Weekend Recap Part 2

Little bay mare is 5 years old, 14hh and built quite differently from the other cobs I’ve seen. Ginger is quite tall and leggy for a Sec D, the black mare from last weekend and the buckskin mare from this one are more of a traditional, sporty type, while the bay mare is very cob like - built wide and stout with short little legs (We’re perfect together! lol) She’s not the typiest  or most athletic thing out there, but she’s very cute and sweet.

I took this pic at a little bit of a lower angle - her legs look a little shorter in real life!

 First impressions when I hopped on were that she’s built like a mobile couch. She may be even wider than Ginger or Splash. It feels like you’re riding a full size horse, only you’re somehow shorter than everyone else! Since they weren’t expecting me to ride, I was in a too-big western saddle with stirrups that can’t adjust short enough for me, and a rope halter for a bridle. On a driving pony who has only been under saddle a handful of times J Still, I felt good about it.

Steering was pretty good, transitions super green. She happily marched forward and gave the immediate impression that she’s a very confident and sensible little thing. Walk is nice and forward, trot surprisingly big, and canter is really nice. She’s naturally very well balanced. We even had a good little gallop, which was hilarious because in true cob style, it sounded very impressive, but actually we weren’t moving along any faster than a normal horse's working canter. I ended up riding her for the rest of our 3 hour ride and had  a blast – definitely one of the neatest trail rides I’ve been on. We went up a steep-ish mountain, came back down some very steep paths, toured through a vineyard, and even the edge of a golf course. Then back along through a rural subdivision and a busy-ish road to home.  We saw everything from dogs to cows and donkeys, vehicles and heavy machinery, sprinklers and golf carts at the golf course, heard the cannon things (sounds like gunshots and used to keep the birds away) at the vineyard, went through mud and water, open fields  and tight wooded paths – I can’t think of anything else pony would be expected to see, and she handled it all just fine. She happily takes the lead or follows behind, and doesn’t care what the other horses do, so no issues there. The only thing she really spooked at was at the very end of the ride - the mailbox at the farm driveway, proving she is actually a tiny bit related to Ginger J.

Golf course proof - sorry no other pictures turned out as it got dark fairly quickly and iphones don't do great photos in the twilight/moonlight! 

Not scared of the dark

The following morning, I opted to get up early and try her out in the indoor. She came right up to the gate to be caught, and happily stood to be groomed at the barn away from her friends. I actually got distracted chatting about and looking at another horse’s injury and forgot her for a bit and she just quietly waited all by herself.

Where did everyone go? She quietly stood peeking around that corner looking for us for almost half an hour. A bit of a novelty after my ADD Ginger mare.

As far as the ringwork went, she is green, green, green. The trails helped us because there is a path to follow - in the ring the greenness really comes to light. She has the right idea, but she’s very wiggly and everything is a bit start and stop – there’s no real rhythm there yet. She’s very smart and willing though. I opted to just walk/trot since there was a round pen set up at the end of the arena and I don’t think it would have been fair to ask her to canter a relatively small circle at this point. Her owner took some pics of me riding that I'm anxiously awaiting - it will be interesting to see how we look together.

Final thoughts: This is a pony I could have a lot of fun with! She’s very sensible and friendly too. My only reservations are that she’s much greener than I’d like and the whole size thing, of course. She feels great and had no trouble at all packing me all over the countryside, but I guess I’m just not used to pony size. She'll be 5 at the end of the month, so there's hope she might grow a teeny bit more - I'm not going to count on it, though!The green thing is not really what I wanted, but since she’s fine/safe right now to hop on and go pretty much anywhere it’s maybe something I can work with. Or maybe I could send her out for some more training while I'm working? I’m tempted because she’s otherwise perfect. Decisions are so hard – I want a do-it-all schoolmaster type to head out showing on and participate in all the fun club events with (like the buckskin mare in the previous post), but the reality is my budget is somewhat limited, so my choices when it comes to more experienced horses are limited as well. It’s tempting to take a bit of a chance on a young horse with the mind, but not the training, particularly as I feel we have good connection. We'll just be showing baby classes this fall...Still...I don't want to overdo it with the projects when Ginger still needs so much time. If you haven't noticed, I'm a little bit in love with the little mare, but I'm trying to be very responsible and weigh everything out carefully! I'm going to try to line up a second visit so G can meet her, but as things stand now, I'm very hopeful you'll be hearing a lot more about her in the future :)

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