Reader Story of the Week: Ginny the Chincoteague Pony

What a delight to be able to write a little about my adventures in the horse world with my Chincoteague Pony,Virginia Island Rose, aka Ginny Rose. What a journey it has been. I have never owned a horse before and really never had horses in my world. Just too busy being a mom to 4 very active now grown children and working in the world of nursing as an RN with a speciality in Hospice Nursing. As the years progressed... grandchildren arrived and one in particular, Chrissy, began to show a real interest in horses and so as a special 8 year old Christmas gift, I gave to Chrissy riding lessons at our local stable. When I arrived at the stable to sign her up, I mentioned to the barn manager that I had recently been to Assateaque Island and had seen the wild ponies... such an awesome sight! As fate will have it, a Chincoteague Pony, at that time, was there... only 5 mos old. Can I say, it was love at first sight...and I knew I had to have her. What I learned was that Ginny Rose had been born in June of 2004 and had participated in Pony Penning that July, just shy of being 2 mos old. She was brought to Michigan, to this stable, wild, scared, and really quite afraid of people. Little by little she warmed up to those around her, but the owner remained distant and really wasn't able to care for her, so when she came up for sale in April (10 mos old) I was right there...

...and our story began. Not knowing anything, but understanding the need to connect and bond, I spent an hour a day just being with her and walking her about on a lead line. We did this for months and months, just getting to know each other. As time progressed I knew I had to begin some sort of training and with the assistance of the wonderful people at this stable, little by little we introduced Ginny to ground work, the saddle and eventually at age two and a half to riding. What progressed after that was truly amazing. Ginny proved to be so smart and picked up all that she was being taught, the ground work for dressage. Just for fun, only months into training and not quite three, we entered her in a dressage show there at the stable and Ginny ended up winning all blue ribbons, being ridden by the trainer/friend. The emotions flowed, it was so overwhelming and continues to be. Ginny is now into her third year of dressage and has really impressed the judges.. She has won high percentage ribbons, high point ribbons and most recently even Dressage Show Champion. Our little Chincoteague Pony proved that she could compete with some pretty impressive dressage horses. This spring we entered her in two USDF shows, just to see how the judges would score her. She won 1st and second places and even at one she received the Reserve Point Champion all at the Training Level. The judges' comments were so good, most describing her as a wonderful horse.. wow... our little Ginny Rose! Through all this her delightful spirit remains intact, she is a social butterfly, loves people and even other horses. She lives in an old barn being able to go in and out at will and her best peer friends are a miniature horse named Elliot and a Clysdale named Stanley. Even Connie the cat keeps a close watch on her.. often follows us when I take her for walks on the lead line.

Her training has only progressed at a speed she would accept, she is still so young, but her willingness and acceptance of all that she is being taught has shown us that she truly enjoys what she is doing. During the course of the last two years too, I have been learning to ride, something I had never thought I would ever do. The experience is awesome and Ginny is a wonderful horse to learn on.. so patient and understanding as I try to sort out all the special moves the body has to make.

Want to see more of Ginny? If you missed this week's reader photo, click here.

Learn more about Chincoteague Ponies in the upcoming October issue Breed Profile!