Gia - session 27 - long lining (video!)

Since Gia did so well with the boat bumpers last time, I decided she was ready to move on to a refresher on long lining.  Katie had never long lined before, so I had her practice on Schuyler a little bit earlier on Wednesday.  When it was Gia's turn, I started her out, just to make sure she would remember, and she did great!  We kept it very simple - I just asked her to walk, whoa and turn.  For the walk, I just used my voice, and she needed a little extra encouragement from the whip since there was some grass growing in the round pen.  For the whoa, I used my voice and a light rein aid so that she would remember what that meant.  For turning, I used a light, jiggling turning aid.  She was pretty good about remembering the cues, and she was not upset about anything.  She did get her tongue over the bit a few times, but she quickly put it back in place.  Following is Katie's version of the day, and then a small video of Katie long lining.

From Katie:

"Today, we changed things up with Gia a bit. When I brought her in, we put the clippers in the feedpan, and also added grain. So, in order to get to the grain she had to put her nose near the clippers. The first time she tried to eat the grain, she touched the clippers and jumped back. After that, she didn’t really try to eat the grain again. But after I tacked her up, we took her up to the round pen to long line her, instead of lunging her with the boat bumpers. Heather long lined her first for a bit, and then she had me take over. This was only my second time long lining, but Gia did great. I had her go around both directions at a walk and trot, and we also did a few changes of directions to work on steering, which she was also really good for. Overall, it went really smoothly with her today."

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