Gia - session 66 - Our first ride in the rain!

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't ready to be humble yet and turn away again, then make them work again.  How long it takes completely depends on the individual horse.  The biggest trick is to not let emotion get in the mix AT ALL!  You can't get mad at the horse when they won't let you catch them, because they still won't let you catch them.  And you can't get mad at them once you do catch them, because they might not let you catch them the next time.  Believe me, I know how tempting it is to get mad at them, but it doesn't do any good, and it will definitely harm your relationship with your horse.  It took Zion about 15 minutes of me coaching her through it before she was able to catch Gia.  Gia has played this game before, and it's usually over quicker, but Zion had to learn how to play today, so it took a little longer.

Once Gia was tacked up, I figured that I didn't need to lunge her today.  Partly because she just got a good warm up in the field, and partly because she seemed super quiet in the barn.  So, I hopped on cold turkey.  She was quieter at the mounting block today.  The one big thing that was different about today was that it was raining.  This was the first time riding Gia in the rain.  She lives outside, and has worked on the ground in the rain before, but sometimes it's the littlest changes that make the biggest deal to the horse.  Gia didn't seem to care about the rain coming down, or even about my rustly raincoat.  She did care about the faint puddles, and the poles on the ground.  The puddles today were not quiet as large as the puddle we worked on the other day.  You might not have even noticed a difference between the wet ground and the "puddles", but Gia did.  And she casually tried to skirt around them.  So, we went back and forth through them at the walk until they were no big deal.  I had to keep her facing the puddle and keep gently encouraging her to go forward.  As soon as she did, I rewarded her with a pat and praise.  It only took a few tries before she was going through the puddles just fine.  Then she saw two poles on the ground that were not where poles had been before.  I used the same process on the poles that I had used on the puddles.  It took a few more tries with the poles than it did with the puddles, but by the end, she was going between them just fine.  Some eventer she's going to be ...  Other than that, she walked and trotted like she has been doing each day.  

Since it was raining, and I have been clipping Gia out in the grass, I decided not to do the clippers today so they would not get wet.  I also couldn't pull her mane, since you can't pull a mane when it's wet.  And, she wasn't sweaty enough to hose off, so she got a little bit of a shorter day today.