Ginger

[Michelle]

Good to hear you lesson was good, Suzanne!

[Suzanne]

thanks Michelle!!

Yesterday we worked on stuff in our lesson! Lots of serpentines(I could feel such a difference in this horse), leg yielding, and loping half the arena, after our warm up of course!!
She did SO well!!! I was so happy! we also did a lot of transition work, up and down... and we worked on backing up...
I rode her in a sweet iron w/ copper inlay dee ring which made that much of a difference!! I was so happy!! Jess said she could see the difference in how she looked and I could feel such a difference too!!
I was sooooooooooooo happy with her!!! she made my day!

today I went up and brushed her I lunged her walk, jog, trot, lope both directions! and then we did a little bit of halter work! Then we went in the barn and got a good grooming!!! She was so sweet today!!

THanks for reading!

[Suzanne]

today I went to see Ginger two times...

this morning when I went up I took her outside and turned her out in the round pen. She played lots... she walked and jogged and loped around in the snow... She also rolled twice! hahaha

This afternoon when I went up to the barn, I took her into the arena and rode her... We did some walking and jogging, figure eights, serpentines and circles... We then picked up the lope and did some half arena sized circles... This went VERY well!! She turned MUCH better then when I tried last time... Our lesson has really helped us and we are looking forward to having another soon!
After loping both directions, we did some backing up, leg yielding and turn on the haunches...
I was very happy with how well we did today!
After our ride, we went back to the barn and I brushed her off and gave her some TLC!

I was very happy with Ginger today! She was a Star!

[nat]

aww she sounds like she's coming along...you guys seem super cute together!!!i hope sometime soon i can com visit you guys!!

[Suzanne]

thanks Nat!! Come visit!!!

Today I went to the barn... We did some lunging and some ground work... Ginger was quite the hyper girl! She raced around on the lunge line! Cutie! After doing some Walk, jog, trot, lope, and attempting gallop(on her behalf) both sides, we did some halter work: walk, stop. jog, stop. trot, jog, trot, stop. stop, back. walk, stop. stop, jog. as well as "pivot"

When we were done in the arena, I took her back in and took off her boots, I also brushed her off and sooked on her a bit!

Tomorrow we will hopefully get more done!! (school is a pain in the butt! haha)

[Suzanne]

today we didnt do much!

First I took her out side on a lead line and just walked around and jogged and backed and explored the barn driveway! haha!

After that I took her inside to the indoor and she had a little party in there she was running around bucking and snorting, being a silly mare! I love her!

This weekend we will hopefully get to do some riding!

Thats it for now, thanks for reading

[Suzanne]

so lately we havent ben at much due to tests/RNC horses being in arena...

Today we had a good ride! we did some walk, a lot of jogging/trotting, we did a fair bit of circles at both the walk and jog, getting her more responsive and moving her forehand around more "fluidly" hahaha...
We also did some loping in both directions! I was very pleased with her because she was far from rushy(which I thought she would be considering we haven't loped in like 5 days )
I found her transitions to the lope(from walk and jog) are doing MUCH better, we still have to work on the downward transitions though, I find they are very "harsh" for the most part... It's something I am doing, oh well, I plan to get a lesson soon so hopefully Darryl will help me out a bit!
I love the snaffle Ginger MUCH more then the broken curb Ginger that we had before (Not that I dont think she is good in a curb, its just I think she needed a little tune up, as all horses go through The snaffle is obviously a temperary thing... I really see a difference in the way she carrys herself...
Today we also did a bit of leg yielding and a couple turn on forehand and haunch... I've seen her do better, but again its my error and hopefully my lessons will help me! haha
Next day I will do some circles at the lope and hopefully do some serpentines (jogging/trotting)...

Thanks for reading, comments/tips are more MORE then welcome!

[Sarah]

Sounds like you guys had a great day and are coming together really nice. Good job Suzanne, keep it up. Can't wait to hear more about you & Ginger.

[Jess]

Do you collect her before your downward transitions? Reo's downward transitions are a bit rough as well, when he's on the forehand. It's like on a bike when you put on the front brakes first, the back end just kind of slams into the front end and then you're all over the place. Two things you can try are: Do a lot of up ward and downward transitions, not doing more than a few strides before changing. Keep changing it up on her so she doesn't know what to expect. Or, the one I really like, get a nice strong trot going forward, and ask her to halt. Almost immediately ask her to start backing, a nice strong back-up. Once you get a few nice strides in, push her very forward out of it into the trot. Both of these I've done in my lessons, and they help them free up their front end and use their bum a little more.

She sounds great, are you thinking of showing this summer?

[Suzanne]

thanks Jess! I will be sure to give this a try!!

As for showing, god only knows honestly! haha! If we have transportation and permission from the owner, you may just see us in the show ring!

[Hilary]

Will you be showing English Or Western??

[Suzanne]

wow, it has been a while...

Hilarym, I am planning on doing a bit of both... again that depends on how I am doing (I am pretty sure the horse is capable of doing at least SOME of it). We shall see, we shall see!

Friday, I rode walk, jog, lope, and a bit of lateral! this went well. I have been really practising the transition between a jog and a trot! (As well as the others) Our loping has come along fairly well too!
Saturday I went to see her and I brought her out side for a walk and then turned her out in the arena! she was being FOOLISH hahaha. I try to turn her out as much as possible for her "play time" because she seems to enjoy it soo much!!

I am buying a new western saddle (which seems to fit her well, shelly you FINALLY have your saddle back haha.) I like the saddle and I hope it will fit her for a while... (and other ponies I plan to ride too, haha)

I plan to get a lesson again soon (I 've been trying to find a good time for me and Darryl to meet the past two weeks but I am not having much luck...) I will have one this week I am hoping...

Anyways, I will post about my ride later hopefully!
thanks for reading

[Suzanne]

this past week we haven't got to do toooooooooo much. I would have liked to have gotten her out a little bit more then I did but I guess thats all you can do...
The past few days I've hopped on and fooled around a little bit, or just lunged her...
Friday when I was doing up my cinch, I noticed that the bottom part of the blevin buckle was MIA... I wasn't a happy camper(I am sure Jess could back me up on that one! haah). I ended up slaping and english saddle on her and went into the arena. I had QUITE the interesting ride (I only did walk/jog because I figured that if I cantered I would fall off hahah and I wasn't in the mood to fall off, but I fell off anyways so that doesnt matter hahaha). That ride changed my mood pretty well! I really enjoyed it!

Today I had a lesson with Darryl. IT WAS GREAT!! Unfortunatly, I still didn;t have a blevin buckle for my saddle so I had to use my english saddle again. So I got to the barn and brushed her and put the saddle on her. I wasn't too confident about if the saddle fit or even if it was on properly... So I asked Karen(Darryls sister) to check it out for me). We had a grand chat about my lack of english knollege hahah. Karen said the saddle DID indeed fit, so that made me happy, but she did say that the bit I was using might not be her first choice. I explaned to her that it was all I had at the moment and that I wasn't overly worried about it.

So off I went into my lesson (with my cowboy boots and rowled spurs.) We started off walking around a couple times and then pushing her up into an extended trot! We found out that Ginger was quite the ball of energy, so we got rid of that. We did this for a little while in both directions(we even reveresed the english way!! ) hahaha After our extended trot, we transitioned to a easy WP jog. She did such a good transition, I was VERY happy with her considering she was on fire earlier. When it came to cantering, she was fairly rushy (again probably because she hasn't been excersied as much as I would have liked this week) but in the end she slowed down. We did some cantering on the rail as well as half size circles, quarter circles and even a little smaller then that. I thought she did very well with that exercise.

We then walked for a good 8 minutes, while Bev lunged Stan

We then worked on a little bit of "half pass" at a walk and jog! it was hard, but she did good! At a walk she did it no problem, but at a jog, we need some work(BOTH of us)

We then cooled out, and I had a chat with Darryl about all sorts of things.

I then brushed her fixed up her feet and put her in. I then took Fanjee out and lunged her around a bit, then I headed home.

When I got home, I found a nice old(but not broken) BLEVIN BUCKLE waiting for me in my drive way! YAY I FOUND IT! I was soooooooooo happy!

English is certainly fun, but I do still like my western!
thanks for reading

[becawilton]

sounds like shes doing great suzanne! cant wait to watch you ride her but you'll defently have some competion with me and willow haha j/k anyways keep us posted

[Amyy]

nice book you got wrote there Suzanne! haha loving that your doin english tho!! sweetttt