Gia - session 161 - I got to ride her on the Carolina Horse Park showgrounds!
So, last month when we were at the Carolina Horse Park to school, you might remember that Gia was a hot mess on the lunge line, so once I got her to relax that day, I ended our session and it never went any further.
We had another venture to the Horse Park today for another schooling day, and it went much better!
I decided to just start with simple lunging today. Last time, I had tacked her up, in hopes that I would be able to get on her. This time, I just pulled her off the trailer, put on her splint boots, added a chain to her halter (just in case), and went off to lunge.
She was sooooo much better!
She talked a little bit, and looked around a little bit, but relaxed fairly quickly. All I did was 2 minutes of walk and 5 minutes of trot in each direction, and she was putting her head down and licking and chewing within a minute or two of the work.
So, I decided to saddle up and go from there. She was a bit fidgety tied to the trailer, but nothing bad, just looking around and moving a lot.
Once I got her tacked up and I hopped on, we just meandered around the trailer parking area.
Pippa had come along today to school cross country, and as soon as she saw Gia walk away from the trailer, she started hollering, and then Gia hollered back ... and that went on for the majority of my ride.
The beginning was quite tense. I had to do a LOT of circles when I lost her attention, or she hollered. She was mostly nervous about leaving Pippa, but also about the trucks and trailers that were coming and going, the golf carts, other horses she saw, etc. I will admit that I was a little nervous myself in the beginning. At one point, she kicked out in frustration, but I shut that down quickly with a hard circle and stern words to her. It's tough when you don't know what they are going to do, and you are that high up! But, one thing I'm usually pretty good at is stifling the nerves so that the horse doesn't feel them. Once her initial anxiety dissipated, anytime she relaxed or sighed or licked and chewed, I would reach out and pat her, even if just briefly, and tell her "good girl!". It really helped her to understand the right thing vs the wrong thing to do.
We ended up walking back and forth in front of the trailer a lot, until she seemed a bit more relaxed. I would have definitely preferred that she was more relaxed than she was, but I decided that she was better, so I ended on that. I hopped off when she made three passes where she was more relaxed than she had been in the beginning.
Afterwards, I held her while Natalie hosed her off. She hesitated a bit when we approached the wash pit, since it looks different than ours at home, but only for a moment. She was fidgety with the water at first, but quickly settled about that too.
She was MUCH quieter when I tied her to the trailer to put her shipping boots back on. I think she was very tired, but also fairly satisfied with herself and her successful outing!
We had another venture to the Horse Park today for another schooling day, and it went much better!
I decided to just start with simple lunging today. Last time, I had tacked her up, in hopes that I would be able to get on her. This time, I just pulled her off the trailer, put on her splint boots, added a chain to her halter (just in case), and went off to lunge.
She was sooooo much better!
She talked a little bit, and looked around a little bit, but relaxed fairly quickly. All I did was 2 minutes of walk and 5 minutes of trot in each direction, and she was putting her head down and licking and chewing within a minute or two of the work.
So, I decided to saddle up and go from there. She was a bit fidgety tied to the trailer, but nothing bad, just looking around and moving a lot.
Once I got her tacked up and I hopped on, we just meandered around the trailer parking area.
Pippa had come along today to school cross country, and as soon as she saw Gia walk away from the trailer, she started hollering, and then Gia hollered back ... and that went on for the majority of my ride.
The beginning was quite tense. I had to do a LOT of circles when I lost her attention, or she hollered. She was mostly nervous about leaving Pippa, but also about the trucks and trailers that were coming and going, the golf carts, other horses she saw, etc. I will admit that I was a little nervous myself in the beginning. At one point, she kicked out in frustration, but I shut that down quickly with a hard circle and stern words to her. It's tough when you don't know what they are going to do, and you are that high up! But, one thing I'm usually pretty good at is stifling the nerves so that the horse doesn't feel them. Once her initial anxiety dissipated, anytime she relaxed or sighed or licked and chewed, I would reach out and pat her, even if just briefly, and tell her "good girl!". It really helped her to understand the right thing vs the wrong thing to do.
We ended up walking back and forth in front of the trailer a lot, until she seemed a bit more relaxed. I would have definitely preferred that she was more relaxed than she was, but I decided that she was better, so I ended on that. I hopped off when she made three passes where she was more relaxed than she had been in the beginning.
Afterwards, I held her while Natalie hosed her off. She hesitated a bit when we approached the wash pit, since it looks different than ours at home, but only for a moment. She was fidgety with the water at first, but quickly settled about that too.
She was MUCH quieter when I tied her to the trailer to put her shipping boots back on. I think she was very tired, but also fairly satisfied with herself and her successful outing!
Comments
Post a Comment