A Girly Update

Spider and Shirley (the girls) are doing great!  They've passed what we jokingly refer to as "Cow 101".  In fact, now I have to make sure I feed in the correct timeframe or the girls try to go push the cows aside and eat their grain too! 

With some decent weather, the pasture has dried up from recent rains and we've taken the opportunity to put the girls to work.  Shirley, being a bit greener than Spi, is currently only working on the lunge.  She's doing wonderfully well however, walk/trot/canter both directions in side reins.  It won't be long now before we feel she's ready for us to hop on and continue her education under saddle.

Anita with Shirley on the lunge line.

Spider is already there and we've had 3 lovely rides this week.  No canter work under saddle yet, although I cantered her on the trails last month.  It's not that she can't, it's more than we're taking their education slow and thoughtful in its progress.  First is getting relaxed work at the walk and trot.  Both girls are very soft mouthed and acceptance of the bit is a priority.  The last 2 days, we did trot Spi through a ground pole grid... pole, 4'6", pole, 4'6", pole, 9', pole, 18', pole.  Last night we did raise the final pole to approximately 12" (it was resting on 2 overturned buckets while we await jump cups to arrive).  Spi is doing fantastic and we'll probably stick with variations of that same grid for a while.  Today, Ella rode Spi and from what I hear they did great.

In other news, I just filled out the next entry form for Noble.  He'll be making the move to Beginner Novice on Sunday, November 4th at the Walnut Creek Pony Club Horse Trials.