All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin today.  We warmed up with a lot of stretching, circles, changes of direction and walk/trot transitions. Suzin really had us dig in and work on a lot of transitions today.  One focus was on transitions between trot to walk to halt to rein back to trot.  Sometimes we left out the walk steps in the down transition.  Suzin helped us with the rein back from the ground, but Gia was starting to get the idea and thought about taking a few steps backwards when I didn't ask.  Since they were steps I didn't ask for, I would immediately send her forward, and then come back to the halt to try again. We also focused on trot to canter, and then walk to canter transitions.  It was very challenging for Gia to go directly into the canter without any trot steps, but she did have a few good moments, and she's definitely starting to get the idea of what I want.  I also asked her to come back to the walk without any trot steps, but that was difficult as well.  

 Charlie wanted to see how Gia was doing with her lunging work, so he started out with her in the rope halter on the lunge line today.  After about 10 minutes, he said that she was much better than the last time he had worked with her.  ☺ After I saddled her up and hopped on, he had us work on a circle, very simply, bending to the inside and leg yielding out, all while making sure to keep her neck long.  She felt a little funny in the beginning.  Not like she was lame, but rather like she was about to be naughty, just not the way she typically feels when she is going to be naughty.  I'm not really sure why, either.  It's possible that flies were bothering her.  It's been a while since she has had flies bothering her, and I didn't flyspray her today, but her reaction seemed like overkill.  She didn't actually do anything more than pick up her hind end a little bit and swish her tail, but I could definitely feel something coming if I wasn't keeping her busy.  Luck

 I started Gia out with some stretching down at the walk, and then moved on to work on walk/trot transitions, as well as circles, changes of direction, and leg yields at the trot.  She was a little stiffer than usual today, and a bit more distracted in the beginning. Once she was warmed up, we played around with the things that she has been learning.  Based on how she felt at the time, I would ask her for shoulder-in, leg yield, lengthenings, half halts, and haunches-in.  Now that she is pretty familiar with the moves, I can start to apply them as needed as we work around the arena.   We also spent some time working on haunches-in to canter transitions.  She gave me a really nice one to the left, but it was a bit more difficult for her to the right.  After coming out of the canter, I would also ask her for a trot lengthening, especially if she wanted to come all the way down to walk right away.  She was very responsive to the lengthenings, but she did try to go back up into canter a fe

 I warmed Gia up with some stretching and some work on keeping her straight in her body, at the walk and trot.  I used leg yields and bending whenever she was against one side or the other.  She was fairly equal in her tension, but maybe slightly more against my right hand than my left.  I also focused on keeping her ears more level so that her nose was not twisting one way or the other.   Once we started jumping, I continued to focus on the straightness in Gia's body.  She went nicely over the first, small crossrail, but then drifted to the right before the next vertical.  We worked on maintaining the straightness between the two jumps, and she got a lot better!  She also kept a really good tempo today, and only got too quick a few times. Gradually, I added some of the other jumps, continuing to focus on the straightness.  If she cantered off, then I would insist that she stay straight at the canter as well.  There were several jumps, with a variety of filler, but she never seemed

 Gia and I had a lovely dressage lesson with Suzin today.  After warming up with stretching, bending, circles, and leg yields at the walk and trot, we started more lateral work.  The shoulder-in was fairly easy today, so we focused on haunches-in, and also added a little turn-on-the-haunches.  Those were definitely challenging for Gia.  I had to remind her to keep the correct bend often, using the leg yield to help her out.  She did manage to give me several decent steps in each direction.   Suzin also had us start with halt to rein back to trot transitions today.  The halt was fairly good, but I did have to remind Gia to stay soft.  In the rein back, I have to close my hands, so she won't go forward, but then close my legs, which tells her to move her feet.  At the same time, Suzin helped Gia to understand what was being asked by tapping her on the chest until she backed up a few steps.  As soon as she did, I would open my hands, apply my leg and seat bones and ask for trot.  She

 It's been a couple of weeks, but Gia and I finally got back out to CDP today for a lesson with Hayley. I warmed up with some stretching, leg yielding and circles at the walk and trot.  She was a little looky, but not too bad. There was a jump set up near the dreaded gazebo that Hayley had us start with.  It was a tiny jump, but I knew it would be difficult since it was close to the gazebo, oh, and there were dogs and part of a roll top right next to it to ...  But by keeping my eye on the jump, using an opening rein, keeping her feet moving, and waving the whip a little near her face on the opposite side, we were able to get over it several times.  The first few times were definitely a mess, but once she realized that nothing was going to kill her, she went over it rather nicely. Then we proceeded to work over a small course.  Our main focus was to keep a regular tempo before the jump (not get too fast), and for me to get a little left behind over the jump so that Gia had to work

 Gia and I worked on some of our dressage stuff today.  We did a little bit of stretching at the walk, then we moved into the trot.  It took a few tries to get a nice walk/trot transition.  Each time she inverted when attempting to go into the trot, I brought her back to walk, did a little flexion and leg yield, and tried again. Then we worked a bit on stretching, leg yielding, flexing, circles and changes of direction at the trot.  She was a little distracted by the other horses today, so it took a little longer to get her supple and focused.  Once she was focused, we did a couple of shoulders-in at the walk and trot down the rail.  Those definitely seemed easier for her today. I also asked her for quite a lot of haunches-in at the trot, in preparation for the canter.  She did really well with it to the left.  To the right, she was a bit tense, and kept trying to canter before I actually asked her to.  She did feel really nice and collected, but since I didn't ask for it, it didn&

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with a nice stretch at the walk, then some circles and changes of direction to loosen her up at the walk and trot. The meat of our work today involved a lot of shoulder-in and haunches-in.  The shoulder-in work was fairly easy for Gia today, and at times she even did too much and ended up on four tracks instead of three. The haunches-in was definitely more difficult, especially tracking left.  We mainly stayed at the walk for this work, but we did get a few steps at the trot.  When tracking right, it was much easier for her to keep the bend to the inside when I asked her to move her haunches in, but to the left, she kept losing the bend.  I had to forget about trying to keep her correctly bent, and just get her to react to my outside leg asking for the haunches to go in.  I did manage to get a couple of steps where she was more correctly bent, by the end.

 Today is probably our last dry day here for a while, so I took Gia back out into the field for some more lunging and flatwork. I started by lunging her in the rope halter out in the main jump field.  She was a bit tense and quick at first.  We worked all over the field in both directions until she was more relaxed, and not trying to bolt or canter. Then I hopped on to work a bit under saddle.  I started with a lot of circles and leg yielding at the walk.  She was fairly relaxed, but did look around a bit.  I repeated the same work at the trot until she was working all around the field without much of a reaction. Next, I had her work a bit on haunches-in, in preparation for the canter.  She was a little tense and a little pissy at first, but she did relax.  Once relaxed, I asked for a little canter.  She only thought about bolting/bucking once, and she didn't really do anything, I could just feel her thinking about it.  I did a little canter work in each direction.  If she got quic

 I took Gia back out in the field again today to play over the jumps on the lunge line and under saddle. We started by lunging on the flat, where the "scary" hollow is in the field.  She was still a little hesitant, but she did go over it more willingly today.  Then we proceeded to lunge over the steps (easy), the flat tires (a little challenging, but not as bad as Tuesday), the log (easy), the round tires (easy), the white and red barrels (slightly challenging, but not too bad for her first time), and the up and down bank (easy).  After each successful jump, Gia received a tiny treat for incentive.  That definitely helped to motivate her!  I also lunged her over a few of the stadium jumps with interesting fillers - the barrel, the green rolltop, and the black boxes.  Those were a little more challenging, mostly because the standards are too high for me to simply lunge her over them.  I had to step out in front of the jump and call her/coax her to jump towards me.  She was pa

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  After warming up with some stretching at the walk, we did a few trot transitions, and then worked on figures at the trot to improve her flexibility. Once we were warmed up, Suzin had us start with a bunch of lateral work.  I did a lot of leg yields to help set Gia up for the various exercises.  We did some shoulder-fore/shoulder-in work, and it felt a lot easier for Gia today, and she was more responsive with a much more successful reaction.  We also started some work on turn-on-the-haunches, and, eventually, haunches-in.  We tried it on a circle, but Gia ended up being more successful with it on the rail.  It was difficult for her, so she took it slow, but she did give me some good steps at the walk, and several good attempts at the trot. A few times she also gave me some passage steps that I didn't ask for.  She is most likely giving me these unwanted steps when I get too tense, and try to hard to get whatever other movement I a

 Since Gia was a bit tense in the field yesterday, I decided to lunge her in the field today in the rope halter.  She started out tense, but settled down fairly quickly, so I decided to lunge her over a few of the jumps.  The first one went really well, but then she balked at the next one - a set of tires.  It took several tries to get her to go over the jump.  Each time she stopped, she would try to back up and dart to the side.  My main goal was to make sure she always went forward, even if it meant she didn't go over the jump.  I want her to know that forward is the only correct answer.  When she would finally go forward, we would attempt the jump again.  Once she finally went over it, I praised her and had her do it a few more times until she was more confident about it.   The next jump we tried, a log jump, was pretty good.  She was hesitant, but did go over it.  I put her over that one a few more times for the confidence.  The next jump was the ditch.  She's been over it

 For those of you that don't live near me, we have been getting a ridiculous amount of rain this winter, so I haven't been able to get out to ride in my fields for quite a while.  Things are finally starting to dry out a bit, so Gia and I ventured out into the fields for our dressage ride today. She did very well remembering how to stand while I opened the gate.  Once out in the field, however, she was quite tense, and it took her quite a while to relax.  I did a lot of circles whenever I felt her get distracted or quick.  I did manage to get her to stretch fairly well at the walk. At the trot, it was much of the same - lots of circles when she would get quick or distracted.  It took her a while to relax, but she eventually did get to the point where she was much calmer and more focused. She was doing pretty good, so I decided to attempt some canter work.  The last time we tried to canter in the field, she was very dramatic, and kept wanting to bolt and buck.  I was hoping that

 Gia felt a little excited this morning.  Possibly because it was a little cooler and breezier than it has been, but she was also carrying her tail a little higher than usual, so she could have been in heat. We started with stretching at the walk, which was pretty good.  We also worked on medium walk to free walk and back again. When I picked her up to the trot, she felt a bit tense and stiff.  I did a lot of circles and figures to help her loosen up.  I also circled whenever she got too quick. When we started jumping, I kept the jumps fairly low for her today so that we could work on not rushing before or after the jumps.  She definitely started out too quick, and every time I felt her speed up, I would do a circle.  Sometimes, this was before the jump, but most of the time it was after the jump.  As soon as she would take a jump without rushing, I praised her and let her take a walk break.  She did have several good jumps, and she was even able to put two jumps together without rushi

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  After warming up with a good stretch at the walk, we picked up our trot though a pretty decent transition.  We worked a bit on lots of figures, bending and flexing, to loosen her up.  She was really responsive to all my aids.   Then Suzin had us work on walk/halt transitions on the rail.  I had to keep Gia flexed during both the up and down transitions, and work on being as soft as possible.  I also had to work on stopping the motion with my body rather than my hands for the down transition, and using a very correct leg cue for the up transition.  Gia struggled a little with it at first, but quickly got the idea.  Also, anytime she took even a hint of a step backwards, or was too wiggly, I had to move her forward right into a walk and then try the halt again in a few steps. We repeated all the same stuff with walk/trot transitions on the rail.  Once those were good, we moved to a serpentine, using the whole width of the arena, and pla

 I wasn't able to go down to CDP today with Gia, so we stayed home and worked on some flatwork.  Tuesday is usually a jumping day for Gia, but since I was out of town at a competition, and she hadn't worked since last Wednesday, I decided to keep things a little easy today. We started out with a lot of stretching at the walk, and then worked on her free walk to medium walk transitions.  She did those a lot better today.  Then I did a little bit of shoulder-in work to prep for the transitions to the trot.  She has done a lot of shoulder-in work lately, and it's not very easy.  She got a bit tense when I asked her for it today, and ended up giving me a couple of piaffe steps right from the walk.  Because I didn't ask for the piaffe, I immediately pushed her up into a trot to get her out of it.  We came back to the walk a few steps later and I asked for shoulder-in again.  She was more responsive that time, so we moved quietly into a nice trot transition. At the trot, we w