One a day, plus iron

Trys and I took Genie and Punch (project ponies) out for a spin to the covered bridge stop sign and back. These are out-of-work ponies that have never really served as "go out alone" or "lead the ride" ponies, so it was a learning experience for them which was sort of the point.

( Read more? )

I got my project horse Genie (Pon-pon) out of the field on Saturday and reviewed her work to date. I think I was last on her on 2019 but y'know. Time slips away. Anyway, she was fine. So I took her on a leisurely trail ride on Sunday, where she was a complete trooper.



Pon-Pon is the bay in front of the ears being ridden by the camera-holder. She's small. I am big. I already know this. I'm glad you disapprove, oh keyboard warrior. Good on ya.

Thing is, there is absolutely nobody else to put rides on this pony. She can either stand in the field being useless and eating her head off and not getting any skills to keep her from slaughter while her ACTUAL OWNER (not me) is over 70 with a heart condition or she can walk along with me aboard, learning to be a riding horse.

The "doesn't ride" 7 or 8 year old pony mare is not worth nearly as much as the "trail rides politely in groups, traffic safe, crosses water, trailers beautifully, easy to catch and tack up, stands patiently and without fussing, walks, trots, and canters, has a decent whoa" pony mare. I can get her from here to there, but it takes time. We need to do a lot more rides which I am hoping to do this winter and spring. On the plus side, she hasn't put a foot wrong yet.

I also have Snap, who is the tiny bay that Trys was going to work on but Trys has another project, due in late December, that has precluded work on Snap. I got her out of the field and beat on her on Sunday morning, which was productive and resulted in an acceptable level of agreement by the time we were done. Bubba wants Snap for Chuck (okay, long-time readers are aware that "Bubba" refers to a 5 foot nothing blond sprite named Cassity and Chuck is the aforementioned sprite's wee daughter "Charleigh". But if you didn't know that, now you know.) and so there needs to be a fair amount of work done on the Snap. She's already sensible, but she needs to pony politely and have a LOT of handle because she's going to belong to a five year old who cannot physically yank her head up from the grass. I have added her to my project horse list because if I can make Snap into Chuck's pony, then she goes out the field to go live with Chuck and Bubba.

Such nice weather this weekend led to some Horse Updates.

( And most of them are good! )

It was 27 out today. Everything is frozen.

( I still went out and played horse. )

Updated pic of Genie the project pony.



She went for a solo spin yesterday across the road. A bit nervous, so there were a lot of circles, but no actual bad behavior. Today she went with Trys (pictured) and Snap (Trys’s project pony) for company. Much better, no worries at all with a buddy. I will try to alternate buddy outings with non-buddy outings so that she can practice solo rides and get confidence with buddy outings. Still just walk and trot – the ground is frozen solid and she’s still unsteady and building muscles and balance.

I also took Bird out for a with-saddle outing in which I worked on my no-stirrup trotting. Fuck I suck at that.