Gia - session 173 - Starting back again

 I finally got to ride Gia again after about a week off!

She ended up developing a little bit of cellulitis in her left hind leg.  The cut that preceded it was tiny, but sometimes that all it takes.  I was able to get some antibiotics from the vet, and that cleared everything up very quickly.

Since she has been out of work, I decided to keep today's ride very easy.

We started with a lot of stretching down at the walk.  Then we moved on to some turn-on-the-forehand work at the walk.  Finally, we finished with some turn-on-the-forehand work at the trot, along with some walk/trot transitions.

She did pretty well with everything.  We pretty much picked up right where we left off.  When I first started asking for the lateral work at the trot though, she either got a little confused or excited, and burst into a brief canter.  I made sure to be more clear about keeping her slower when I asked her to move laterally after that.

After the ride, Danielle held her in the grass to eat while I clipped her hind legs.  It was very uneventful.  I had done the same thing on Monday with her front legs.  (I also pulled her mane on Monday).

We finished our session working on hosing her face.  I tried just holding her while spraying her off, but she is still insisting that she put her head up too high, so I had to give the hose over to Danielle while I worked with her on putting her head down.

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