On Tuesday, as is becoming our routine, we stopped at the club grounds for a quick warm up. I was proud of her for not calling or acting silly. She had reason to be silly, because just as we arrived, there was a trailer pulling out, leaving us alone in the ring. The neighbouring therapy horses and riders were out doing a trail ride around the perimeter of the grounds. Since the grounds are quite thickly treed, you end up seeing them popping in and out of view, which some of the green horses find a bit unsettling. Ginger was certainly aware of them, but did her best to focus on me. I lunged her, then set up a bunch of cones and some ground poles and we did some patterns just for the fun of it. Since the ring is absolutely huge ( we can fit 4 full size dressage arenas in there and have room left over for a warm up area), I find it very helpful to have some visual cues as a reminder to stay straight and ask for proper circles and transitions. Left to my own devices, I tend to wander around a bit lost in there and my straight lines end up anything but :) Ginger seemed a bit sluggish and slow off my leg today, so I ended up playing with the spacing of the ground poles to help get a livelier trot without me having to nag. Looking cute in her lunging get-up:
The best part of our ride occurred after I opened the gate to head home. Ginger knew where to go and set off up the hill and on to the old logging road without any hesitation. She carried me home like a seasoned pro, even passing some 'scary' woodcutters that were up in the bush where we could only hear them. Again, she was pretty slow and steady for her normal self, even as we got closer to home and could hear her new best friend screaming for her. I'm left wondering what's going on with this new quiet pony (and how I can keep it!).
Yesterday, we ventured up to the lake. I skipped the usual warm up routine and I probably shouldn't have as she was pretty on edge for the first bit - I had the old Ginny back for a half hour or so. It's about an hour and a half round trip and she was nearly perfect on the way home. I still don't completely trust her in traffic, but out on the trails I'm nearly there and let her walk on a loose rein the majority of the way. Here's a view of the lake - sadly a very dismal grey and foggy day yesterday (there are actually fair size mountains hidden back there!):
After much snorting and with eyes bugging out of her head, Ginger managed to stick a toe in, And then immediately got the idea that this is essentially a giant water bucket and started splashing around quite happily. Another successful day.
The weather is kind of stinky again today (Welcome to the "Wet" Coast!) but I'm hoping Mr G will come out and take a few photos of me actually riding Ginger. Those are in super short supply on this blog, I realize. I was looking through the computer, and even with owning Lainey 5 years now, I have one set of riding pictures, and they're all from the same show 2 years ago! So, I'm hoping to reverse that trend. I'm hearing there is also a photography student from the college coming out on Saturday to take some pictures for her portfolio. I'm hoping to make it to that so I can have some decent photos of us.
No clinics booked as yet, I think we're both enjoying a break. I do have a few rides with friends planned over the next couple of weeks, as well as a trip to Vancouver for "The Mane Event", which is a horsey expo and should be lots of fun
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