Gia - session 106 - lunging with a surcingle and side reins
For our second session back this week, on Friday, I worked with free lunging (in the round pen, not on a lunge line) Gia in a surcingle and with the neck stretcher.
I can't remember if I have talked about what a surcingle is or not before. It is basically a large, wide strap that goes around the belly and girth area of the horse. It has a ton of rings on it, in various locations, to attach side reins, or long lines, in a number of different levels or positions.
Since Gia had been pretty obedient, submissive and relaxed in her first session back, I decided that it would be fine to go ahead and put a bit more pressure on her, in the form of just asking her to work on stretching. Again, like on Wednesday, I wasn't expecting much since she had been out of work for a while.
However, I was, once again, pleasantly surprised!
I started out with 2 minutes of walking to warm up, and then moved on to 5 minutes of trotting. She did start out a bit against the bit, but quickly gave in and started stretching. Rather than counting consecutive steps of stretch, like I had been doing in previous sessions before she was sick, I decided to count moments of stretch. If they were consecutive, great, but if not, that was ok too.
After one moment of stretch at the trot, I gave her a walk break for a few seconds, then back to the trot. The next time, she had to give me two moments of stretch before she got a walk break again. We went on like that, adding another moment of stretch after each walk break, until we had used up our five minutes. I believe she got up to about 10 moments of stretch in one set, by the end.
Then I decided to see what the canter work would be like, just for about 1-2 minutes. Previously, she had been pissy whenever I asked for the canter transition, so I was prepared to work with her on that. However, another pleasant surprise, she was only slightly pissy, in the form of barely pinning her ears for one or two transitions. After asking her to canter, I kept her going until she gave me one moment of stretch, and then allowed her to trot again. We repeated that until I got three pleasant transitions.
Then I gave her a 2 minute walk break and changed direction. We repeated the same work at the trot and canter in the opposite direction.
Again, I was definitely pleasantly surprised by her work ethic and attitude! Hopefully, this isn't just a honeymoon phase ...
I can't remember if I have talked about what a surcingle is or not before. It is basically a large, wide strap that goes around the belly and girth area of the horse. It has a ton of rings on it, in various locations, to attach side reins, or long lines, in a number of different levels or positions.
Since Gia had been pretty obedient, submissive and relaxed in her first session back, I decided that it would be fine to go ahead and put a bit more pressure on her, in the form of just asking her to work on stretching. Again, like on Wednesday, I wasn't expecting much since she had been out of work for a while.
However, I was, once again, pleasantly surprised!
I started out with 2 minutes of walking to warm up, and then moved on to 5 minutes of trotting. She did start out a bit against the bit, but quickly gave in and started stretching. Rather than counting consecutive steps of stretch, like I had been doing in previous sessions before she was sick, I decided to count moments of stretch. If they were consecutive, great, but if not, that was ok too.
After one moment of stretch at the trot, I gave her a walk break for a few seconds, then back to the trot. The next time, she had to give me two moments of stretch before she got a walk break again. We went on like that, adding another moment of stretch after each walk break, until we had used up our five minutes. I believe she got up to about 10 moments of stretch in one set, by the end.
Then I decided to see what the canter work would be like, just for about 1-2 minutes. Previously, she had been pissy whenever I asked for the canter transition, so I was prepared to work with her on that. However, another pleasant surprise, she was only slightly pissy, in the form of barely pinning her ears for one or two transitions. After asking her to canter, I kept her going until she gave me one moment of stretch, and then allowed her to trot again. We repeated that until I got three pleasant transitions.
Then I gave her a 2 minute walk break and changed direction. We repeated the same work at the trot and canter in the opposite direction.
Again, I was definitely pleasantly surprised by her work ethic and attitude! Hopefully, this isn't just a honeymoon phase ...
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