Lucky

I'm so lucky to have such amazing blog readers - thanks so much for the comments on the previous post. Fear is a funny thing, but currently I am more excited than nervous about getting Ginger back out in the big world!

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to have an invite to trailer in with a friend to meet up with a few more friends at our equestrian club grounds, with a trail ride to follow. This would have course been the perfect time to do a test run with Ginger, but I opted instead to take Bridget and see if the vastly bigger ring would make any difference in her efforts as far as the canter goes.

Bridget is ready to tackle anything

 And it did! A bit anyways. We cantered our first entire circle! Never mind that it was about 100 feet in diameter - we did it with no trot breaks. Of course everyone was ohhing and ahhing over Bridget's canter and giant trot and were in love with her cuteness. I'm not sure they realize just how hard the baby pony is to ride at the moment. We may or may not have sacrificed bend and contact the majority of the time, and our circles were more like giant eggs, since she was quite looky and spooky - but at least we had forward!

After that, we ventured out for a nice trail ride in the sunshine. I don't want to jinx anything, but we've had a couple of weeks now of mostly stunning weather. Warm and sunny all day, and only slightly below freezing at night. The grass is growing like crazy! Yesterday was no exception and I was comfortable in a long sleeve tee with a light vest over top. It was a treat to get out with friends, and we did even more cantering and even a quick gallop - Bridget was game and I think she'll be fine as my back up ride for the clinic.

Stopping at the top of the hill after a quick run.

The focus on my camera phone insists we only want to see Bridget's ears.

We're going to trailer Ginger in to the same ring next weekend or early next week and stay til the following weekend's clinic with a friend just a little bit up the road. The clinic is in the indoor arena and I'm not sure Ginger's been in one since our Alberta days - I figure a ride or two in there ahead of time will be time well spent! Also, a longer outing and a trailer ride there and back is about as close as we're going to get to simulating an away show for the big mare.

This guy is for sale and I want him! Why? Because he is the last foal from Ginger's dam and shares Bridget's sire. I've always joked about the perfect pony being a cross between Bridget and Ginger - this is as close at I'm going to get!