Adventures with Ginger

[Skye'sDucks]

Hello! As some horse people on here may know, I've been helping train a mare at my barn, and I thought it'd be fun to start a thread about her to log her training as well as milestones with her. If people also want to talk about their own horses/training experiences, please do!

Ginger is a big (16.1 hands!) 6yo Thoroughbred who was supposed to be a racehorse but she didn't make the cut, lol. She's pretty lazy and laid back so I can imagine why she didn't make it. It's a bit of a long story of how my trainer got her, but basically someone bought Ginger and began to board her at our barn, but through a series of events she decided to sell/give (I don't know the details) Ginger to my trainer as a lesson horse. They were a beginner at horses and Ginger was green so that was a part of the factors leading up to it.

Anyways, no one else had the time or wanted to work with her, so around our winter camp since all the other lesson horses were being used (I only take lessons/help out at the barn) I began to! I've been working with her for around 2 months. Ginger was broken to ride, she just didn't know how to do anything really. She will be leased out in another week or so, but I plan to keep working with her around the other girl's schedule. (It's a half lease)

Right now in her training I've been focusing on the basics, although I do ride her western and I hope to get into some trail stuff with her at some point. I know the girl leasing her wants to teach her to jump, so I think that will be good for Ginger too! She's already shaping into a lovely all-around horse for my trainer.

 

[EverythingDucks]

Super cute!

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

Hello! As some horse people on here may know, I've been helping train a mare at my barn, and I thought it'd be fun to start a thread about her to log her training as well as milestones with her. If people also want to talk about their own horses/training experiences, please do!

Ginger is a big (16.1 hands!) 6yo Thoroughbred who was supposed to be a racehorse but she didn't make the cut, lol. She's pretty lazy and laid back so I can imagine why she didn't make it. It's a bit of a long story of how my trainer got her, but basically someone bought Ginger and began to board her at our barn, but through a series of events she decided to sell/give (I don't know the details) Ginger to my trainer as a lesson horse. They were a beginner at horses and Ginger was green so that was a part of the factors leading up to it.

Anyways, no one else had the time or wanted to work with her, so around our winter camp since all the other lesson horses were being used (I only take lessons/help out at the barn) I began to! I've been working with her for around 2 months. Ginger was broken to ride, she just didn't know how to do anything really. She will be leased out in another week or so, but I plan to keep working with her around the other girl's schedule. (It's a half lease)

Right now in her training I've been focusing on the basics, although I do ride her western and I hope to get into some trail stuff with her at some point. I know the girl leasing her wants to teach her to jump, so I think that will be good for Ginger too! She's already shaping into a lovely all-around horse for my trainer.
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That’s awesome!! She is a beauty!!

 

[littledog]

Awww! Look at her "airplane" ears - she looks relaxed! No wonder she didn't make on the racetrack, she looks like she wants to be a "people horse" and get lots of care and attention. So sweet!

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Super cute!

That’s awesome!! She is a beauty!!

Thank you guys!!

Awww! Look at her "airplane" ears - she looks relaxed! No wonder she didn't make on the racetrack, she looks like she wants to be a "people horse" and get lots of care and attention. So sweet!

Yes! She definitely has relaxed and opened up more since I started working with her. She's super sweet and friendly so I think being a lesson horse is a great job for her!

 

[Skye'sDucks]

I had my lesson today, Ginger did pretty good.... we had some issues but we're going to work on them! We did lots of pole work--trotting poles and raised poles too. She actually was doing really well once we went over them a couple times, but my trainer said she's been pretty lazy about poles and ducking out (which she did do today at first) so that's what we're gonna start working on more! She also had some weird issue of wanting to go to the gate or something during an exercise across the ring (weaving back and forth) so I may work on that too tomorrow to make sure it doesn't become a habit.
She didn't do it Monday and wasn't ridden Tuesday to my knowledge so I don't know where it came from.

Her other issue is picking up her right lead at the canter; she's pretty uncomfortable on it because of her lack of muscle and just never using it so I'm continuing to work on that. She at least picked it up and kept on it today!

I ride her tomorrow too (my schedule is probably gonna change next week since the lease starts) but I'll see if I can get a video to share. It's also gonna be bath day again because she is fiiiillthhyyy. (she loves to roll all the time so that's why lol)

In case anyone is wondering about her leg/face, she got bullied by one of the other horses the other day when I guess he got into her pasture (I don't know the full story) and he chased her around. I felt so bad for poor Ginger but she's doing a ton better today!

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Ginger has been doing great! She got a bath on Thursday and isn't full of dirt yet lol. I believe she's figuring out the pole trick to get her to switch her lead at the canter too, so my trainer has given me a few tips on what to try next. She's a smart one for sure!

Today I was super impressed with how well she was stopping, so I'm going to try some stopping at a faster trot and canter/lope on Thursday. Stopping has been a pretty big issue with her but Ginger is finally understanding the concept so I feel we're ready to move on to some speed! She's still getting there of course and I have been and still am largely focusing on working with her stopping at a walk and jog, but I think we can slowly move on to more 'hard' stuff.

Ginger also has been doing great at poles, I may mess with some raised poles again on Thursday if we don't do it Wednesday with my lesson.

I believe I was also being tested by her today....lol well Ginger just backed straight out of the cross ties twice (she's not actually tied, we only drape/loosely wrap the ropes to the posts) when I attempted to spray her back feet with iodine. (she has some foot problems we've been treating). Apparently she has learned before on different cross ties (that released when too much pressure is put on them) that she could back out and run off, so we believe today she might have tried to get away from me and her foot treatments, aha. She didn't spook or anything or have anything really to cause her to freak out. She's a very tolerant and chill horse. I've never really seen her fazed by anything.

She's always been very difficult with her back feet, since she's still learning and all and is young. I'm just glad she mostly has stopped kicking now; she used to do that a lot. She got me once and I probably should have smacked her for that but it was pretty startling, and it wasn't bad, I just got a nice bruise, since she had no space to get momentum since I was standing right next to her anyways. But she better hope not to get me again lol! (Obviously I don't hurt her or be mean to her but I will correct her if she ever tries to bite/kick me)

I also am gonna plan on getting plenty of new pictures later this week so stay tuned!

 

[KelseyBoxer]

I love this thread and Ginger. She seems so laid back. I will be following.....

 

[Skye'sDucks]

I love this thread and Ginger. She seems so laid back. I will be following.....

Thank you!

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Ginger has been doing good since last post! She's been a little resistant going to the right, mostly going over the poles, although once I straighten her out she does just fine. We didn't do any trotting poles today, we just worked on some bending exercises and then stopping and going through her speeds at a trot. (jog, extended jog, and posting trot)

She didn't do quite as well stopping today as on Monday, but that's fine. She's still learning so we'll just focus on it at a walk and jog again. She is definitely still doing way better than a few weeks ago!

I'm also trying to introduce turning her hind quarters and forequarters to her, and she's actually turning her hind end pretty nicely. However, she is getting pretty confused still about turning her front end. She'll sometimes do it in a reverse, but that's just something to continue to introduce slowly. I'm sure she'll get it in time!
Her last under-saddle issue is her right lead canter...she was refusing to pick it up Wednesday since she's already figured out the pole trick and how to get over it without switching. I didn't really drill her that hard on it today; I tried only a few times then just got her to canter a little around the ring. While it is important to work on that with her, I also don't want to keep forcing her over and over each ride because she's already getting frustrated about it as it is. And as I talked about it with my trainer, we don't want her getting sour about cantering that direction.

Oddly enough, she's been doing really good about her feet this week! It's funny to me because she isn't even 'tied' down like she usually is, since a horse spooked and broke one of the poles on the wash rack on Monday, so we can only drape the rope instead of at least loop it around the pole so she'd have pressure. She hasn't tried really to back up and out of the wash rack at least, and really hasn't danced around a lot while picking or treating her feet. Hopefully she continues with this good behavior!

And I finally got some more pictures too--I left them attached below.