Gia - session 154 - Gia works on her halts, and stands "tied" for bathing!

Gia was a little jumpy today, but I'm not really sure why.  Perhaps because the neighbor put up some new scarecrows in his garden, or perhaps just because it's Monday.

Anyway, I lunged her to warm up, and that definitely made a difference.  She also wasn't stiff at all today, but she was quite grumpy when I asked her to go more forward.

Under saddle, I worked on the same things as last time.  I did have to do a lot of circles and half halts today.  She definitely had more energy!

To finish our ride, we worked on walk to halt transitions.  I had mentioned this exercise last week, and I was able to video it today.  Each time she came against my hand when I asked for a halt transition, I put her in a small circle.  It actually only took a few circles before I was able to get a soft, obedient transition to the halt.  It wasn't square, but I can worry about that another day.  I rewarded her for her effort by hopping off and ending our ride there.

Since Gia had been good the last few times for hosing off, Danielle tackled this task on her own.  She just ran Gia's rope through the ring at the wash tree, but didn't actually tie her.  That way, if Gia spooked and pulled back, she wouldn't break anything.  She only startled once, when the hose was spitting out air, but she didn't pull back and would have been fine tied.  Three good runs like this, and I think I will be comfortable tying her to the wash area.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's video with Gia in shipping boots for the first time!

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