Gina Makes a Friend

Gina's shared her small paddock with Shari's Quarter Horse gelding Whiskey for the last few months. Whiskey's a small, sweet chestnut that happily shoves G out of the way at breakfast and dinner and eats approximately half of her food once he's done with his. He isn't very aggressive about it; he just moseys over and starts eating. G meekly walks away and lets him do it! (Very unlike her.)

I've been wanting to move Whiskey out, but it's really nice to split the cost of a round bale with Shari and G seems to enjoy having company. I was planning to keep the current arrangement until I was able to get Moe to Oklahoma, and then put my two together. Something convenient and nice happened last week, though, and now G has a new friend!

A therapeutic riding place in Jay, Oklahoma called a few weeks ago and offered to give us two geldings, one a Clydesdale and one a Thoroughbred. We all agreed the Clydesdale would be a super addition to the program, but the TB probably wouldn't have a place. Shari brought them both home last week and offered the TB to Kyla. Kyla, while less than enthusiastic about the expense, was very excited about the prospect of having her very own Adorable Thoroughbred Horsey. (Which is what I like to call them.)

So Burbank Cal, a 7 year old super-cute chestnut gelding that's earned a whopping $3,000 on the racetrack has become Gina's new friend. He's currently very thin and seems pretty green. We took the ponies for a hack on Saturday and Cal was very calm in the arena, on the sensory trail, and in the field. He was fine with Gina hanging out with him and didn't get too nervous when I took her for a quick gallop.

Kyla plans to join Anne and me for lessons on Tuesday. Cal won't be under any heavy work yet, but it certainly won't hurt him to walk around and work on bending, halting, and collection. I'm so excited to having a riding partner! I can just imagine all the dressage shows, hunter paces, and three-days we'll be heading to next year!