Gia - session 120 - lunging off property
I've decided that Gia's extra day of training, now that she is four years old and I can work with her four days a week instead of three, will typically be on Tuesdays. I have a lighter schedule on Tuesdays, so I can take her off property to work on paying attention and working under different distractions. This will be very helpful for when we are ready to go to competitions.
Today I took her to my coach's farm, CDP Stables, in Vass, NC. She has worked off the property before, and she has been to his farm before, so this really wasn't anything new, but she needs to get more familiar with it.
She hesitated a bit, and then "piaffed" a little when I put her on the trailer. Otherwise, she rode fairly smoothly there, getting off with no problems, and re-loading with no problems.
Once there, I kept her "tied" to the trailer. There are way too many things going on for me to actually tie her to the trailer just yet, so rather, I looped her long leadline through the ring on the trailer, and just kept hold of it at the other end. She was quite distracted while I was grooming and tacking her, so I had to keep working to get her attention back.
I kept her work very simple today - we only worked on the lunge line with the Pessoa, nothing new, except the place.
She was quite distracted by all the things going on, horses going by, dogs, especially the dogs! I kept with her regular time frame - 2 minutes of walk, 5 minutes of trot, 2 minutes of canter, then switch. However, my focus during the lunging was on keeping her attention. Anytime she got distracted by something, I pushed her more forward (sometimes that meant that she trotted during her walk work), and tugged on her face until her focus was back on me.
It was definitely coming and going, but nothing too bad. The only big reaction she had was when a few of the dogs (who were much larger than our Kenzi) went trotting by. She got very nervous and came rushing into the circle we were on, like I was going to save her giant butt from some little dogs! 😅😂
After her lunging session, I put her on their hot walker to relax before we went home. She was very good for that since she's done that several times.
It is my belief that it's important to have a routine at home that you can use when you go off property. The place may be unfamiliar, but the routine will not, so that can help the horse relax and see that nothing is really that different.
My plan is to lunge her off the property several times, until she is more relaxed, and then add the riding in. Today's session was a good start!
Today I took her to my coach's farm, CDP Stables, in Vass, NC. She has worked off the property before, and she has been to his farm before, so this really wasn't anything new, but she needs to get more familiar with it.
She hesitated a bit, and then "piaffed" a little when I put her on the trailer. Otherwise, she rode fairly smoothly there, getting off with no problems, and re-loading with no problems.
Once there, I kept her "tied" to the trailer. There are way too many things going on for me to actually tie her to the trailer just yet, so rather, I looped her long leadline through the ring on the trailer, and just kept hold of it at the other end. She was quite distracted while I was grooming and tacking her, so I had to keep working to get her attention back.
I kept her work very simple today - we only worked on the lunge line with the Pessoa, nothing new, except the place.
She was quite distracted by all the things going on, horses going by, dogs, especially the dogs! I kept with her regular time frame - 2 minutes of walk, 5 minutes of trot, 2 minutes of canter, then switch. However, my focus during the lunging was on keeping her attention. Anytime she got distracted by something, I pushed her more forward (sometimes that meant that she trotted during her walk work), and tugged on her face until her focus was back on me.
It was definitely coming and going, but nothing too bad. The only big reaction she had was when a few of the dogs (who were much larger than our Kenzi) went trotting by. She got very nervous and came rushing into the circle we were on, like I was going to save her giant butt from some little dogs! 😅😂
After her lunging session, I put her on their hot walker to relax before we went home. She was very good for that since she's done that several times.
It is my belief that it's important to have a routine at home that you can use when you go off property. The place may be unfamiliar, but the routine will not, so that can help the horse relax and see that nothing is really that different.
My plan is to lunge her off the property several times, until she is more relaxed, and then add the riding in. Today's session was a good start!
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