LOVE this mare!

I am in love! So far Ginger has been just about perfect. I can only fault her on her ground manners, but I actually enjoy doing groundwork.. so I'm not complaining!

Oh yeah, let's back up to yesterday.

I left my house at 6am to meet the hauler, Donny, at the place he boards some of his horses. We left there around 7 to start the long haul to Lisbon. 2 hours later, we had finally arrived! She has been at this racing facility since June, at which time she was retired from racing, and put on turn out until yesterday. 

I met with the owner while Donny prepared the trailer. We signed some paper work, talked about her feed requirements, and her vet and farrier dates. Then it was finally time to meet my mare! I was pleasantly surprised when I was presented with a gorgeous, healthy, tall mare! 

Trying to hold in my girly squeal, I swapped her halters, brought her out of the stall, and headed towards the trailer. Donny wrapped her legs for me while I (tried) to hold her still. I walked her around, then walked straight into the trailer. The good girl stepped right up without any fuss. I thanked the owner profusely, and we were off! 

The trip to my barn is 3 hours from where we picked the mare up. About half way through, we stopped at McDonals to grab something to eat, and let Ginger poke her head out. When we opened the window, she slowly stuck her cute little head out. She wasn't sweaty or worked up in the least bit. 

We closed the bar part of the window only, so she could have some air for the rest of the ride (it was warm out). 

An hour and a half later, we got to Dyer Farms and unloaded the mare. When she first tried to step off the trailer, she was apprehensive. But I just asked her again, and she backed up willingly. 

I let her loose in the round pen expecting a hot, bucking horse, but she just walked around. I let her hang out for a while, then tied her to the fence and brushed/loved on her.
 I figured she had a big day.. so I stopped there, put her in her stall, gave her a kiss, and said goodbye.

The next day I planned on doing some ground work,lunging and just to just hang out with her (IF she was pretty calm, and relatively settled in). She was SO easy to catch in the field, she came right up to me. I brought her in, took off her blanket, and groomed her. She doesn't seem to stand in cross ties well, so that's something we've been working on. I took her into the round pen (rope halter in hand). We did a tiny bit of ground work, then I let her loose to free lunge. Our round pen is massive, so it really isn't good for free lunging. But, I really like to free lunge to get their attention (which can be hard in the huge round pen!). Ginger listens well to voice cues already, and seems super eager to please. 


I tacked her up to see her reaction to it, and she was perfectly fine. My plan was to wait at least a week or so to get on her.. buuut you know how that goes. =P She was doing sooo well with everything! 


So, I set up my camera and positioned her to the mounting block. Unfortunately, my camera cut out right before I got on.. so I didn't get any footage. =[
Anyways, Ginger stood like a champ for me to climb up on her back. She walked off quiet. She listened to seat cues. She listened to rein cues. She listened to leg cues. She listened to voice cues. She trotted off quiet. She listened to seat, rein, leg, and voice cues. She came back to a walk when I said "waaalk". Whaaa?! I thought all OTTB's were zoom zoom freaks who knew no cues? This mare just proved me wrong! 
I took her out of the round pen, and walked toward the outdoor arena. In the outdoor, we walked a lap, trotted a few, and cantered a couple. She is very controllable in each gait, and comes back to a calm walk from a canter. We went over some ground poles at every gait, she jumped them at the canter. After our ride in the outdoor, I took her to a field and let her go a bit faster at the canter. How FUN was that! Once again, she came back to a nice walk after the canter sprint. I walked her around the farm to cool her down. 


I LOVE THIS MARE!!!!