognized shows now!

No pictures of us riding. I wanted to take screenshots from the video, but apparently my video-editing software doesn't actually have that capability even though I thought it did? Still waiting on proofs to be loaded from the professional photographer. I plan on buying one or two from her. I'll post the link when it's available!

Video from Saturday:

Video Comparison

Sorry for the poor quality. The files were so large I couldn't get them to convert to a youtube friendly format so I just videoed the videos with my phone. 

I think it's really interesting to see the differences between the two. She's a little bit steadier in the bridle (though she's still bouncing around in the contact a lot). Her tempo's more even, I think she moves a little nicer as well. She's more bending, her transitions are better. Halts still suck. The first video is Intro C taken in July and then second was from the past weekend. Definitely a little bit of improvement over 7 months, though we still have a ways to go.

Please ignore my equitation in the second video. I really can't ride when I'm hungover, lol. Plus Misty was losing gas fast so I'm trying my hardest to keep her going forward. She had much better impulsion the day before, I wish we had caught our winning ride on camera!

Grumpy Cat

The show went pretty well today. I was happy with how Jetta did and thought we improved in some areas a lot compared to our last dressage show. The judge however, did not agree.

I'd never ridden with this judge before and she was TOUGH. She basically didn't like anything we did. Except for our free walk. I don't know how you couldn't like Jetta's free walk so there's that. Here's how I pictured her:

I'm not sure if she was grumpy or not, but her scores sure seemed like it. I saw quite a few scores in the 50% range and not one score over 65%. Which is not usually what you see at a league show...

Here's the breakdown of our tests:

Training Test 3

Jetta was okay for this one but she was definitely a little looky in areas and she stiffened and came above the bit a couple times. It was just kind of a meh ride, though I felt for sure that we'd at least get the same score or better than our last show because her canter transitions were a million times better (save for trying to canter in one corner when I didn't ask) and our little serpentines were much bendier too. We got 7's on both halts (apparently those were both good though she wrote "to left" on both). Except for our free walk (an 8), everything else was 6's and 6.5. Comments were that she canter was stiff, unbalanced, our transitions were unbalanced and fussy, we were counter flexed at C (because Jetta was busy eyeing the judges stand - a table set up in the back of a truck with a canopy overhead) and while I thought we had one of our best stretchy trots to date in a show, we scored a 6 because she was inconsistent in her tempo. Phooey. We got a 7 for gaits, a 6.5 for impulsion, 6 for submission, 6.5 for rider's position and seat (saying that I leaned too far forward. Guilty as charged). A 6 for Rider's aids with no comment (I want to know why!) and 6.5 for Harmony. Our final comment was: "Great walk! Pleasant picture but many balance and positioning errors when executing the figures and performing transitions." Ok, I guess that's not the worst comment I could ever receive, but many?  I thought there were only a few bobbles.

We scored a 64.6% so we didn't improve at all from our last show, actually going down 1.2%. That wasn't a huge deal because I knew we'd had many a few bobbles and it wasn't our best, despite at least feeling improved.

Looking cute

First Level Test 1

For some reason I was SUPER nervous for this test. I think in part because I forgot an element of the test last time and I was worried I'd forget it again. I needn't have worried though, this test went awesome! It felt like we really had it together, all of the movements were just flowing into one another, I knew what was coming up next and Jetta was responsive and well behaved.

The judge didn't agree with my assessment.

Again, 7's on both halts with the same comment of being to the left. Our free walk we also scored an 8 again. Everything else was mostly 5.5 and 6's with a couple 6.5's. Bummer. Our comments were that Jetta's was quikening her stride instead of lengthening, that she didn't show much stretch in our stretchy trot circle, our transitions were "muddy", "stiff" or "lurching". She didn't like our circles or corners and said that her haunches were to the inside or that she was falling in/out. We got a 7 again for gaits, a 5.5 for impulsion with suppleness of the back and engadgement of the hq underlined. A 6 on submission, a 6.5 on rider's position with the same comment as before, a 6 on rider's aids and a 6.5 on harmony.

So that was a bummer to say the least - we got a score of 62.41%, which is the EXACT score from our previous test even though this one went so much better. What really got me though was the comment: "Good energy, but rider over-rides movements. Focus on the task at hand rather than run from one place to another... it's causing your horse to constantly chase his balance."

I have to say that I completely disagree with this comment. Plus, my horse is a her. I know we need to work on balance, that's a given. But I felt like I did very well moving from movement to movement. I was "in the zone" and half way through my test I even started smiling because I was so happy with how it was going. I felt like I rode each figure well and set her up for the next one instead of focusing so much on one movement only to have the next one sneak up on us and not be prepared for it.

We did get it on video, though with my mom's video taping skills that may or may not have been helpful. But it lets you get the gist of things and I can at least compare it to our last video of the same test.


Feedback welcome, as always :)

Overall, I was pleased with Jetta. I felt like we improved a lot (just go back to my post from the last dressage show and watch the video. So much better this time!). And it's not the end of the world not to get the score I wanted, it just means we have all summer to work on it and show to try and get that 65% at first level that I'm aiming for!

Also another note. In my defense for my position, yes I have bad equitation when riding Jetta (just Jetta for some reason...) but I was trying so hard today! My mom was there being my helper and she was helping me out by reminding me to sit back and put my shoulders back. I think I just need some invisible person to sit behind me and poke me between the shoulder blades every couple of seconds. Unfortunately, yesterday I messed up my back and it's killing me now. I must have a pinched nerve in my lower spine because it's sending shooting pains down my legs. It's been miserable. But I'm still functional even though a chiro visit is definitely in order and after watching Rolex riders - with separated shoulders, broken fingers and messed up ankles - ride beautifully and bravely I figured I could do the same :) Just not quite as beautifully obviously...

And speaking of Rolex, Hillary over at Equestrian at Hart is having a contest! And she has some awesome old Rolex Volunteer t-shirts she's giving away! So go enter (or not, because then that'd leave better chances for me to get one!)

The Weekend

I had a busy, fun weekend! I'm going to write about our weekend in two parts just so this post doesn't get crazy long :)

On Friday I took the girls home for the weekend. I agreed to horse sit for my friend/trainer JF for the weekend, plus I had the show on Sunday and the barn it was held was closer to my house than my apartment at school. And since I was going to be gone the whole weekend, I thought it would be good exposure to ride Queenie somewhere new.

I got Jetta all bathed and loaded the horses and all my stuff up and off we went.

I have to say it's so nice to have the horses at home. Sure you have to be the one responsible for feeding, watering and cleaning stalls but I don't have to drive anywhere, I just walk out of the house about a couple hundred feet. The horses get nice big stalls with runs, they have a huge pasture with lots of grass, and I can feed them however I want. I have my neighbor's outdoor arena to ride in and hot water wash rack to use, or I have my own little wash rack set up (cold water only). I have a whole entire tack room to myself too :)

Anyways, Saturday I rode both girls. I did Jetta first. She was WIRED! I let her run around a bit before I decided to get on.


She was super hyper and had the mega trot going on. Why can't we have a trot like that when we're doing our lengthenings?

Four off the floor! Overachiever.

After she settled down she remembered how to free lunge like a good girl.


And then we rode! And she was STILL wired. I felt like I was riding a rocket or a kite. Or a combination of both, a rocket strapped to a kite. The tiniest leg movement would cause her to canter and she got very upset if I didn't let her. She was forward, forward, forward but too much so. Floaty and light on the forehand was nice, but not at 100 miles an hour. I felt like I was riding my horse from two years ago and was dreading having the show the next day...

The weather was gorgeous so I should have taken one of the girls for a trail ride but that option completely slipped my mind :(

Such an awesome view

Queenie was next and she was near perfect. A couple circuits of the arena to scope everything out and she was golden! She's definitely getting fitter because the canter's getting a lot easier for her. We even were able to open and close the arena gate without me having to get off and I didn't have to take my hand off the gate!

Queenie enjoying her luxury accommodations

More about the show tomorrow!

Queenie on Film

Ok, well it's not film, it's digital, but you get the idea. Pictures and video!!!

How could I forget that I had this amazing magical device that allows me to take pictures at the push of a button from many feet away? Best $30 ever spent! I should have remembered this little piece of electronics when I was taking conformation pics the other day.

Anyway, I remembered that I had a remote control for my camera so I brought it with me to the barn and had some fun taking pics and a video. 


Hmm, what is this contraption?

She wasn't too sure of it clicking away, especially when I turned the flash on so she was a little tense and not as nice as she usually is - usually she carries her neck a couple inches lower. The funny part is when the other horses heard her snort at it, all the other horses stopped eating to stick their heads out and see what was going on and then they started snorting at it and Queenie got really worried. "Why are they snorting?! Something scary must be happening. I should be afraid."

After I deemed we had gotten some acceptable pictures I took a video. It's very long and mostly boring but I find it amusing. Of course taking a stationary video means that I accidently went outside the field of view every time I went down the long side of the arena. Oops. But at least it will give people the idea of how she moves, etc. I give to you the unedited version.

The canter you see is actually one of the best quality we've had yet to date, especially to the left, despite her wanting to buck very badly, which you may or may not notice. Also, we almost took out the camera which was terrifying. My fancy, nice, expensive camera. I almost had a heart attack. 

At the end, I tried to show off her whole ground tying unsuccessfully which I thought was funny. I should have given up, but I finally got her to stand still. Queenie: "But I thought you wanted me to follow you?"

Note: I'm pretty much the prime example of what not to do. The whole, "do as I say, not as I do" thing because I tend to do a lot of stupid things, which you'll notice throughout the blog. Such as sitting on the ground and using a hair dryer to blow dry a four year old horse's feathers. Or riding a horse with another horse turned out. These are bad ideas. Don't do them. Also, standing on your horse. Another bad idea. I may end up editing this out of the video, since I always tend to cringe when I see other people do this. Not because I think they're necessarily doing anything bad, but it's not a safe thing to do and I hate that it implies that it's a good idea especially to younger kids... who might not have such trustworthy horses. But, at least I'm wearing a helmet (the one thing I do 99% of the time that IS a good idea) and I do consider Queenie trustworthy. She doesn't budge. So take it or leave it, I just don't advise trying this at home :)

Water Crossing

Just wanted to add this video in, see the full post about our trail ride from earlier today! Proof that we did indeed cross the water and didn't just stand and take photos that made it look like we were in the water but weren't.

It's very shaky so if you get motion sickness easily, don't watch it, lol.

I had to steer her across one handed (she doesn't neck rein... yet) and she wanted to go downstream, I wanted to go upstream, plus the current was really strong and pushing her towards the bank. But we survived :)

Video

Ok, so it took me an hour and a half to upload the stupid thing (I have no idea why, but there you go) so here is one video! This is First Level Test 1. Also, this is a video of a video since I couldn't figure out how to upload the original and I can also not figure out how to mute it, so there is a phone conversation with my mother about half way through... I would recommend muting it, lol.

What I notice about the video -

Jetta is really mouthy, which is how she gets when she or I is nervous, something we need to work on.

Second trot lengthening is really fast, but part of the reason is because she tries to canter and when I don't let her, she yanks me out of the saddle (I should have been sitting back more...) and thus is on her forehand.

Need to work more on keeping her supple and really bending through our corners to help with our balance and suppleness issues.

I need to put my shoulders back really badly!

Upwards right lead canter transition = awful

I think I tend to stiffen when I ask for the canter so that's probably not helping us any.

Judge noted that we need more bends in our half and full circles.



So there you are! Feel free to give feedback/advice, but please be nice :)

I Feel Pathetic...

After watching this video. Wow. I think I need some a ton more stirrupless work in my future... This is quite impressive.

Round and Round

I finally (finally!) got the round pen all weeded and trimmed back the blackberries. It took me a whole week but it's done!

And that meant that Colton got to go for a spin in the newly cleaned up round pen. I've been meaning to teach him to lunge for a while now but it's difficult without either a second person to help or a round pen and since I have no helpers, round pen it was. He was pretty good.

Of course it takes a while to build up stamina and learn how to respond to cues but for the first time not bad. At least he didn't try to body slam the panels to get out (unlike Jetta did). I guess he reserves that for the gate when he decides he wants in Grady's stall, lol. No wonder the gates are all bent...

Anyways, he walked and trotted nicely and we got a few strides of canter in each direction. He's quite hard to get going at the moment, but it would help if I had a lunge whip and not just a dressage whip. I really like his movement. I think he moves nicer than Katy does - at the trot when he's going at a good rate, he really tracks up, lifts his back and arches his neck. He looks like a dressage pony!

I meant to lunge him with the saddle on but of course I can't find the girth extender and the girth is just a titch too small. Now I have to figure out where it is - I hate it when you are 99% sure you know where something is, then discover that it isn't there. So Colton spent a couple days just carrying the saddle around without a girth and he didn't pay it hardly any mind. Even when we were walking up the hill and I wasn't paying attention and it fell off. Oops. But that is why I use a cheapy old saddle :)

Here are some pictures:

Slightly skeptical

Love it when he looks like this!

Extension!

Mane blowing in the breeze... Looks like he needs to be in a detangler commercial or something, lol.

Brief moment of canter

Are we done yet?

Looking much slimmer than when he arrived here, wouldn't you say?

Learning how to come in when asked

 Excuse the dirtiness, I was letting him sniff around the round pen and he decided to roll in the wet sand which stuck like glue! At least he's mostly black. And then the icing on the cake, I finally have a video that I was able to upload! I think youtube hates me. Just sayin'. Here's a very quick video, you might want to watch it without sound because of my clucking and such ;) And sorry about the wobbliness - it's hard to take a video and keep the horse going at the same time!

Best Drill Team Ever

I'm afraid there's not much going on in PonyLand right now, I haven't seen Jetta since our lesson on Saturday and unfortunately I'm feeling a little more worse for the wear. I think I may have overdone it on the weekend!

Anyways, I found this on Horse Nation and thought that this was my kind of drill team! I've always wanted to participate in drill, but Jazz is deathly afraid of flags (the only thing she's afraid of). Water, bridges, ditches, balloons, cows, roping, dragging, you name it she does it. Except flags. And since most drill teams use flags... But this involves jumping! Awesome :) I wonder what Jazz would think of the fire...

Motivation?

Where has my motivation to ride gone?? I haven't ridden Jetta in four days because of my mom's birthday, class and work. So today was my first opportunity to ride... but I decided not to.

It's just this cold weather - it makes me want to curl up inside next to the fire and hibernate. It's currently alternating between pouring down rain and hailing outside and I just really didn't feel like going to the barn when I could be studying for my organic chemistry test... I feel bad about not riding, but then again, Jetta's probably fine with it because she gets to be outside and isn't "bothered" by me coming to ride her. But I still feel bad.

I'm 100% planning on riding tomorrow and may even ride my friend's horse Tanq!

And here is an awesome xc helmet cam that will serve as my inspiration for this week :) I can't wait until it's dry enough to go play around on cross country!

Racin' Reindeers and Other Xmas Related Things

Here is your video overload for the day:



Haha, cute. I feel like Katy would do something like this - "Run!! Run, run, ru... oh food. Nom, nom nom. Running!"



Can I just say that I want to do this? But maybe with a horse. Oh, wait, maybe a pony! Ooh, yes. See this is why I need a pony. So I could torture play fun games with them :)




Ahh, cute. I love Budweiser Clydesdale commercials.



Hope everyone has a great week!

Well This is Neat

This has to be the weirdest and coolest thing I've seen in a while.

See what I'm talking about by going to watch the video here.

Funny & Cute Video Overload

This is what I do when putting off studying for my Bio midterm...

More Great Rides

Jetta continues on her well-behaved streak. Friday I didn't have time to ride so I just worked with her at liberty. It's something I haven't really done a lot of recently. Jetta, after running off a little steam at first, will use only a small portion of the arena to go around me and will listen to voice and body aids for walk, trot, canter and stop/come in. It's so neat to know that you can control your horse in a large arena with no halter or lunge line! Here's a video of her running around. This is mostly before she started to go in a circle around me. It's very long, but slightly entertaining :)

Ok... it won't upload. Grr. I'll try tomorrow so if you're really dying to see her running around check back soon!

After "lunging" both ways and consistently listening to my aids, I asked Jetta to follow me around the arena as if I was leading her, but again, sans halter or lead rope. She was super good about sticking close to me and trotting, walking, halting, even backing up in step with me! This is something I played with a lot doing Parelli and while a lot of people might say that it's ridiculous and has no practical basis, my reasons for doing it are: 1) It teaches the horse to listen to your body language rather than a halter so you gain better control over them in more situations, 2) you gain your horse's respect, you know that they choose to be following you rather than running away and 3) it's just plain fun!! Why would you not do it when it's just something fun to do when you're bored or don't have time to ride?!

Running across the arena with your horse trotting at the same speed, then stopping quickly and having your horse stop too is a pretty neat feeling. Jetta was just so good!

Then I rode again today and she was very well-behaved in the saddle. She didn't try to rush or lean on me at all! That is, until I asked her to go across a cavaletti someone left out. It was about 2" tall and she kept trying to catapult herself over it. Sigh. Eventually we had trotting over it all sorted out, but cantering was a different story. We worked it out, but it had started out so nicely! This is why we need to do lots of rides with jumps and poles so that she realizes that she doesn't have to launch herself over them. Silly pony. But it was still a pretty good ride and she was so good that I didn't even bother cross-tying her when I unsaddled her and picked her feet out. Such a good pony! Of course, I made sure to check that the barn doors were closed, just in case...

I'm really liking these nice rides. I'm hoping that they're not just a fluke and that it's just a sign of Jetta growing up! Let's hope that there's only upward improvement from here! Oh, and I forgot - we signed up for a dressage show next weeked. Eek! Let's hope this goes well.

Acting Success

Haha, so it was a success! Very interesting - we filmed for almost 6 hours for what I think is going to be a 15 to 20 minute safety video. But it was fun! And I have something very interesting to add to my resume! My very first paid acting gig :)

The pony that we used was so freakin' adorable! I want to steal it :) He was super good for the whole thing, dutifully toting his little girl around and not caring when she was practicing her "fall" off of him and barely glanced at the camera equipment. The little girl too was an actress in the making! She told me that she had practiced falling off a chair at home :) She had a lot of fun for sure. So overall, not a bad day.