All The Kings' Horses

My week has been a little crazy, so I did not get a chance to work with Gia earlier this week.  So, she had a lot of pent up energy today.  She was quite fidgety in the crossties, and almost looking for trouble.  Danielle and I free lunged her in the arena, and that was definitely a wise choice.  She started off galloping around the arena and bucking - something she has not done previously.  It didn't take too long before she was tired and licking and chewing with her head down. Once I got on her, she was actually quieter than I expected.  She was trying to be distracted by the other horses in the fields, but she did not do anything naughty.  Her walk was about the same - slow and stiff feeling.  I had to do a lot of work wiggling the rein and then turning her away from the various distractions.  Once she felt calmer, I urged her into a trot.  It did not take much effort at all, and her trot definitely had more energy.  Luckily, it wasn't too much energy, but it was definitel

Today's session with Gia went much like Monday and Wednesday's sessions.  Dylan and I free lunged her in the arena.  She was MUCH more relaxed, and probably would have been fine without the lunging.  Once I got on, we walked around the arena.  Anytime she got distracted, I would wiggle the opposite rein, or turn and go the other way if she was resistant.  She was VERY interested in the horses out in the field, so it took a while before she was focused enough to try the trot.  Her walk was a bit less lazy than it has been, but in a relaxed manner.  At the trot, she maintained her relaxation, and was more focused on me.  She was a bit stubborn a few times, and gave me the idea that she wanted to stop and roll in the sand.  Each time, I would kick her firmly until she moved on.  I did have the crop in my hand, and had to apply that a few times as well.  For the most part, however, her trot was more forward and she sustained it for longer.  I did have to kick her a few times for pu

I decided not to ride Gia today.  The weather was a bit sketchy, and a bit breezy, and I just didn't feel like dying today ☺.  So, instead, I decided to work with her on her canter cue with free lunging in the round pen.  Sometime, in the near future, I will want to canter from the saddle, so I want to make sure that she is very confident with the verbal cues for the canter.  This is something she has done before, but it has been a while, so this was a good opportunity for review. I started out by getting her to trot and submit in both directions.  She was a bit grumpy today whenever I asked her to move more forward.  When she pinned her ears back, I made her work harder.  She soon learned to stop doing that and to comply more pleasantly.  I had the same problem with her when I asked her to canter, at first.  She was hesitant to canter, and she pinned her ears, so I made her work harder.  By the end, she was moving into the canter more obediently and with more energy. All of th

Since I had camp last week, I did not get a chance to work with Gia.  So, I decided to start today's session off with a bit of free lunging/natural horsemanship in the arena.  And I am definitely glad I did!  If there was any hint of Arabian horse in Gia, we definitely saw it this morning!  Her tail was very high over her head, her neck was extremely arched, and she had the most suspenseful, floaty trot as she was zooming around the arena at mach speeds!  I am definitely glad I was not on her for all this ☺.  Dylan and I kept her moving whenever she wanted to be distracted by stuff outside the arena, and once she got tired (which, luckily, doesn't take her long), she lowered her head, licked and chewed and was ready to pay attention to me.  Once I got on, I started out walking her around the arena.  She was still a bit distracted, and her walk felt tentative (but thankfully, not explosive).  Every time she tried to look away at something, I would wiggle the opposite rein and

I handled today's session pretty much like Wednesday's.  Dylan and I free lunged Gia in the arena until she was very submissive - licking and chewing and coming towards me, ignoring all other distractions.  She was much quieter to start out with, but the ponies were not in sight, and there were no dogs chasing ducks either.  ☺  Once she was warmed up, I hopped on and had her walk around the arena in each direction.  Her walk was very slow, but I don't think it was tense.  It's hard to tell with her because she is so slow naturally, and because I don't really know her under saddle tendencies yet.  However, she was much less distracted, and did not look around as much, and kept a more consistent walk without a lot of stopping to look.  Then I proceeded to work on her trot.  Each time she stopped, I asked her to keep going for several more steps.  A couple of times she was a bit more stubborn than usual about getting the trot going, but otherwise, her trot was pretty u

Today I decided to start out with some free lunging and natural horsemanship in the arena.  That would give Gia a chance to check out all the things she is scared of without me on her, plus it would help her work on focusing on me despite those things, and it would get her tired at the same time (thus less likely to take off or buck).  We definitely accomplished all those things.  She started out very full of herself, and alternated between running around the arena and stopping to eat the grass.  I had Dylan come in to give me a hand, because it's a lot of ground to cover when I'm trying to keep her moving.  He stood at one end of the arena, with me at the other end, and between us, we just kept her moving until she decided she was ready to be more humble by lowering her head and licking and chewing.  We worked her once in each direction, and then I went to get on. Luckily, I had not gotten on yet when a dog started chasing the ducks around.  Gia was quite nervous about it, a

So, today I tried to ride Gia in the arena without any lunging to warm her up.  Things were going fine, until she spotted the small ponies in the adjacent field, (the same field they have been in all the other times I've worked with her lately, SMH).  She saw Rebecca bringing in one of the small ponies, and then the other one casually followed them in.  It's the first time that she has felt really tense.  I decided to see if I could keep going and hoped that she would relax.  She did not.  She kept getting more and more tense, until as we were approaching the side of the arena that is closest to their paddock, she decided to try to run away.  Luckily, she didn't try very hard, but once she had stopped moving, I hopped off, attached a lunge line, and proceeded to lunge her near each pony.  I put her into a trot, and every time she tried to look at the pony rather than focus on me, I asked her to trot a little faster.  She quickly remembered that this means she is supposed to

Since today was the first day of riding Gia in the arena with no warm up in the round pen, I decided to lunge her at the trot once in each direction, just to be safe.  I lunged her until she licked and chewed once in each direction.  Then, I hopped on with no problems at all.  I also opted to leave out the grain rewards and see how she did.  She was a little looky as we walked around the arena in each direction.  We had a light breeze blowing the trees across the road, and that seemed to make her a little nervous.  She startled a couple of times, but nothing too alarming.  I had to remind myself, that even though we have done this walk in each direction for several days now, she is still not comfortable, and still not ready, and still needs to take this time to walk around the arena and look at everything.  It's often hard to be patient about stuff like this, stuff that I think the horse should be ready to do by now.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.  They have to take

I worked with Gia on Wednesday this week.  Since she has been doing so well with her riding so far, I decided to forgo the lunging warm up and see what happens.  Katie got her groomed and tacked up with no problems.  Once in the round pen, I walked her up to the step stool and mounted, like she was any other horse who had been riding forever.  She did not offer to do anything bad at all!  Then I had Katie come in the round pen with the grain.  I proceeded to work on her trot sets, rewarding her with grain once she had gotten the desired number of steps.  She was very ready to go, but not in a bad way.  She has been pretty sluggish up til now, and without the warm up, she was not sluggish, but she wasn't naughty either.  Since she was excited to trot, I had to remind her to stay at a walk until I was ready.  For this work, I would ask her to walk, then immediately release my restraining rein aids once she did walk.  I would count how many steps she kept the walk in a row.  My goal w