I was up bright and early for lesson day, and once again the weather was cooperating. I'm sure all the tourism people were out trying to get a million photos of our beautiful little corner of the world in an attempt to trick the rest of the world into believing it's sunny spring on the coast already.
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| Ginger enjoys the sunshine |
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Ginger was a bit stiff again to start. She warmed up out of it for the most part, but you can still feel that slightly short stride now and then even when she's looking pretty good from the ground. Unfortunately S is going through something similar with one of her horses, but fortunately for me she had a good vet and chiro reference to pass on, so I can get a second opinion lined up. The ride itself was fun, big mare remembers all her fancy moves even though she is tragically out of shape. Still, it was pretty nice to do spirals, leg yields, etc with a minimum of rider effort! The best part to me was S hopped on and had a short, but decent ride as well. Long time readers will know Ginger is extremely fussy about who she lets ride her, so today was a total win because she not only accepted S, she tried her heart out for her too. It's so cool to see someone else ride your horse, and in my (very biased) opinion, Ginger looked pretty darn good - like "wow, is that really MY pony?" good. S really enjoyed her and volunteered to ride her again any time. That adds some more motivation for me to get both the ponies out Sunday mornings for lessons - if S is willing to teach and ride and we can trade off on either pony it's silly not to take advantage of that! If we can get this lameness thing sorted out I'll be feeling very positive about my plans for Ms Gingersnap.
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| No riding pics today, just some video stills |
After my lesson, I went back to the barn and got Bridget out for our monthly Backcountry Horsemen ride. We met up with 5 other riders and went for a fun little adventure in the local area. Bridget was a star as always, and wins the ride because she bravely led everyone past some scary stuff and was on her best behaviour. We ended up out for almost 4 hours and Bridget barely broke a sweat, so I'm feeling encouraged that lazy pony's issues don't completely stem from horrendus fitness! My fitness however, needs improvement. 5+ hours in the saddle in a day, although fun, is not agreeing with my knees and hips. I think we'll all take a day off riding tomorrow :)
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| Your obligatory Bridget ears pics |
What an awesome way to spend a Sunday. ☺☺☺☺
ReplyDeleteGreat news on Gingers lesson, it sounds fab & her behaving for S is awesome. I know how nerve wracking it is to watch someone else ride your sensitive horse and to have it all go well is such a massive relief!
I bet you do! :) I'm always worried but I don't think I need to be with S, she asked all the right questions and looked right at home up there from the very start. So funny in all our travels it looks like we might have found Ginger's ideal trainer right in our own backyard.
DeleteThat is the best news ☺☺☺☺
Deletevery cool that your trainer is willing to ride and teach simultaneously - sounds like a great opportunity to get both horses worked! also - that trail looks amazing, but 4 hours?! i'd be sore too haha
ReplyDeleteShe's awesome, so lucky to have her here. It's not even so much the four hours of riding, it's the fact that it's an older group of ladies who mostly ride at the walk...so you don't get a chance to move around and stretch too much. I try to drop my stirrups and move my legs around but I still end up a bit ache-y from being in the same position so long! (Great way to ensure your saddle fits you though, you find out after a few hours where all the not so perfect spots are)
DeleteIt's always such a treat to watch your horse from the ground!
ReplyDelete