A Lot To Think About

Monday night, dressage lesson night.

Midge felt a little tired warming up, but otherwise good - soft and forward and generally I felt pretty happy with her. EC always checks in with us during warm up, and I gave her that exact feedback.

She put us to work, watched a bit, offered a few tips, then laid our the challenge: (Paraphrasing here, this was an ongoing commentary throughout the lesson) I need to expect MORE. I need to ask for more from Bridget, and I need to hold myself to a higher standard too. It would be a shame to 'waste' such a good pony.  I AM quite serious about this riding thing, and she knows that, so she only let me puzzle on that for a minute (HOW can I be more serious? I devote nearly every spare minute to this as it is!? Or is she saying I suck and Bridget needs a better rider??) before adding that it's a confidence thing. I can do this, Bridget can do this, I have the 'feel' to teach her and ask her for what I want...so just do it, don't wait for a lesson to verify I'm on the right track. Trust myself, hold us both to that higher standard, every.single. ride. Do not worry about making mistakes. I am too nice, too compromising right now and Bridget is fully capable and athletic enough to do all the things, she doesn't need to be babied and she is definitely past the point where she gets to have any opinions about showing up for work every day. In short, I'm very lucky to have a pony this nice, so take the opportunity and make something of it! (and oh yeah, and no pressure, but don't mess it up. But actually don't worry about that, because I won't mess it up ;)

OK then. My brain hurts a little.

In other thought provoking news, I've been asked a few times whether I'd be interested in breeding Ginger. I haven't overly thought about it, because this spring I wasn't at a place where it was a priority or the financial outlay and stress made sense. It's been on my 'someday' list forever.  It's now evolved that someone is very interested in a Ginger baby and would like a breeding lease. Again, I kind of didn't think on it too hard, she's happy in the job she has.  I said as much recently, and added, "Besides. if she had a Cardi baby I'd probably have to buy it!" To which the reply was..."ummm, you wouldn't have to. That foal would be yours. That's how the breeding lease works...every second foal is yours." Oh goodness, that changes things. EC of course supports this plan 100% "because Ginger is lovely and you will want/need another pony prospect eventually!"Somebody stop me, bribing me with Cardi babies is not a fair negotiating tactic.