Gia - session 57 - Repetition!

Today's session went pretty much the same as Monday's.  I started out lunging Gia near the ground poles.  She wasn't afraid of them at all today.  She was a bit distracted by outside things, and it took her a little while to respond promptly to the "walk" transition, but otherwise, she did pretty good.  Under saddle, she was still distracted, and felt like she wanted to explode a little at times.  I worked to keep her attention by asking her with the opposite rein each time, and staying on smallish circles.  She never felt very forward (which can sometimes be worse than too forward).  As soon as I got her to the point where she wasn't tense and distracted, I ended the ride there. 

Once all her tack was off, my newer helper, Zion, held her while I turned on the clippers and walked towards her.  She did not back up or tense up right away.  It wasn't until I was pretty close to her face with them that she started to back up.  So, while Zion held the clippers, I twitched her and started clipping her muzzle.  This time, I waited for her to relax a few times before taking the clippers away and removing the twitch.  She did pretty good with that!

I worked on pulling more of her mane - it doesn't even look like I've put a dent in it yet, but it will eventually.  She was allowed to eat grass while I did the pulling, however, she mostly just kept her head up and stood there quietly while I worked.  She was not nervous about it at all!  Finally, I held her while Zion and Elizabeth bathed her.  She was nervous at first, like on Monday, but eventually settled down.  I had to use a long whip to keep her from swinging her haunches away from the spray.  Every time she tried, I would tap her on the opposite side until she stepped back towards the person hosing her.  I only had to do that a couple of times before she stood quietly.  At the end, I sprayed her face with the mist.  She did not resist it as bad, and I think she may have even started to enjoy it!