Gia - session 105 - Finally back to work!
Gia was out of work from February 20th thru March 24th - a little over a month! My intention with this blog was to show people everything that goes into training a horse from the ground up, and unfortunately sometimes, that includes unintentional breaks due to illness or injury.
Some of you might remember that Gia was out of work back in November due to illness as well. Apparently, she never fully recovered from that illness, and it came back to plague her again last month. She had to spend the last month in the round pen so that she could be monitored closely. The vet put her on antibiotics to help clear things up for good, (they did not put her on antibiotics the first time because they wanted her to get through the illness naturally, which would help build up natural antibodies to it. Unfortunately, that didn't quite work out the way we hoped). We monitored her temperature twice a day, counted all her poop piles at each feeding (she should have 6-8), noted how much water she drank (should be about 10 gallons AM and PM), and how much hay she ate, and whether she finished her grain or not at each feeding. Luckily, after the first week, she really didn't have a temperature anymore, and the rest of her care went pretty smoothly.
She did give her feeders and caretakers a bit of trouble, at times, during her time in the round pen though. As you might imagine any youngster would, who doesn't feel good, and is told they can't come out of their room for over a month. However, that is still no excuse for bad behavior, so we had to get after her several times. Towards the end of her stay, she had started to behave better, and her caretakers also learned how to deal with her better too!
Well, finally this week, I was allowed to put Gia back to work!
I will include a couple of videos when I post this blog.
Since she's been out of work so long, I just took it easy on her first workout this week, on Wednesday. I just wanted to refresh her memory with the round pen work we had done before. It's always been pretty easy for her, so I was thinking it might not be too tough of a work out. However, I was also thinking that she might be a bit over-reactive since she's been out of work and pent up for so long. I did turn her out in the field for a couple of days before working her, so she could at least get some energy out. And boy did she! At one point, on her first day out, she ran, bucking over and over, across the field like crazy!
So, I decided to video the very beginning of her session to show you, what I thought would be, a large over-reaction to working.
However, Gia really surprised me!
She started out our session pretty much right where we left off! She was a bit distracted, and probably a bit worried that I was going to make her stay in the round pen again, but otherwise, it wasn't bad at all! She was a little pissy, at first, when I asked her to move more forward, but definitely not as bad as I remember from before. Overall, she was pretty obedient and relaxed, especially compared to the way I thought she would be.
In the video, you will get to see that I keep pushing her forward, keep the whip moving, until she gives me signs of submission - lowering her head, licking and chewing and coming towards me.
At the end of the video, you can see that, once she submits, I allow her to come near me. Then I work on keeping her attention on me. Anytime I lose it to something outside the round pen, I move in the opposite direction until she is re-focused on me again. It really didn't take long at all to get her to focus and relax and submit completely.
I repeated the exercise a couple more times, and it went quicker each successive time!
You may also notice, in the video, that she is a bit scruffy looking. I didn't expect that she would stand very still in the cross ties to get groomed before her work, so I just took her straight to the round pen. After her work though, she stood perfectly fine for a nice long, over due and well-earned, grooming session. I also worked on pulling her mane, and she was pretty quiet for all that as well!
Overall, I was quite surprised with how well she did after so long out of work!
Some of you might remember that Gia was out of work back in November due to illness as well. Apparently, she never fully recovered from that illness, and it came back to plague her again last month. She had to spend the last month in the round pen so that she could be monitored closely. The vet put her on antibiotics to help clear things up for good, (they did not put her on antibiotics the first time because they wanted her to get through the illness naturally, which would help build up natural antibodies to it. Unfortunately, that didn't quite work out the way we hoped). We monitored her temperature twice a day, counted all her poop piles at each feeding (she should have 6-8), noted how much water she drank (should be about 10 gallons AM and PM), and how much hay she ate, and whether she finished her grain or not at each feeding. Luckily, after the first week, she really didn't have a temperature anymore, and the rest of her care went pretty smoothly.
She did give her feeders and caretakers a bit of trouble, at times, during her time in the round pen though. As you might imagine any youngster would, who doesn't feel good, and is told they can't come out of their room for over a month. However, that is still no excuse for bad behavior, so we had to get after her several times. Towards the end of her stay, she had started to behave better, and her caretakers also learned how to deal with her better too!
Well, finally this week, I was allowed to put Gia back to work!
I will include a couple of videos when I post this blog.
Since she's been out of work so long, I just took it easy on her first workout this week, on Wednesday. I just wanted to refresh her memory with the round pen work we had done before. It's always been pretty easy for her, so I was thinking it might not be too tough of a work out. However, I was also thinking that she might be a bit over-reactive since she's been out of work and pent up for so long. I did turn her out in the field for a couple of days before working her, so she could at least get some energy out. And boy did she! At one point, on her first day out, she ran, bucking over and over, across the field like crazy!
So, I decided to video the very beginning of her session to show you, what I thought would be, a large over-reaction to working.
However, Gia really surprised me!
She started out our session pretty much right where we left off! She was a bit distracted, and probably a bit worried that I was going to make her stay in the round pen again, but otherwise, it wasn't bad at all! She was a little pissy, at first, when I asked her to move more forward, but definitely not as bad as I remember from before. Overall, she was pretty obedient and relaxed, especially compared to the way I thought she would be.
In the video, you will get to see that I keep pushing her forward, keep the whip moving, until she gives me signs of submission - lowering her head, licking and chewing and coming towards me.
At the end of the video, you can see that, once she submits, I allow her to come near me. Then I work on keeping her attention on me. Anytime I lose it to something outside the round pen, I move in the opposite direction until she is re-focused on me again. It really didn't take long at all to get her to focus and relax and submit completely.
I repeated the exercise a couple more times, and it went quicker each successive time!
You may also notice, in the video, that she is a bit scruffy looking. I didn't expect that she would stand very still in the cross ties to get groomed before her work, so I just took her straight to the round pen. After her work though, she stood perfectly fine for a nice long, over due and well-earned, grooming session. I also worked on pulling her mane, and she was pretty quiet for all that as well!
Overall, I was quite surprised with how well she did after so long out of work!
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