Gia - session 41 - Small ponies are scary!

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 pay attention to me instead of anything else.  Each time she relaxed on the lunge line, I let her have a brief break, and then turned her around to try it again the other way.  We did this back and forth until she was not paying attention to either pony at all.  Then I got back on her.  She was still tense, but much less so.  We practiced walking all around the arena in each direction. Each time she tried to look at anything, especially the ponies, I would wiggle the opposing rein until she was paying attention to me again.  A few times she tried to talk to her friend in her paddock.  When she did, I would turn her and go the other way, again getting her to focus more on me rather than her friend.  Anytime she was walking without looking around, I kept my hands very still, and only made her "work" when she was trying to get distracted.  Gradually, she started to walk more confidently, and finally let out a deep sigh.  That's when I hopped off.  One of the most important lessons she has to learn is that paying attention to her rider will ALWAYS be more important that paying attention to anything else.  I have to be very careful not to scare her or punish her when I do this, but rather redirect her attention. That way, I don't lose her confidence.  It must have been a spooky sort of day, because two other horses that I rode today were a little spookier than usual.  That's horses for you!