All The Kings' Horses

Katie got to work with Gia again, and here are her notes on their session yesterday: Hello again! So today I worked Gia again, and she did really well just like before. I brought her in, and she stood like a statue while I was grooming and tacking her in the cross ties. After she was tacked up, we went up to the round pen to work with the boat bumpers. Like before, I free lunged her with the bumpers by her shoulder. She was very good and was licking and chewing the whole time for both directions. So, I pulled her in and moved the bumpers back by her flank and put a lunge line on her. When I sent her back out, she did buck a couple times, but it was not as many as last time when she took a while to settle down. Each time she bucked I pulled on the lunge line until she stopped. The bucks were super small, so she wasn’t putting much effort into them. Then she went back to trotting quietly both directions. Overall, she did great today! -Katie

I'm still crazy busy, and Katie really had a great time working with Gia, and did a great job with her as well, so I let her have at it again.  Here is how it went: Hello again! So today I worked Gia again, and she did really well just like before. I brought her in, and she stood like a statue while I was grooming and tacking her in the cross ties. After she was tacked up, we went up to the round pen to work with the boat bumpers. Like before, I free lunged her with the bumpers by her shoulder. She was very good and was licking and chewing the whole time for both directions. So, I pulled her in and moved the bumpers back by her flank and put a lunge line on her. When I sent her back out, she did buck a couple times, but it was not as many as last time when she took a while to settle down. Each time she bucked I pulled on the lunge line until she stopped. The bucks were super small, so she wasn’t putting much effort into them. Then she went back to trotting quietly both dire

I know it's been a while since I have blogged about Gia.  I have had a LOT going on at the farm lately, along with a brief get-away, so I haven't been able to work with her since the horse show a few weeks ago.  Today, I was busy as usual, but I had one of my advanced students grooming and tacking for me.  When we talked about working with Gia, I said that I probably wouldn't have time to get to her again today.  Katie casually mentioned that she wouldn't mind working with her, if I wanted.  Katie knows how to do most of the stuff that Gia has been working on anyway, so I thought, why not?  It would be good to see how Gia did for someone else too.  So, I explained, in detail, what we had been doing, and set them to work.  I asked Katie to write about her experience with Gia today, and I've included it below.  Enjoy! Hey everyone! I worked Gia today for my first time, and she’s fun to work with! When I brought her in, she was pretty tense because there was a l

Well, not exactly ☺.  I took a few students to a local hunter show yesterday, and since I had room in the trailer, I let Gia tag along.  She's done this a few times before, but she seemed more nervous about it this time.  She loaded on the trailer just fine, but was quite nervous when I latched the divider.  She likes to  "piaffe"  in the trailer when she's nervous.  Maybe she'll make a great dressage horse one day!  Anyway, once we got moving, she traveled fine.  She stayed on the trailer when we first got to the show, while the kids got to ride.  She was pretty quiet for that duration.  When it was her turn, I pulled her off, tied her to the trailer, groomed her, and took her up to the warm-up ring to lunge her.  She was very good for all that.  She was a little nervous and looky as we walked to the warm-up ring, but not too bad.  I kept it very simple - just lunging in each direction until she dropped her head, focused on me, and "licked and chewed". 

I brought Gia in today to continue the work we've been doing.  I also had a new working student today - Ian.  Ian is fairly new to horses, but very interested in getting young horses started, so I spent a lot of time explaining the basic process and where I was with Gia, currently.  Because I was so busy talking, I completely forgot to run the clippers in the barn around her today.  So hopefully, I'll remember to do that next time.  Meanwhile, I showed Ian about grooming and handling a young horse.  Gia was a perfect little lady.  She did resist when I brushed her forelock, so we worked through that until she was more willing.  She was a complete statue when I flysprayed her, saddled her and girthed her though.  We have a new horse occupying the round pen for a couple of weeks, so I have to work with Gia in the arena on the lunge line.  That was the only difference in our work today.  I started her out, on the line, with the bumpers near the girth.  She was a little distracte