Gia - 223 and 224

 I'm a little behind in my blog posts, so we are doing a two-fer today!

On Tuesday, I rode Gia at CDP with Hayley in a jump lesson.  Things went much better than last time.  I'm honestly struggling to remember specifics, other than we did several individual jumps and then put them together in a course.  Gia didn't stop at anything, and she had some lovely moments at the canter as well.  Hayley took a couple of videos, so hopefully, I will have those to add to my post soon! 

Throughout the ride, Gia had been spooking slightly at the gazebo and at a jump filler that was laying off on the side.  After her lesson, I took her to each of those and had her "hang out" for a while so she could relax about it.  It didn't take too long with the jump filler, but it did take a while at the gazebo.  I think she may have been more concerned about the person sitting in the car near the gazebo, but it was a little hard to tell.


On Wednesday we had a dressage lesson with Suzin.  Suzin seemed quite impressed with our work!  I'm again struggling to remember all the specifics (which is why I really shouldn't put off my writing!).  On that note, I always recommend to my students that they keep a journal, or make some notes, after each ride.  I always stress to them the importance of doing it right away (after they have taken care of their horse first, of course!).  Now we know why ... ☺

I do remember that we did a lot of work on transitions, as well as making better quality 10 meter circles (I was making ovals not circles).  I also remember that we worked on asking Gia to lengthen her trot some, and to my great surprise, she actually did!  I didn't expect her to react appropriately to my aids yet since it was something new, but she figured it out pretty quickly!

I do remember that Suzin stressed to me about keeping my knees down and my toes up, and to work on keeping my lower leg from slipping backwards.  It's a bad habit I have, so it will take time to remedy, but being aware of the problem is the first step.  Also, on that note, do any of you (around my age) remember GI Joe?  "Knowing is half the battle!" is a quote I use a lot in my teaching! ☺

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