Gia - session 37 - repeat of everything so far, plus a bonus!

Gia has been doing so good with all I have asked of her so far with the riding, that I decided I could start cutting back on some of the warm up and some of the grain today.  I will eventually try to wean her off of both, but I want to do it slowly.  So, today I started out with some light free lunging and natural horsemanship work, once she was groomed and tacked up.  I basically just asked her to trot and canter once in each direction until she had lowered her head and licked and chewed - signs of submission.  When I went to get on today, I did it with no assistance and no grain.  She was perfectly fine for it.  If anything, she was looking around wondering why there was no grain ☺.  Then I had Danielle come into the round pen to assist with giving her grain when she did well.  I skipped all the walk, halt and turning work and went right to the trot work on the rail.  I started out trying to get her to take 5 steps of trot in a row without stopping.  It took a few tries, but once she got it, I stopped her and Danielle gave her a bite of grain.  Then I changed direction and we went for 6 steps of trot in a row.  Each time she got it, I would stop her, give her grain, change direction and go again, adding one more step until I was up to 10 steps of trot in a row in both directions.  This way, she is learning to keep her trot until I tell her to stop, and I do the counting so that I don't get too carried away with it and ask for too much, which is so easy to do.  Once I get the trot initially, I sit or post very still without making any effort to keep her trot going.  If I feel her stop or slow down, I can tell her to go again, but then my counting has to start over.  Her trot steps have to be consecutive and without my assistance.  This way, she learns to keep her trot without too much encouragement from her rider.  It's a lot harder than it sounds, especially for an experienced rider, because we typically use our aids more than we should and end up nagging our horses.  This is a great way to work on that with any horse!  It's a great way to make sure you are giving clear and consistent aids, only as much as needed or necessary.

Once I was able to get ten steps of consecutive trot in each direction, I felt we were ready to add a step.  So, I dismounted while Danielle gave her a bite of grain, and we hand walked down to the arena.  She has worked in the arena before and has been perfectly relaxed, so I did not expect any drama, but you never know ... She stood perfectly still while I mounted in the arena with no grain to assist.  She felt a little tight, but just barely, so I decided to let her wander around the arena, pretty much wherever she wanted to go.  She was very interested in the ponies that were eating grass just outside the arena in their paddock, but otherwise, she didn't really care about anything.  Her walk started out very slow and tentative, but after about 5 minutes, she had more of a march going.  I decided to end on that and not push for anymore.  Moving into the arena can be a big step for most horses, and this one was quite successful!