Gia - session 153 - More of the same riding, plus bathing and clipping.

I lunged Gia again to start.  Only her first few steps in each direction at the trot were stiff, then she moved out just fine for the rest of the trot work.

Under saddle, I worked on all the same things at the walk and trot again.  We were working out a few kinks with my new video system, so I wasn't paying as close attention to what I was doing with Gia, but everything felt pretty good.

I did work on transitions a bit more with her today though.  Each time I tried to ask her to make a down transition, she would come against my hands.  No hand in particular, pretty much both hands symmetrically.  Each time I felt her come against me, I would put her in a small circle, wiggling the inside rein and pushing with the inside leg until she let go.  Then I would go straight and try the transition again.  It didn't really matter which way I circled, just whichever way was most convenient at the time.  If she had been coming up against one hand in particular, then I would have circled in that direction.  It took several tries, but eventually, she was getting the idea to make the down transition without coming against my hand.

After the riding, I decided to work on clipping her again.  The last time I tried clipping her, it had been a while, and I approached her in the crossties with the corded clippers.  Cons - the corded clippers have a scary cord, and there was no grass to distract her like when I first started clipping her.  Pros - the corded clippers are quieter, but that didn't seem to matter much, see "cons". 

This time, I went back to using the cordless clippers, which are much louder, and approached her with them after she had been grazing in the grass for a few minutes.  I only did her front legs today, but she could have cared less.

I finished up the session with another bath.  Danielle held her while I hosed her off, and she did fairly well, only slightly startled.  When it was time to do her face, Danielle misted her while I worked on getting her to keep her head down.  She doesn't seem to have a problem with being misted on the right side of her face, but really hates it on the left.  I truly have no idea why, except, horses. ☺

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