Gia - session 7 - clipping

Yesterday was quite busy, so I'm a little behind in my blogging about Gia's adventures.  Due to some scheduling changes, I started with her first thing in the morning.  I typically work with her as my last horse before lunch.  I also started by bringing her into the barn, rather than in the round pen.  I also changed her saddle to a western saddle rather than English, and, after grooming her, I started by clipping her.  Those might all seem like small changes to you, but even just one of those is a HUGE change to a horse.  She managed to hold it fairly well together for the most part though.  She was a bit nervous being back in the barn.  I allowed her to sniff everything (she tried drinking out of the tack cleaning bucket once ☺).  Once she relaxed, I snapped the crossties on and went about grooming her.  She was pretty quiet for that. 

The next item on our agenda was clipping.  In the past, she has not been very good for this.  I typically use my cordless clippers when desensitizing a horse.  They tend to move around a lot more, and the cordless clippers allow me to go with them.  However, they are much louder than my regular clippers.  So, I tried with the regular clippers today.  You may remember, from my blog on clipping Baker, that I like to take it just one piece at a time, and that I like to let the horse eat while doing it.  So, today with Gia, I let her have about 1/4 scoop of her grain while I clipped just her left front leg.  I also had an assistant hold her since I would not be able to move with her as easily.  She was a little nervous, but stood still and allowed me to clip her leg.  It's been a while, but if I remember correctly, she was pretty good about her legs when I tried clipping her in the past, but got very anxious when I started to clip her face.  We'll see how she does when we get there this time around ...

After she finished her morning snack, I saddled her in the barn and then took her up to the round pen to bridle her and work her.  She was more fussy and fidgety that usual for all the tacking up.  It could have been from all the changes I threw at her, or it could have been the change in weather.  It was quite a bit cooler and windier than it had been the last few days.  So, no big surprise that she was a bit more dramatic when I started to work her.  She did a little bucking and galloping and snorting and blowing.  Each time she threw out some drama, I moved right at her head to turn and work a little harder.  It took a little longer to get her to settle today, but she's actually quite a lazy horse, so it wasn't too bad compare to other horses I've worked with.  I had thought the change in saddling might upset her a little, but I don't think it did.  The only thing she would really notice about a western saddle versus an English saddle is that the stirrups hang down and are a bit bulkier banging on her side.  She has felt the english stirrups fall down and bang on her side, so I don't think she really cared about that at all.  I got the feeling that she was more anxious about all the other changes, including the weather change.  My reasoning for changing saddles is that after talking with the person who is going to help me when it comes to actually sitting on her, she would feel more comfortable with a little more to hold on to as compare to an english saddle.  Fine with me - I'm chickening out of getting on her anyway since she's so huge, so who am I to argue! ☺ Once Gia had relaxed and submitted, she was perfectly fine and I untacked her and put her back out.  Side note - she did not demonstrate any of her "nasty" intimidation behavior today.