Gia - sessions 8 and 9 - field trip to a horse show!

I was a little too busy yesterday to write about Gia's adventures.  She did a bit more of the same at the farm.  I brought her into the cross ties to get more reacquainted with them and work on relaxing.  I allowed her to touch anything she wanted to, and check out anything that she was concerned about. 

Once she had sniffed everything of interest, I cross tied her and groomed her.  She was a little worried when I went to put the saddle pad on, so I worked on desensitizing her to it by rubbing it all over her body until she took a deep sigh or "licked and chewed".  I did that with her several times on both sides of her body.  Once she was fine with the saddle pad, I added the saddle.  She was a bit fidgety when I tightened the girth, so I only tightened it a little ways, and then, as I walked her up to the round pen, I allowed her to stop and eat some grass while I finished tightening the girth.  She didn't even notice ☺.  Once in the round pen, I sent her around a few times until she had given me signs of submission and relaxation, and then we ended our session on that.  Her pasture mate had left the farm on Friday, and she was feeling pretty lonely, so I kept things pretty low key for her and I didn't add anything really new or hard. 

Today, however, Gia got to take a field trip!  I had a few students going to a local hunter schooling show at a nice, low key facility that was a great place for Gia to get off the farm and practice learning to go to shows herself!  She did not actually compete, but I like to take young horses wherever I can, whenever I can.  The more they get exposed to now, the easier things will be when I am ready to ride and show her for real.  Gia had been to this show once last year, and did pretty well.  Today was about the same. 

Bright and early this morning, I put her on the trailer to head out.  She only hesitated getting on for a few minutes.  She wanted to sniff a few things first, which I have no problem allowing a horse to do.  As long as they are showing interest in getting on the trailer, it's fine with me if they need to think about it for a minute or two.  When Gia was much younger and smaller, I spent a LOT of time working with her on trailer loading and unloading.  A lot of grain and hay was involved whenever she did get on.  Today, it only took her about 5 minutes to get completely on the trailer and locked into her stall.  Once on, she did get a little upset and "piaffe" for a few minutes (she's going to be an amazing dressage horse one day!), but she quickly settled down and ate her hay while we got the other horses loaded. 

Gia, when I first started lunging her

Gia, nicely settled into her work, after lunging for about 10 minutes

Once at the show, I opened her window so she could see what was going on.  She hung out on the trailer while the first two ponies did their thing in the show ring.  We had a nice long break before the next rider had to go, so I pulled her off - she unloaded very politely - tied her to the trailer (with a couple of rope halters just in case she decided to pull back and make a break for it), and started grooming her while she munched on her hay.  She stood perfectly still the entire time and did not give me any trouble at all!  Once she was all cleaned up, I took her up into one of the schooling rings to lunge her.  I basically did exactly the same thing I do with her in the round pen, the only difference is that she was on a lunge line instead.  She was a bit of a fireball, with her tail straight up in the air and blowing loudly at first.  But after about 5 minutes, she had settled into a nice trot around me as I waited for signs of submission.  Of course, it took a little longer than it does at home, but not too bad, and she was still pretty polite.  Once she had submitted and come closer to me, I was able to keep her attention, despite all that was going on nearby in the show ring.  As we headed back to the trailer, I allowed her to check out anything that was potentially scary.  Just like at home, when she touched something "scary", she was allowed to have a few bites of grass.  She was nervous about a few new things at first - picnic tables, signs, traffic cones - but eventually she touched everything and relaxed. 

Once we were back at the trailer, I tied her up again and let her hang out next to one of the other ponies, munching hay, for a little while.  When it was time for that pony to go into the show ring, I put her back on the trailer, just in case she decided she didn't want to be alone.  She was pretty tired at that point, so she didn't put up any fuss.  She got right on the trailer and stood pretty still the rest of the time.  Once home, she unloaded very politely, and was quiet enough that one of my students was able to take her back out.  All in all, it was a very successful outing for her today!