Gia - session 85 - Gia was quite feisty!

My ride with Gia started out really relaxed on Monday.  I wasn't sure what to expect since I had taken a few days off for the holidays, and Gia hadn't been worked in a week.  She seemed really relaxed in the barn, and, although she was a little fidgety at the mounting block, it was still better than the last time.  Once I allowed her to walk off, she was super quiet and relaxed, maybe more so than she has ever been when she first gets started.  She was a bit sluggish when I first asked for the trot, so I repeated the walk to trot transition a few times until she moved off promptly from my cue.  Then we set to work on going between the poles and trying to get her body to be more straight.  It was VERY windy, but she was only a little nervous and looky at first.  Once I put her to work, she relaxed completely.  We worked quite a bit on bending and straightness, and she seemed better about that than she has so far.  All in all, our ride was going quite well ... until I asked for the canter ...

I decided to start with the left lead canter, since that one is typically easier for her.  This time, it was not.  She took about 2 steps and threw in a bit of a buck.  It was more like she popped her hind end up off the ground, and it felt a little threatening, like she was warning me she would do worse if I asked her to canter again.  I stopped her, fussed at her, and asked her to canter again.  Same thing.  This went on several times, each buck getting a little worse than the previous one, but not bad enough to unseat me, before I was able to push her past it and get a few steps of decent canter.  I let her have a little break before I turned her around to canter the other way.  On her right lead, which is usually her harder lead, she cantered right off, with just a hint of a buck, and cantered for several circles. I gave her a lot of verbal praise for that one, and a longer break before we turned around to try the left lead again.  Once again, she replied to my canter cue with a small series of bucks, and this time she was getting a bit rougher about it.  I kicked her through it and we finally had a decent canter for about one lap.  I praised her and let her end on that.

We did go back and work on some more trot work, including down transitions from trot to walk and walk to halt.  Those were pretty good!  I have no idea why, all of a sudden, she decided to get so pissy about her left lead canter, especially when she felt so relaxed and obedient about everything else.  It is typically very difficult for a young horse to learn to canter with a rider, so that could be all it is.  It's also possible that it could be a physical issue.  If her attitude persists, that is something I will definitely have checked out, but if this is a one time thing, then I won't worry about it.  Maybe she was just having a bad day, or maybe she was upset that she didn't get to work for a week.  Unfortunately, the horse can't talk, so we are left to wonder.  Hence, one of the reasons training horses is so challenging!

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