Gold Stars

For all! I had a somewhat productive lesson on Bridget this weekend, and even better, Ginger was an absolute star with zero signs of that mystery stiffness/lameness that's keeping me awake at night.

Using some more pictures from Friday's ride - thanks G!

I'm going to  continue with bringing both girls to my lesson time. Ginger and S get along wonderfully. There was some roadwork going on just outside the ring, right on the other side of our little buffer of trees and also the neighbours on the other side seemed to be having a loud party. Ginger tried to tell S it was all a bit much, but S wasn't buying it and Ginger went really well for her. Bonus for me is that with Ginger being pretty well trained, S can teach off Ginger and I get the added help of someone riding alongside, plus the extra forward momentum big Ginger gives to little Bridget. Bridget gave some of her best work yet, so I was pleased. I must admit the big highlight for me was seeing Ginger going so well - I just love her and it's so confidence boosting to see someone else out there having a good ride on her:) Of course when I got on Ginger she knows I'm not so bold as S and we had to have the whole discussion over spooking all over again, but she was good and I had someone there to remind me to breathe and talk me off the ledge, ha ha. I ended up having a really good ride as well on her. My two mares are such a nice counterpoint to each other, it's such a treat to hop on Ginger and have that crazy work ethic and all the forwards, but also pretty nice to have my portable Bridget couch for when Ginger gets a little much! Both of them in their own ways make you really work for what you want, so between the two there is always hope I'll be a better rider someday.

As far as what we practiced, we took some inspiration from the 'western' clinic I audited this weekend and did some rollbacks, then upped the ante by backing on a circle, then reversing out through a rollback. Great prep for our canter departs and building up those hindquarters (looking at you, Bridget!).

Bridget: Bend around your leg? Ha, that's a stupid idea ;)

Add in our usual warm up, some spirals, haunches in, leg yields, and W/T/C and the hour was up pretty fast. I opted not to canter the big Ginger mare this time because my bravery only extends so far, but I watched S and am motivated to be braver next time. Bridget, however, managed an entire lap of the ring in each direction, which is a first!

I'll try to see if I can adequately sum up some of what we discussed and learned at the clinic this weekend in a future post. I got a ton of good tips for both ponies.