Gia - session 135 - First ride off the farm!
I took Gia to CDP Stables today for her usual visit, but today we took it a step further!
Her trailer ride was very uneventful.
Dylan asked me this morning why she doesn't wear shipping boots (she wears her lunging/jumping boots instead).
I like to keep trailering as easy and stress free as possible, especially in the beginning. I typically do not use shipping boots on a horse until they are more relaxed about the whole process. A horse will usually react quite dramatically the first several times they wear shipping boots, and I don't like to mix that drama with the stress of trailering. Once Gia is consistently quiet for the trailering process, I will add shipping boots to her attire. That might actually be in the next few weeks, based on how she has been doing, so stay tuned, it can be quite comical ☺.
Anyway, she loaded, rode and unloaded just fine today, both on the way there and on the way home.
Once there, she spent some time on the hot walker while I had a (really good) ride on Butch.
Finally, it was Gia's turn!
We started like we always have when off the farm - lunging in the Pessoa.
I tied her to the trailer while I groomed and tacked her in her saddle with the Pessoa on top. She was really good standing tied, and even started to fall asleep.
I put her through the same lunging routine we have been doing. She was quite a bit more grumpy today when asked to go forward, and even bucked up a few times. She acted like something was bothering her on her hind end. It might have been a bug, or it might have been that she forgot what the hind strap of the Pessoa felt like. I'm not really sure, but she did work it out.
Finally, I took off the Pessoa and brought her into the arena. She was a little nervous about the mounting block at first (cause it looks sooo much different from my mounting block *eye roll*). I let her check it out, and she relaxed pretty quickly. Once I felt that she was going to stay relaxed, I hopped on.
She stood perfectly still.
Then we proceeded to make our way all over the big, scary arena filled with big, colorful, scary looking jumps and gazebos and dogs and golf carts.
I immediately started with her, very familiar, work on small circles - bending and counterbending and changing direction. She was definitely nervous about stuff, but she really responded to my requests to pay more attention to me than everything else. As we made our way around the ring, I planned a circle to go around each and every jump. Some were definitely scarier than others, but nothing was terrible. She was a little more nervous about the edges of the arena, so when we started to make our way to the rail, I really worked on trying to get shoulder-in whenever she was trying to look. If she wouldn't listen, which really wasn't that often, then I put her into a 10 meter circle.
She looked at a lot of things, especially the gazebo and the other horses walking by. She really only jumped twice. Once at the golf cart going by, but as soon as she responded to my shoulder-in request, she didn't worry about the golf cart anymore. Her biggest spook was at the dogs playing and running through the arena. I had to do a few very small, tight circles to get her attention back, but then she relaxed and went on like nothing had happened.
I did a few more shoulder-in's and diagonal lines with circles in the corners. Once she was more relaxed, I decided to stop there.
All in all, it was a great first ride off the farm!
She did look at a few things and did spook slightly, but nothing that caused me to lose control, and she came back to me fairly quickly each time.
This is just the beginning of more adventures for Gia!
Her trailer ride was very uneventful.
Dylan asked me this morning why she doesn't wear shipping boots (she wears her lunging/jumping boots instead).
I like to keep trailering as easy and stress free as possible, especially in the beginning. I typically do not use shipping boots on a horse until they are more relaxed about the whole process. A horse will usually react quite dramatically the first several times they wear shipping boots, and I don't like to mix that drama with the stress of trailering. Once Gia is consistently quiet for the trailering process, I will add shipping boots to her attire. That might actually be in the next few weeks, based on how she has been doing, so stay tuned, it can be quite comical ☺.
Anyway, she loaded, rode and unloaded just fine today, both on the way there and on the way home.
Once there, she spent some time on the hot walker while I had a (really good) ride on Butch.
Finally, it was Gia's turn!
We started like we always have when off the farm - lunging in the Pessoa.
I tied her to the trailer while I groomed and tacked her in her saddle with the Pessoa on top. She was really good standing tied, and even started to fall asleep.
I put her through the same lunging routine we have been doing. She was quite a bit more grumpy today when asked to go forward, and even bucked up a few times. She acted like something was bothering her on her hind end. It might have been a bug, or it might have been that she forgot what the hind strap of the Pessoa felt like. I'm not really sure, but she did work it out.
Finally, I took off the Pessoa and brought her into the arena. She was a little nervous about the mounting block at first (cause it looks sooo much different from my mounting block *eye roll*). I let her check it out, and she relaxed pretty quickly. Once I felt that she was going to stay relaxed, I hopped on.
She stood perfectly still.
Then we proceeded to make our way all over the big, scary arena filled with big, colorful, scary looking jumps and gazebos and dogs and golf carts.
I immediately started with her, very familiar, work on small circles - bending and counterbending and changing direction. She was definitely nervous about stuff, but she really responded to my requests to pay more attention to me than everything else. As we made our way around the ring, I planned a circle to go around each and every jump. Some were definitely scarier than others, but nothing was terrible. She was a little more nervous about the edges of the arena, so when we started to make our way to the rail, I really worked on trying to get shoulder-in whenever she was trying to look. If she wouldn't listen, which really wasn't that often, then I put her into a 10 meter circle.
She looked at a lot of things, especially the gazebo and the other horses walking by. She really only jumped twice. Once at the golf cart going by, but as soon as she responded to my shoulder-in request, she didn't worry about the golf cart anymore. Her biggest spook was at the dogs playing and running through the arena. I had to do a few very small, tight circles to get her attention back, but then she relaxed and went on like nothing had happened.
I did a few more shoulder-in's and diagonal lines with circles in the corners. Once she was more relaxed, I decided to stop there.
All in all, it was a great first ride off the farm!
She did look at a few things and did spook slightly, but nothing that caused me to lose control, and she came back to me fairly quickly each time.
This is just the beginning of more adventures for Gia!
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