Anyways, so over the weekend it was dry enough to ride in a couple select places, and I decided to get Jellybean out in the morning before our planned afternoon trail ride. I groomed her a bit and noticed some nice little rain rot on her back. Not bad, just the beginnings. Oh an some minor thrush. Thanks rain and mud. I cleaned all that mess up and then put on some tack. Jumping saddle and dressage bridle. Mixed messages.
Have I mentioned I am starting to dream of nicer tack? Like the kind of stuff that is comfortable and fits the horse really well? Crazy right. Good thing summer camp is coming up...
I decided to ride in the big arena and didn't even bother lunging, because grown ups now. Jellybean was a little bit excitable and seemed kind of spooky... this isn't really normal behavior. I was working on our safe circle and walk/trot/cantering and then she shied away from something and I let her stop working to check it out. I think she filed that one away for next time...
After we went through our paces, I walked over and watched the girls working with Tank to jump a single upturned bucket. Apparently this is a pony club game, and the Tank was definitely in training to win it. Jellybean took notes. All buckets are not scary.
I had talked to the girls about riding Jellybean, since I decided she needs to do more grown up things, like be ridden by different people. Right now, Jellybean is still a little bit resistant about steering. She mostly works off your seat, and she isn't completely comfortable with a lot of contact. She likes to back up. Mostly I have been putzing (I know, its hard to type. I feel ashamed).
The girls have different strengths and challenges, but they are both brave riders, and if Jellybean did try out her little baby bucks, both girls could have ridden her through them. My major goal is to not have anyone fall off of Jellybean, even though I realize that is more hope than goal.
Oh, and the other motivation for having the girls ride Jellybean came from Facebook Saturday morning. One year ago I posted about Jellybean w/t/c in the arena. Surely I have moved past that?! Or I need to be moving past it if I'm not... (cue the guilty looks).
So after I rode her we all went over to the cutting pen after switching to one of the girls saddles. Then they both rode her at the walk trot in canter in both directions. I asked them what they thought about her training and if they noticed anything interesting.
Their comments talked about her lack of balance and how sensitive she was to seat aids. She isn't too responsive to leg, which was why they rode her with the dressage whip (always bring some back up).
All in all, successful. One of the girls is infatuated with another young horse at the farm, and has been riding the young horse in her spare time. I offered to the other girl to ride Jellybean when they have a "young horse" ride. They can work on similar things together, and watch each others back. Hopefully this will work out for everyone for a little bit! I'll keep you posted.
Too bad I only took pictures in basically one direction...
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