Saturday Lessons - Ginger

Figured I better write this as Monday night's lesson is only 3 hours away!

Ginger was, as usual, quite tense. I may have made a mistake bringing both horses in at once, then leaving her alone in the paddock while I rode Lainey. I thought she'd be fine as she had friends in a neighbouring paddock, but she's not a lover of change and got herself a little amped up. She lunged nicely and settled in, but when I got on she was very tight through her back and very stiff feeling as far as our turn and circles went. She also whinnied for her friends pretty much continously. We spent our time doing bending exercises and trot poles, trying to encourage her to relax and focus. It did work to an extent, but really it wasnt our best effort. In her defense, she didnt get ridden at all last weekend by me, since Mr G was visiting, and only once by trainer girl. The previous week wasn't much better, with me riding twice, and trainer girl recuperating from an incident with another horse. Long story short, Miss Ginger has earned herself a ticket to the group lesson tonight.  It's nice having the two horses, because I always seem to have a least one good ride a week and the not so good ones are a little easier to forget :)

Looks are deceiving: Ginger looks all ready to go, and that little black speck way off in the distance is Lainey looking much less than interested in a ride. As reported in the previous post, Lainey was a superstar, while, as we just discussed, Ginger wasn't feeling the enthusiasm.