Gia - session 241 - jumping on my own at CDP

 I was on my own with Gia today at CDP.  I started out with a little bit of lunging in the dressage arena.  She was actually quite lazy.  She was also a lot more relaxed for our ride.  I have a theory on that.  More at the end.

Anyway, after a bit of trotting and cantering on the lunge, I hopped on and right away she started stretching down.  We did a little at the walk, stretching down and leg yielding, staying busy.  Then I asked her for the same at the trot.  We had to do a few transitions before she was prompt to my cue.  She didn't stretch down as well at the trot, but it wasn't bad.  

We worked all over the ring, going over poles and small jumps as they came up in our path.  She was quite lazy at first, and didn't really pick her feet up.  I put her over a little bit bigger jump, and then she started picking her feet up and landing at the canter.  

Whenever she landed at the canter, we played around with that.  I mainly focused on keeping her straight, but also keeping her head up and out.  She was a little excited on the first one, but on the successive canters, she was really relaxed, and maintained a nice canter for a while around the ring.  She had no trouble at all with her leads today!

So, back to my theory.  The last few times I have been out to CDP, I have left Gia in the trailer to munch on her hay while I rode Butch first.  Today, I took her off the trailer and let her hang out in one of their stalls while I rode Butch.  I've done that with her in the past, so it wasn't really anything new, but it's possible that she needs a little downtime, out of the trailer, before I get to work with her.  That won't always be a luxury that we will have, but I might look into getting her a stall when I take her to shows to give her some downtime off the trailer, and see if that helps her relax a bit more.  It's just a theory (which will definitely be tested at future outings), but with a horse you just never know.  And if this helps her out, it's definitely worth it!

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