All The Kings' Horses

In case you were wondering why you haven't seen any blog posts about Gia for the last few days, it's not because you missed any, it's because she has been sick.  She first came down with symptoms on Friday.  I had the vet out to check her out and pull some blood and fluid samples.  We are still awaiting results from the tests, but I have not been able to work with her since last Wednesday.  I have had to keep her in quarantine, separated from the other horses, and feed her and take care of her myself, after I am done with whatever I am doing with the other horses for the day.  I have not been able to work her, however, she must have missed it, because she was difficult to catch on Saturday evening so that I could take her temperature, and I had to free lunge her until she showed signs of submission.  She's just as upset about being locked up in a small space as I am!  For the most part, she has been a decent patient.  She has always been a bit grumpy about meal time. 

My newer helper was having trouble catching Gia this morning, so I started out working with her on what to do if a horse is difficult to catch.  I instructed her that when she approaches the horse, if the horse turns to walk away, or get past her, to swing her rope in a way that makes the horse go a little faster to force the horse to work.  To horses (and 16 year old boys) work is punishment.  If you have a horse that is difficult to catch, make them work.  You can use the leadline that you have in your hand, since you were trying to catch the horse anyway, or you can use a whip.  Don't let the horse rest, or eat or hang with a buddy, until they are showing signs of submission (signs they are sorry that they didn't let you catch them the first time), like lowering their head, licking and chewing, turning to face you.  Once you get one or all of those, you can let the horse relax.  You can then try to approach them again, or they may even approach you.  If they decide they aren

Gia was really good for her grooms this morning.  She was also really good for me to brush her face and forelock.  I started out on the lunge line today.  Since it had rained a bunch last night, we had a really good sized puddle on one end of the arena.  No time like the present to start learning to go through water!  So, I started the lunging in that section of the arena.  She was definitely worried about it when we first approached it on the lunge line.  I let her check it out, but she really just wanted to find a way around it - most horses do.  Every time she tried to go backwards or around it without touching any of the puddle, I would cut her off and keep directing her the way I wanted her to go.  Anytime she touched even a tiny bit of the puddle, I would relax my cues and tell her "Good girl!"  Little by little she would get closer to the deeper part of the puddle.  She would take very halting steps, but as long as her feet were in the water, I rewarded her.  It really

Danielle has been working with Gia on some of her ground stuff - relaxing more around strange things and not panicking and planting her feet when she doesn't want to go somewhere scary or near something scary.  She also worked with her this morning on brushing her face and forelock.  Gia was so good that she was practically asleep when I came in to bridle her!  On the lunge line, Gia was ready to go, but not in a bad way, mostly.  As soon as I asked her to trot, she also tried to move into the canter/buck.  I think she was remembering the last thing we did in her last session, and I also think she was nervous about it.  I got the feeling that she was trying to do the right thing, but bucking just kept getting in the way.  I wasn't even asking her to canter, but she kept trying to do it anyway, almost like that's what she thought I wanted her to do.  So, I continued to ask her to just trot, and only trot, until she relaxed.  I did not ask for the canter at all on the lunge l

I started today by brushing Gia's face and forelock.  She thought about being a little scared, but changed her mind when I fussed at her.  For lunging today, she was quite good.  She was barely distracted and fairly obedient.  I just ran her through the walk, trot and canter in each direction once.  Under saddle, she was also quite good.  It was a little breezy, and she thought about being a little distracted by the trees and some of the horses in the field.  It was very easy to get her attention back though, with very little wiggling of the appropriate rein.  Today, she kept "falling out" through her right shoulder rather than her left, probably because she wanted to go to the right to visit the other horses.  "Falling out" means that her shoulder drifts in one direction or another, in this case to the right, and no amount of pulling on the rein will stop it from happening.  Pulling on the rein will actually make it worse.  The proper correction is to use your

Today started off with Gia flipping out because I wanted to brush her face and forelock.  She was giving me a hard time about keeping her head down and snorting when I touched her face, so I put a lip chain on her.  A lip chain is very similar to a twitch.  The chain goes up under the horse's top lip, between their lip and gum, and when it tightens it provides the same sort of effects as a twitch - a bit more control, and a bit of endorphin release.  She's had the lip chain on a few times before when she has been tough for the farrier.  However, today she acted like it was the first time and like she had no idea what was going on.  I think her "normal" reaction to anything is to blow up first and then (maybe) think about it later.  She definitely blew up when she felt the chain tighten!  She went backwards hard (I had already pulled her off the crossties, expecting some sore of reaction, so she didn't break them).  Then she went up and forward and all other direct

Gia was a bit of a brat on the ground again today - spooking at things she has seen before and planting her feet.  Danielle worked with her on going past the "scary" things several times until she was walking like "normal".  When I lunged Gia today, she was also quite bratty and distracted.  Every time she looked at something other than me, I sent her more forward, but on a short line so that she was encouraged to look at me more.  As she relaxed and quit getting distracted, I allowed the line to lengthen.  When she was completely relaxed, I sent her the other direction at the other end of the arena.  We went through the same process, but it did not take as long. Under saddle, Gia was awesome!  The last ride was pretty good, but this one topped it!  She immediately went into a relaxed walk, and did not really ever try to look around.  I was even able to encourage a bit more forward of a walk today!  At the trot, she almost moved off my leg promptly, but definitely

Gia was quite naughty on the ground today.  She started out by planting her feet and pulling back against her leadline when Zion was trying to bring her into the barn.  I had to come up behind her with a long whip to pop her behind and get her to move forward.  Of course, then she acted super offended and anxious, and was all worried about being in the barn.  I'm not really sure what started it all, but it is never ok for a horse to plant their feet and not go forward when asked.  Especially one as big as Gia.  That is one of her "go to" moves when she decides she doesn't want to do things that day, or if she decides she is worried about something (usually something invisible).  Once in the barn, she was pretty quiet for Zion to groom and tack.  However, when I went to put the bridle on, she was not very cooperative with putting her head down and allowing me to bridle her.  I got the job done, but it took a lot more effort than usual. Once I started lunging her, she