First is the worst..(Isis learns to gallop, Jackie learns to chill out)

First off, I want to apologize to all you bloggers who subscribed to the waywardequestrian and then I sucked at blogging. Mostly, I just don't think my life is all that interesting, so I never want to blog. I am actually going to try to keep up with it this time. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Jackie and my wondermare is miss Isis (Show name TBD- possibly Let's Get Weird...). For quite some time I have been riding Monica's (tbeventer.blogspot.com) wonderboy Yankee.
In August of 2012, after 18 years of riding and showing I finally purchased my own horse, Isis. Isis and I have gone through some rough patches already but I am finally dedicated to finishing out my wondermare and turning her into the eventing superstar I know she can be. That's enough of the boring introductions I think.

Yesterday, Monica and I set off on our pony riding/ pottering adventure. First we went to her barn and rode mister Yankee pants. Monica set up some BADASS grids for us and she event let me ride Yanks first, quite the gentlewoman Monica is. I did about a 10 minute warm up and sent Yankee through the grid, he pretended he was afraid of the last fence and I quickly got his little butt in gear and made sure he was working through it.

Yankee, so sexual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-qzfmcMac&feature=youtu.be

(here's the grid, Yankee spooks at Monica, caution- swearing)

There's more videos on that channel of yankee and isis! :D

Riding Yankee to me is one of the most fun things ever, he makes sense to me. Not to mention he is completely game over fences and I love that. Monica got on him next and I bumped the fences up for her. Yankee was completely powerhousing the oxers which was great for Monbon. She needs to learn to trust him to help her when she needs it. Yankee loves Monica, way more than you can imagine and since our dear Monica imagines the jumps turning into monsters and eating her, she needs to trust Yanks. Anyway, they were amazing, per usual.

Wittle water jump.

When we got to my barn, we tacked miss Isis up and quickly warmed her up. Monica learned quickly what I meant when I said Isis can be a handful. Monica rode Isis for the second time about 4 days ago, and Isis was totally chill and relaxed that day, which is rare. Isis was all ramped up to go and she was almost yanking my arms out of their sockets. I tried to get miss mare to actually TROT into a bounce line, it's a lot harder than it sounds. I took Isis around our little ghetto course and Monica got on her. I ramped up some fences for Monica to jump Isis over and miss mare was perfectly sailing over them
with Monica.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-sLmA9BLKk
(Isis' grid.)

SEXY TROT

I'm gonna eat these barrels mom!

SKINNIES ARE NOT SCARY.

I absolutely love this, she is so happy and alert.

Water jump!

So all nicely boosted and confident I got on my mare and completely fucked up the fence. I tried to get Isis to wait and we completely smacked through the fence taking rails down. I immediately was crying and panicking. WHY DOESN'T ISIS LOVE ME. WHY IS SHE GOOD FOR MONICA. WTF WTF.

Monica and miss mare.

Again..

Again...

Isis and I

I don't like this one of me, but she looks BEAST

Insert Monica trying to calm me down here. Basically I had a mental breakdown, got off, Monica got on, and I made Monica get off and I got back on. When I just cooled my shit and let Isis take her strides, she cleared this baby 2'9 fence, but when I set her back too late, or help too hard, she hit it.
So, after some confidence boosting jumps, I decided to take Isis out in the field for her first ever gallop.

SHE LOVED IT. I was ecstatic. I almost cried, she was so happy to just run in the field and let her energy out, I have never felt her that free. I did lose a pair of bell boots in the field though...
Minus one pair of blue bell boots, it wasn't a bad day.

Does anyone have advice for a mare who roots into the bit in front of and after fences? She does it so aggressively that if you aren't used to it she can pull you completely out of the saddle. (Monica and Isis took a fence down because Isis did this to Monica)
Additionally, Isis also tends to completely suck back when she gets tired or doesn't like an exercise, I mean, she won't even move. She just pins her ears and either halts of continues walking. I'm going to try a light spur next ride, any other suggestions? I don't want to use a lot of force, I just want her to move when asked.

also, I look terrible in this video but you can see her not wanting to move forward, also, this is how she charges fences. I almost died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZjTVHSon0

NEXT POST WILL BE AFTER CROSS COUNTRY SCHOOLING ZOMG ZOMG. Isis' first time...
There will be lots of pictures. :D

Oh yeah, Pottering..

More Pottering...