Gia - session 45 - no riding on a windy day :)

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 that didn't take very long, so I decided to work with her on clipping.  I have been focusing so much on the riding, that I have let this stuff slide for a while.  I usually use a pan of grain when I work on clipping, but she was so excited about all the yummy grass, I thought that might be a better motivator.  I had Katie hold her on the grass to graze while I turned on the clippers.  She was immediately worried, and stopped eating for a bit.  But, eventually her stomach took over.  Once she started eating again, I started clipping her front legs.  She was nervous, but not too bad.  She spooked slightly a couple of times, but then quickly went back to eating and letting me clip her legs again.  Once I finished with those, we ended our session.  She did fairly well, and I didn't want to push it.  Hopefully, I'll get to ride again on Friday.