Times Two

We're continuing to enjoy completely unseasonal weather. Warm temps and sunshine means everyone is out mowing their lawns and the crocuses and cherry trees are blooming. I seriously need to get the garden started, but of course with weather like this I'm more apt to spend my days in the saddle than anywhere else!

Today, I was going to take Ginger out solo, but Midge barged her way into the barn behind us. I've mentioned before she's impossible to shoo out once she gets in, so by the time I got a halter on her I decided I might as well brush her too, which led to just dragging her along with us, which of course led to me riding her as well. Midge loves attention, so rather than the outing acting as a deterrant, I expect I only reinforced her desire to get into the barn!

Dual rock star poses! They're funny, they both park where I put them and make saddle swapping easy.

Ginger was good, although quite reactive. I think I didn't ride her as well as a couple of days ago...she wanted to give me some nice work but I don't think I gave her enough rein to start and she got a little fussy and stiff. I adjusted myself and got her going better, even though the left bend was not great. To address that, we did some modified figure eights at a trot - I kept her on the circle, spiralling in and out until she gave me a nice bend, then the reward was to switch to her 'good' side for a circle or two. We took a walk break with some leg yields and haunches in alternating with shoulder in because she finds that easy. We finished with some serpentines at a walk and trot. I didn't brave a canter today beyond a few strides down each long side.

Bridget was really good. Since she is opposite to Ginger in every way, her right side is the difficult side. We did the same exercises as with Ginger, although I kept the workload to a bare minimum and quit as soon as she offered what I wanted. We spent an additional ten minutes or so doing canter transitions. She's been quite tense about them again, so I'm back to asking for a nice transition, then a few strides and going back to trot - making it more about the transition rather than 'going fast' or 'doing a whole circle' or whatever's going on in pony brain to make her uptight :)

Big mare sadly lacking in the muscle tone category. Also, my saddle looks minature on her!

The big win of the day? I ponied Ginger back to the barn off of Bridget and they were wonderful. I won't lie - it feels pretty darn cool to ride one handed all western style with my second pony along for the ride. Midge doesn't quite neck rein, but she moves off my legs and seat well enough to easily steer and do a good job of being the pony horse. I just need to break out my western saddle to look truly legit ;)