Gia - session 201 - more of the same flatwork, and pole exercise #1, part 1

 Gia seemed more excited to get to work today.  She was still a little grumpy, in the beginning, when I asked her to go forward into the trot, but that all seemed to fade away by the end of our session.

I mainly focused on keeping her straight between my aids today, regardless of what gait she was at.  I did keep her to the walk for the first 10 minutes to warm up though.  Once we picked up the trot, she was very eager to canter.  We did quite a bit of cantering (all offered up by Gia herself), and she got all her leads correct, except, I think, one.  Once she was straight, she gave me some very nice trot and canter moments!

I did several halt transitions throughout our ride, on our walk breaks.  Those were about the same today, maybe a little bit more prompt, but still not as prompt as I would like.

We finished our ride, by demonstrating one of the exercises that many of my students work on often.  (If you've been an avid follower of my blog, you may remember that Gia worked on this exercise a while back, before she started jumping).  For my students who are interested in jumping, but have little to no experience, or if it's been a while, I will typically have them go through a series of pole exercises.  Once they have completed all nine exercises, they are usually ready to tackle small crossrails.  I often find it helpful for a person to see what they are trying to accomplish.  So, since Gia's current work is pretty monotonous right now, I thought I would take this opportunity to video all nine pole exercises for folks to be able to see.  I decided to break up pole exercise #1 into two parts, so you can see the video of part one today, and I will follow it up with part two, probably next Monday.

In pole exercise #1, I set up two poles, parallel to each other, about six feet apart, and in the center of the arena.  The rider starts out on the rail, and then comes across the arena, through the poles, changing direction on the other side.  This is repeated in a figure 8 pattern.  I stress to my students to stay close to the rail as they make their way around.  For the turn across the ring, I try to get them to turn as late as possible, without being too late (although turning too late is better than too early).  The goal is to be as straight and centered for as long as possible across the arena.  Most horses will want to turn early in one direction, but late in the other, and it is up to the rider to identify, and then correct this appropriately, so that both turns appear the same.  As the rider comes across the arena, they must keep their horse straight and centered between the poles, and for as long as possible after the poles.  Straightness is usually accomplished, at this level, by using a leading or opening rein (pulling the rein way out to the side, rather than straight back).  You can also use the opposite leg to help push your horse to be straighter.  When the rider is approaching the opposite side of the arena, they must continue to keep the horse straight for as long as possible.  Again, most horses will try to turn early in one direction, and it is the rider's responsibility not to let them turn early.  This is still accomplished by using a leading or opening rein.  This exercise is repeated at both the walk and trot, but today I only demonstrated it at the walk.  I also ask riders to add a halt transition in the middle of the poles (hopefully, straight and centered), and then walk on, all the while keeping their horse straight and centered.

In my video with Gia today, you can definitely see a lot of leading rein being used.  There is also a moment where she turns a little late and drifts to the outside.  Remember, later is better than earlier, so this is not a big deal.  Stay tuned for the next part where I demonstrate this exercise at the trot!