Episode deepfreeze

Well, we all knew it was coming sooner or later - Manitoba winter! Today officially saw us plunging into the -40's with the windchill for overnight lows and no close end in sight. We are gearing up for Mexico in another week, so riding has been sporatic at best! Kali has ridden her twice since my last post and she was fantastic. Because of the weather, we can't get them sweaty so we decided to play around tonight!

Jynx has been silly about bareback for awhile which is odd for me since I used to spend SO much time riding bareback. I used to trail ride her bareback in winter when she was 3 and she dumped me twice (once accidental spook, second time was deliberate bolt and buck) so that kind of ended that for awhile. Her lead issues started shortly after that so considering we couldn't even ride her in a saddle, bareback took a backburner!

So we've tried bareback occasionally in the last couple years and it never went well - she's squiggly, all over the place, and doesn't do well on a loose rein. She'd pin her ears and crowhop and even if I bumped her up to a trot, as soon as I ask for the canter, she would stop DEAD and just hop around, ears pinned. She always shook my confidence and I would give up immediately!

So tonight was great! This is the second tiome I've really "ridden" her bareback and she seems to be more willing now! My seriously improved seat from Dressage clearly helps, as well as my increased confidence. She still likes to pin her ears and act grouchy at canter but at least she listens! It's a work in progress, but we had a blast today! YAY FOR INSULATED HEATED ARENAS!!