Spring Is Coming!

This was a good week for my riding; I had a good ride on both horses on Monday at the arena, got in a good trail ride out alone with Jetta on Thursday, and again on Saturday! These days that's a pretty good week for me!

Jetta was actually good in the arena with some softening and relaxing at the walk and trot. Granted, everyone else had left so there were no distractions, but it was still an improvement. We ended the ride with several soft, straight, relaxed figure eights and called it good.

Thursday's ride was out by the freeway exit. It's not an exciting trail, but hey, I can park without getting stuck in snow or mud! There are several long uphill jeep roads that offer possibilities for some aerobic work, and there are miles of sagebrush covered hills for off-road riding. Deer and jack rabbits add interest. All in all, it's not bad riding for this time of year. Jetta was happy to be out and was very well behaved. She has a TON of bottled energy, and at times I feel a bit like I'm riding on an unexploded land mine, but it's fun. The footing is wet right now, so we can only trot in a few places, one of which is a jeep road that goes gently uphill for half a mile or so before it becomes too rocky to be fun. We trotted up, walked back down, and trotted up again several times. Got a short canter in  also, but that got too exciting for her to handle and she threw in a couple of exuberant bucks. At least I think they were exuberant. Maybe they were frustrated bucks since she really wants to flat out run!

Yesterday's ride was very similar. It was great to be out in the sun and warm (50 degrees!) weather. Come on spring!!