All The Kings' Horses

 Monday April 6th - On Monday, I had Ashley groom Gia. I made sure not to let Gia know, but I had plans for some changes this week. Gia was very good. Just to clarify: Gia is not perfect. She is an animal with free choice. The goal of the work has been for Gia to get used to others grooming her and educating the grooms on how to read Gia’s body language. Everyone has been doing a great job with their respective roles, and I feel it is time to take a step forward! Tuesday April 7th - On Tuesday, I did not have a groom when it was time for me to work with Gia. I decided to see how far I could get with putting on the saddle if Gia behaved for grooming. Gia was very well behaved, and we got through her grooming very easily. I was curious as to how Gia would act with the saddle as it had been a while. She was very well behaved. Even when I discovered her girth no longer fit and I had to take the saddle off and put it back on with another girth, she stood well for me to make adjustments....

 Gia has been doing a lot more work without me (Danielle). I have been leaving her to the grooms to handle and see if they can work through any issues. When new things arise, I will step in and give them a hand! All the grooms and Gia have been doing well with this new challenge. For the week of March 23rd, I will share some notes from the grooms to show how paying attention to the small details makes a HUGE difference. First, Ashley noticed that as she has become comfortable again with Gia, she was perhaps going a bit too fast with her. We are quite busy and we do tend to try to get through things quickly. As Gia became better behaved, Ashley let down her guard a bit and went faster. As you all know, Gia does not like things done differently. She became nervous and anxious. However, as a result of all the work we have done, Ashley was able to identify not only Gia’s behavioral shift, but also the root cause. As a result, she was able to change her behavior and Gia was perfect. Als...

From Danielle: Gia’s Blog February 24th - March 20th Well, clearly, I got a bit behind in writing Gia’s blog for the past few weeks. To say it has been a bit busy around here is an understatement! Heather was in the hospital for surgery and I was trying to keep things afloat, we got in a new (super cute) horse for training, and we even had a brand-new addition to the Castle Farm family born on St. Patrick’s Day. With Heather being out of commission, I have slowed my goals for Gia. Prior to Heather’s injury, I felt a need to get Gia back and ready to ride. However, since Heather will be out of the saddle for a while and I haven’t been able to clone myself, riding is still a while off. I decided to really focus on letting the grooms work with Gia WITHOUT me supervising. There have been ups and downs, but overall, I think everyone is feeling more confident and comfortable. (Both horse and humans) Soon, I will reintroduce the saddling process with Gia, but thanks to everyone’s hard work, I...

Monday, February 16th-Ashley and I worked together with Gia again. The grooming went well so I asked Ashley to go ahead and pick out Gia’s feet. I am still watching over the process with her feet, but she has been more agreeable to having them touched lately so I figured it was time to move onto something new. Gia was very well behaved for having her feet picked. However, Ashley noted to me that her feet smelled terrible. Horses’ feet never smell great, but we all become accustomed to that “normal” smell. I have no sense of smell any longer, but I still knew immediately what Ashley was talking about: thrush. As I mentioned last week, Dr Jim had noted Gia had thrush in one foot. We had been treating that one, but not her others. It is not surprising that thrush popped up in her other feet and I was able to quickly get on top of treating them. Thrush is one of the smells that is imbedded in my brain and while I can’t physically smell it any longer, I sure can trigger that memory. It’s al...

 Monday Feb 9th-On Monday, we split the time grooming Gia. She was probably happier with her time being groomed by Ashley than me, for once. It’s past time I tackled Gia’s very thick, large mane. Having her mane pulled has never been a preferred activity of Gia’s. The goal is for her to stand still and allow me to pull it neatly. She prefers to throw her head up. This isn’t an uncommon reaction, but with Gia, when she throws her head up, she hits the roof of the barn…we will continue to work on this with Gia and hopefully soon, get her mane washed, as well. Stay tuned… **Tuesday and Wednesday-I (Danielle) was out of town. I know Gia saw our favorite chiropractor, Dr Jim, while I was gone. He confirmed she was sensitive to her feet, but due to a condition called thrush. This is very common especially with weather conditions as weird as we’ve had lately. Despite being in a drought, we had a lot of “moisture” (frozen) sitting on the ground for quite a while. We should be able to treat...

This was another shortened week due to yet another storm. At least we finally got some snow, not ice! We started our training horses on Wednesday this week due to the conditions on Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday, February 4- I opted on Wednesday to have Ashley jump right in with working with Gia while I watched. Gia has been making big strides (she’s good at that under saddle too) lately with her patience and tolerance. I actually asked Ashley to send me how she felt the work went. Here is what Ashley had to say: "I got to work with Gia on Wednesday and it was so needed. I miss working with Gia on my regular grooming days. With Danielle near by, I started by taking off Gia’s blanket. She was a little frustrated that it was me working with her instead of Danielle and when I approached her to take off her blanket, she lifted up her back left leg. Previously, Gia would not listen to me when I told her to put her leg down but this time, I told her once and she put it down for me. I wa...