On the Trail With Jetta

I'm still smiling about our trail ride today! Jetta was so good! I just love this girl. She was very forward and took the lead from the start. She out-walked Mikey, Sharon's trail horse. I've been riding with Sharon and Mikey for over ten years and I've never seen a horse out-walk him. Holy cow. Jetta can really travel!

We mostly walked and followed the jeep trail over the Roller Coaster Hills which are a series of short, steep (as in quite steep!) hills running a mile or two along the west side of our valley. It's terribly rocky, but a fun and somewhat challenging training ride. Jetta was not fazed and headed enthusiastically down the trail. She seems inexperienced with climbing and descending the steeper slopes, but she was game and handled herself well. She tried to trot and canter on the uphills, but never got silly or too pushy. She did get jiggy a couple of times and I worked really hard at staying soft and relaxed on her back and not giving her anything to lean on. It helped-she's very sensitive to my seat and knows if I'm tense at all.

We came to the big cattle tank and a tiny stream. Jetta put her head down to take a good look at the stream (a trickle, really) and then she calmly took a little hop over it. We crossed it again, and I was able to just ask her to step over it. We stopped there and turned back in the interest of time. This time I asked Jetta to follow Mikey, which she did very nicely. After a while she took the lead again, though. We climbed up and down all those hills again. A couple of times she stopped and didn't want to go forward anymore. I think her feet were getting sore on the rocks, so I'll probably fit her with some Easyboot Gloves. About half-way to the trailer we headed down into the cedar trees and bush-whacked our through them. We took turns following and leading as we wound our way through the trees. Jetta doesn't hesitate to lead, which is a huge relief, since that is something I have struggled with on Flyboy.

I could not be more pleased with this mare. Yes, Jetta was leaning on the bit at times. And yes, we have lots more training to do before I'll feel confident with her. But what a nice girl she is! She is going to be a fun trail partner. I figure another four or five months and she's going to be great on trail. A year from now I hope we'll be cruising down the endurance trail with confidence and a fair bit of speed!