All The Kings' Horses

 Well, here is another three in one blog. This blog entry is all about the letter C: catching up, consistency, and a little CANTER! June 29th thru July 17th - As I stated in the last blog post, I did ride Gia in a lesson with Heather. She did fantastic! Heather had me work on getting her to stretch over her back and move her shoulder to the left. Generally, Gia allows her shoulder to fall to the right. This causes her to be quite crooked and the faster she moves, the bigger the problems can arise. We worked on moving her shoulder and keeping my own alignment in the lesson. We were even able to ask her for a little canter in each direction. I am proud to say she did very well. She only had one little buck that we rode through and did not allow it to elevate. It was so nice to see that all of our collective hard work is paying off! Since then, it has been extremely hot here. As much as I hate the heat, Gia hates it even more. We are northern girls! (Gia is a Canadian WB despite being...

June 22-26, 2026:  Many years ago, when I was a young child, my grandfather corrected me when I (in my very grown voice) informed him “I was an equestrian” because I had started taking lessons. He quietly and kindly, which was his way, informed me that I was a horse rider, not an equestrian. Before I could call myself an equestrian I had to do the following things: be bit by a horse, be kicked by a horse, be stepped on by a horse and fall off of a horse. Rest assured, by these standards, I became an equestrian MANY years ago. However, that has always resonated with me. Not that any of those things are pleasant or desirable, but they are part of the game. If you work with horses, these things will happen. Often times, they are preventable and, at least in part, errors made by people. However, to err is human and I have certainly made my fair share of mistakes. I could qualify by my grandfather’s standards as an equestrian solely by my work with Gia. I add all of this to be 100 perce...

 Gia’s Blog Jun15-19: Gia enjoys being groomed by a new groom, Nyx! This week there was a lot more of the same work for Gia. She continues to work well with the grooms and is becoming more and more accepting of multiple people handling/grooming. This is great news as we are in the midst of summer and bug season! As for the riding, I (Danielle) continue to work with Gia on increasing her trot minutes each day. We also work through her tension at the beginning of each trot set. Luckily, she is generally pretty quick to settle down into a routine and get to work. At the trot, I have been encouraging Gia to do more figures, shapes, and adding bend to her work. Friday proved to be a bit more exciting than I had planned, however. When I went to hop on Gia, her saddle started to slip as I put my foot in the stirrup. I had, of course, just tightened her girth prior to mounting, but I guess I could’ve gone a hole tighter! As I felt the saddle slip, I attempted to step down onto the mounting...

As is always the case, life is so busy. I will try and catch up here by giving you all some weekly synopses with the highlights. May 25-29, 2026 - What a week this one proved to be! I think I need to just start putting things into the universe via this blog. In the last entry, I mentioned how I hoped that Gia and I could get off to a better start to our work each day. Ironically, or maybe not so much, I personally had a breakthrough in a ride on another horse early in the week. The other horse *name redacted to protect the mostly innocent* was having a bit of a dramatic day. As I was riding through their feelings, I felt noticeably confident and realized I could ride through the silliness and I was able to breathe and work through the ride. It felt like a huge mental breakthrough. Personally, my riding journey has had a lot of (literal and figurative) ups and downs. When I was younger, I felt invincible and had no fear…even through major injuries. As I have gotten older, I’ve struggled...

 I got a little behind with Gia’s blog last week so this week will cover two weeks! Monday, May 11- I ended the last blog with a head’s up that there was a new delivery at the farm. A lot of the week will be dedicated to helping her adjust. Heather is in the process of giving the arena a major upgrade: TruTex footing! Currently, she still has a bit of work to do to prepare the arena, so we have 4 very large packages (mattress size) of fiber footing next to the arena. This also means that all the horses have to walk past the packages to go into the barn. Many of the horses were a bit bothered by the giant white bags, but they moved on past it quickly. Gia, however, as expected, needed some more time. I expected Gia would have a hard time with the change, so I had Ashley bring her in and head towards the barn by exiting through the further gate. I was prepared to step in and help out if needed. As expected, Gia stopped in her tracks and planted her feet while snorting once she saw th...

 Monday May 4-“May the fourth be with you”….Gia was channeling a charming Bantha on Monday. She was very well behaved for her grooming, stretches, and saddling. I debated on just hopping on without lunging, but I decided that I would stick with my routine. I am glad I did because while Gia started lumbering along like a steady Rontos on the lunge line, all of a sudden she started running and bucking on the line as if she was being chased by a herd of Nexu. However, this only lasted a minute and she calmed down right away. I hopped on in hopes she wasn’t going to toss me into a Sarlacc’s den. She was a bit tense at first and needed a few taps with my lightsaber to keep moving but by the end of the ride she was calm and sweet as a Porg. Kudos to anyone who followed along! Tuesday May 5th - It’s Cinco de Mayo and I needed a margarita! I guess Gia just isn’t a fan. I started off the morning with a feeder check-in note that Gia (who has been much improved in her feeding behavior of late...