All The Kings' Horses

 Gia's leg was still slightly swollen this morning, but it did look to be a little better.  I continued with the walk work we had been doing.  Once I had gotten a good stretch at the walk, I brought her up to a medium walk.  Once that was established, I went back and forth a few times between free walk and medium walk, making sure each gait was solid before moving on.  The work paid off, and we finished with a nice square halt! Since Gia's swelling was not going down as quickly as I would have liked, I decided to have the vet out to check it.  He agreed with my assessment that it was just a small cut.  He also agreed to keep her walking and keep up the ice therapy, furacin ointment and bute.  He did add an oral antibiotic (SMZ's for short), and a topical wound ointment (SSD for short).  He expects her to be back to normal within a few days.

 Gia's leg was still swollen today, maybe even a little more so.  She seemed a little stiff on it, but lunged at the trot ok.  I decided to do another walk session with her, but out of laziness, decided to go bareback.  She's got quite a set of withers on her, so it was not terribly comfortable, but I managed.  Sometimes young horses will be over-reactive when a person rides without a saddle, but Gia could have cared less.   We worked on stretching at the walk, as well as the medium walk.  I focused on getting a good march out of her since she is typically a bit lazy at the walk.  Plus, I was hoping that the motion would help loosen up the swelling.  I was able to get some really nice moments at the walk today!   In a horse's life, there are always times when you are forced to slow down and work only at the walk, or only on ground work.  These can be frustrating moments, especially if you felt like you were really getting somewhere in your last ride or two.  However, I like

 I noticed that Gia had a slightly swollen area on the outside of her hock due to a very tiny scrape she incurred.  Even though it was a tiny scrape, some horses are more sensitive than others and "blow up" with some swelling around the wound.  I decided to do a nice long stretching walk with her, and if she felt off at the trot, we would just do more walk.  When a tiny wound like that is swollen, often, walking is a good way to help bring the swelling down.   I worked with her on flexing and yielding in both directions, and we ended up getting a really nice stretchy walk!  When I picked up the trot, I did feel a little inconsistency, so we just came back and walked and stretched a little more.  Afterwards, we put an ice wrap on her wound to also help reduce swelling.  Gia stayed nicely relaxed, both during our ride, and also while she stood with her ice wrap on.

Gia was nice and relaxed for our stretching walk warm up today.  I also did a little flexion work with her at the walk and trot.   Once we were warmed up, I started putting her towards the jumps.  I put the jumps a little small to begin with because I had a few new blocks that she was a little interested in/concerned about. She actually jumped over them with no problems, after I had let her check them out to see that they were non-threatening.  After a few times through, I had Danielle raise the jumps a bit.   The only issue I really had is that she often wanted to get too quick towards the jumps.  When she did, I would circle in front of the jump until she was quieter, and then I would let her go over it.  By the end, she was doing a nice little course!

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with a stretch down at the walk, and when we were warmed up, we moved on to the working trot. Suzin had us do a lot of figures around the arena at the trot to get Gia more even in both reins.  She was a little heavier in the right rein and a little lighter in the left rein.  We did a lot of leg yield, changes of direction, and circles.  Eventually, she was more symmetrical. We also worked on a little bit of shoulder-in at the trot, as well as some softening at the walk and trot.  I asked Gia to flex left and right, trying to get the movement to come mostly from the shoulder, until she was looser.  Once she was looser at the walk, I rode a few transitions.  They were much better than what we started with!   Next, I worked on loosening her up at the trot.  Once that was better, we did a little bit of canter.  I was able to get several nice transitions into and out of the canter.  It was harder for her to keep the canter f

The ground was slightly frozen again this morning, so Gia and I ventured out into the field again today.  Since it was our jumping day, I thought we would play around over a few of the jumps in the field when the ground thawed.   No chance to lunge again today, due to the hard ground, but Gia was more relaxed about being in the field since she had been out there yesterday.  While walking around to warm up, I did a lot of circles and leg yields to help her stay focused.  Since she was more focused today, I was able to really use the leg yields more for overall straightness.  Also at the walk, we went over a few of the smaller jumps, just to see how her attitude towards them would be.  It's been a while since we have been in the field and done anything with the jumps, but I believe she has walked over some of the smaller ones before.  She really didn't have any trouble with most of them.  She was a little spooked by a soft spot in the field, which was slightly a different color a

 The arena was a bit frozen this morning (I hate winter, btw), so I opted to take Gia out in the field for a walk.  I did want to lunge her, assuming she would be a little more excited to go in the field, but the ground was too hard for that, so I went without. It's been a while since we went out in the field because we've had too much rain, but Gia remembered how to stand and let me open the gate, for the most part.  She did try to back up a little, but with gentle reminders, she stood quieter. Once out in the field, we did a lot of circles, and leg yields, and changes of direction at the walk.  As the ground softened up, I added trot as well.  She was definitely distracted (even though it's the field that she lives in), but the circles and leg yields helped to keep her busy and focused on her job.   She got a little excited when she saw Dylan coming out to the field to ask me something.  She thought about bolting towards him, but a quick circle fixed that.  She also tende

 I took Gia to the Carolina Horse Park to hang out while the rest of us competed at our first show of the year. When I take her to CDP every Tuesday, she gets to hang out in a stall while I ride Butch, and then I ride her.  She always seems to enjoy her lounge time while she waits her turn, so I thought it might help her to have a stall to hang out in at a show too.  So, I got her a stall for the show yesterday.  She will have to get used to hanging out in a stall anyway, for when she has to compete at bigger shows one day, hopefully! She was a little nervous and confused at first.  We pulled her off the trailer, took her away from her friends and stuck her, by herself, in a strange stall in a strange place.  She did have some shavings to relax in, and a big bag of hay to munch on.  I also gave her a tube of Total Calm and Focus to help with her nerves.  Most horses holler a lot when they first go in a stall at a show, especially the young ones, and especially if it's their first t

 Gia started out very relaxed, and even a little slow.  We worked a bit stretching down at the walk.  I have a dressage test to ride with Butch tomorrow, so I free-walked my dressage test on Gia today to practice the pattern. Once we picked up the trot, she got a bit tense.  I think she was anticipating either the canter or the lengthenings that we have been working on.  I did a lot of varying figures - small, medium and large circles, figure 8's, half circle reverses, etc.  I encouraged her to bend around my leg, and did a little bit of leg yield, haunches-in and shoulder-in.   When she was a little looser and more relaxed, I asked her for a little canter in each direction.  She was fairly prompt, although a little tense.  She did pick up the correct lead each way.  She didn't keep the canter for very long at first, but by the end, she was keeping it longer. We finished with a little more free walk, and, once again, she was very relaxed.

 The ground was quite frozen today, so I decided to use my time to catch up on Gia's grooming.  She is going to hang out at a show this weekend, so I clipped her up to make her look a little more presentable.  She was perfectly quiet for her legs and face and jaw.  I did have to pull out the grain in order to get her bridle path done.  I tried without at first, but she put her head straight up.  I was able to get it back down, but it would have been quite an argument to try without the grain.  With the grain, she was much better! She has also needed her mane pulled for a week or so, so I started on that.  It will take another couple of sessions to get her mane finished, but it's at least started.

 Gia and I travelled to CDP for a lesson today.  I lunged her in the jump ring, and she was fairly quiet.  It was a good opportunity for her to work around all the scary stuff without having me in the way. Under saddle, we worked on a lot of leg yield to keep her busy and prevent her being as distracted.  She was much more focused today!  We also worked over several small jumps.  She was quick and tense the first time over each, but quickly relaxed into her job.  She picked up the canter after most of the jumps.  It was awkward, not straight, and often on the wrong lead in the beginning.  She wasn't able to carry it for very long either.  But as she relaxed into her work, her canter improved.  She picked up the correct lead after the jump and stayed balanced for longer. Overall, quite a nice ride!

I did more of the same with Gia today. We started out with a very nice stretch at the walk, circling and riding figures all over the ring. When I picked up the trot, the transition wasn't that great, and she felt a little excited in her tempo.  I worked on getting her to relax into a better rhythm, and then stretch into my hands a little.  Then we worked on bending on circles until she felt a little looser in her neck and body.   Next, we worked on the shoulder-in work that we had been doing the other day.  I started with it at the walk, and when she was fairly responsive to my cues, I moved on to the trot.  After a step or two of shoulder-in, I circled her, then came back to the rail and asked for another step of shoulder-in.  We continued like that until she felt fairly responsive to my cue. After a short break, I went back to working on shoulder-in, but this time, when she gave it to me, I straightened her on the rail and asked for a lengthening.  The first couple in each direct

 No lunging today.  Gia warmed up with some stretching at the walk, and she was super relaxed!  After a trot warm up that included a little bit of lateral work, we started over fences. I set up a variety of fences around the ring - some crossrails, some verticals, some small, some tall.  We played around on those for a little bit.  She wanted to rush a little bit in the beginning, so I threw in a lot of circles before the jumps until she was quieter.  I also worked on getting her straighter before and after the jumps.   After a lot of the jumps (but not all), I would give her a treat.  I don't want her to expect a treat after every jump, because then she will start to stop after every jump, but I do still want to reward her efforts over the fences.   There were a couple that surprised her at first, especially the rather large X  I set up to help keep her straighter.  She was only surprised the first time though, and immediately on the next try, she knew what I wanted her to do.   W

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with a pretty good stretch at the walk.  She was a little tense for a few minutes, but then she relaxed and the walk really improved! Her trot transitions in the beginning were not very good.  We did a little work with leg yielding and stretching, and then they started to get better. Suzin had us do a lot of work towards shoulder-in.  We really only got one or two actual shoulder-in steps, but we got a lot of steps that were headed in the right direction.  After a step of "shoulder-in" we would go right into a circle.  Eventually, she had us stretch a little more as we went into the circle.  All of this culminated in some really nice working trot! Next, we worked on lengthenings.  When I would feel Gia give me a step of "shoulder-in", I would allow her to straighten and ask for more trot to get the lengthening.  She gave me one of the best ones yet! We also did a little work at the canter, from "

 I almost wasn't going to lunge Gia today at CDP, because she has been doing so well, but I'm glad I did.  She was quite full of herself today, spooking at one of the horses walking on the hot walker. SMH. Charlie worked with both of us on making sure she kept moving her feet, even when she was spooking, and on making sure that she only stopped when she was told to stop, and only moved when she was told to move.  It didn't take too long for her to realize that she wasn't going to get out of work just because there was something scary going on.   Once she relaxed and lowered her head and licked and chewed, I hopped on and rode for a little bit in the ring. Under saddle, she was a little looky at all the usual things, but it did not take as much effort to get her attention on me.  I lost her attention often, but got it back quickly.  The lunging is definitely helping with that.  In the past, I would lose her attention and focus on a much bigger scale, and it would take a

 Gia had a few days off due to the holidays, so I opted to lunge her first today.  She was actually fairly quiet, and wasn't even grumpy when I asked her to canter on the lunge. Under saddle, we started out with stretching down at the walk.  She offered really nice stretches both at the beginning and the end of our ride. At the trot, I mostly just played around with all the things we've been working on lately, just to see how "in tune" she was.  We did a little turn-on-the-forehand and turn-on-the-haunches at the walk and trot.  She was fairly responsive to those aids.  I asked for a bit of stretch at the trot, but she did not really offer anything good.   When I first asked her to canter, she was quite sassy, and threw her hind end in the air a few times.  I was able to get a decent transition once in each direction.  The canter itself was fairly good, she was just sassy at the transition. Today's ride was a good refresher for Gia, and it was nice to see that she