All The Kings' Horses

 I started Gia on the lunge line in the field today.  She was quite lazy at the trot, but was very good and energetic over the jumps, including the bank and ditch.  I gave her a treat after most of the jumps, especially the harder ones. Under saddle, we warmed up with a bit of trot work around the fields.  She was a tiny bit excited, and thought about a tiny bit of bucking or kicking out.  I had her do a lot of circles, changes of direction, bending and leg yields.  She settled down pretty quickly, and then we were able to work over the jumps. We played over most of the small, and some of the medium jumps in the field, some stadium and some cross country.  She was very confident with both the up and down banks, and even did the medium sized one in addition to the small one!  She did fairly well, with maybe a slight hesitation, over the ditch.   The hardest part for her today was actually the jumps in the closer field.  I've been working so much in the farther field because that was

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with some in-hand work that we learned last time.  Basically, I'm just asking her to flex to one side or the other, and she has to learn to yield.  It was difficult for her at first, and she kept wanting to turn her body, so we moved her to stand alongside the rail to help block her from turning away.  That definitely helped!  Then she tried backing up when I asked her to flex, so I had to send her forward.  There were moments of piaffe, aka tension, but eventually, she figured it out and was walking around the ring and maintaining a flexion.  We even tried a few steps of shoulder-in in-hand. Under saddle, Suzin had us run through a variety of exercises at walk and trot - serpentine, shoulder-in, leg yield, circles, stretching, and even some lengthenings.  Gia's lengthenings today were the best she's ever given me!  She easily and obediently reached out and lengthened her stride, and even did a few steps of

 I took Gia down to CDP today for a lesson with Charlie.  Based on her last adventure off the property, I decided to start taking her down there each time in my larger trailer.  She had a bit of a fit about her hind shipping boots - she was kicking out a lot.  Once I got her through that, I loaded her on the trailer.  She was definitely agitated about getting on it, and started to throw a bit of a fit once I got her on.  Once we got on the road, she quieted down for the entire trip.  She was also still quiet when I got to CDP, and continued to stand on the trailer quietly. Once it was her turn, I lunged her in the rope halter for a bit to help her relax and focus.  She was actually  good and quiet on the lunge line.  When I hopped on, she was a bit tense, and I could feel her thinking about kicking out when I would ask her to move off my leg, especially for bending and leg yields.  It didn't take too long for her to get through that part of things, and then she was working around t

 My neighbors were getting some trees cut down today, which involved a wood chipper, and a crane carrying tree tops way up in the air.  Needless to say, I didn't think it would be a good day to ride a young, nervous type horse, like Gia.  So, I decided to work on some ground work with her. Since the guys were working on stuff near the arena, I turned her loose in the arena to do the ground work with her.  She actually didn't seem too bothered by what was going on (although that could have been a different story if I had been on her back).  She wasn't worried, but she did not want to venture to the other end of the arena where the work was going on.   I revisited the natural horsemanship work that I have done with her many times in the past.  Whenever she was distracted or not paying attention to me, I got her attention by moving my body in the opposite direction of her focus, or moving my whip to get her attention.  As soon as her attention was on me, I stopped, even if it

 I took Gia out into the field to, hopefully, jump under saddle.  She was pretty good on Tuesday, and she was pretty quiet when Danielle was getting her ready this morning, so I thought we had a good chance of a positive ride in the field.  I did bring the lunge line and rope halter out with me, just in case though. It turns out, she was super! We warmed up walking around and checking stuff out.  There was one new jump that we hadn't explored yet, so she was a bit nervous about that, but she did work her way up to it and touch it.  At the trot, we explored around the field some more.  She was hardly ever quick or tense. Then we started playing over a few of the jumps.  It was the most relaxed I have felt her over jumps in the field yet!  She trotted over a little crossrail, landed at the canter, and cantered, very softly, to the next crossrail, which she took in a very good stride!  We proceeded to play over several other jumps throughout the field, including the bank up and down,

 Gia and I had more of a mental lesson than a physical lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with a nice stretch at the walk, and then I picked her up to a working frame and some trot work.  We started working on changes of bend and direction, circles, figures, serpentines, etc.  Gia was a bit crooked, so Suzin had me work on feeling the lighter rein and pushing Gia into it.  That was going ok, except Gia was against my hand alot.  So, we stopped and worked on softening her to the left and right until she stopped pushing up against me when I asked.  We worked on that at the halt at first, then the walk when she got the hang of it, then finally, the trot.  I also had to work on remembering to give whenever she was correct, even if it was only for a second.  Finally, I had to remember to not let the trot get too slow.  I tend to do a lot of her work in sitting trot, because I feel I can be more effective at some things.  However, Suzin pointed out that posting the trot can help her go

 I took Gia out in the field today to lunge her on the flat, and if she did well, over jumps. She was super quiet on the flat, so I put her over a few of the easier jumps first, the log, the barrels, the stumps, and the brick wall. After each jump, I made sure to give her a treat as incentive. Then I decided to tackle the tougher jumps - the bank and ditch.  She did really well up and down the bank, and even seemed a little eager about it.  To the ditch, she was a little uncertain, but she didn't stop, she just walked it the first couple of times.  Once she felt more confident, with the help of the treats, she trotted it, and even cantered it a few times. Then, she seemed super eager, and even excited about these two jumps, so I tried a little combo with her.  We ended up going down one side of the bank, then up the other, then over the ditch.  Then we did it in reverse.  It was a little messy, but she was excited about, so that's the really important part.  

 The fields were nice and dry today, so I opted to take Gia out there for her session today.  I lunged her in the rope halter throughout two of the main fields that we ride in.  She was actually very relaxed and obedient today, so after just a short time, we tacked her up to ride. Under saddle, she was a little more distracted, but not too bad.  I basically worked all over both fields, doing lots of circles and changes of direction, and leg yields.  I also encouraged her to stretch, and, when she was straight and relaxed, I encouraged more trot.  I kept her just to walk and trot work today.  Horses were a little crazy today - it was cooler, windier, the mares are all in heat, and several of them were running around and hollering.  I decided to keep everything as easy as possible and not push my luck today! ☺

I took Gia to the show I was at with Butch yesterday, and Charlie helped me work with her.  He lunged her for about 20 minutes in the morning before my classes started.  Of course, she was a perfect angel for him.  Although, I do have two theories about that.  One - I only brought her with me, not any of her other friends from the barn (she doesn't really remember Butch, and he didn't travel in the trailer with her, so he doesn't count).  Two - I hauled her in my smaller trailer.  Most of the time, when I take her to shows, I am also taking several other horses, so I use my bigger trailer.  She doesn't ride in that one as often, so I don't think she's very comfortable in it, or she might associate it with stressful show grounds.  I will probably start hauling her each week to Charlie's in my big trailer.  As ridiculous as we might look with one horse in a six horse trailer, maybe it will help get her more comfortable. Later, after my rides on Butch, Charlie

 Gia had a different sort of session today.  I recently held a clinic on ground work and natural horsemanship work that several of my students attended.  Three of them, who usually ride on Friday evenings, had asked if they could do an extra lesson on the same stuff, but with a little more focus, and they specifically wanted to do it with Gia. Gia can be a bit of a handful with others.  She is a typical teenager, and thinks that the world revolves around her, and that anytime someone comes out into the field, they must be coming to see her!  So, she gets in their space, and when they ask her to go away, she gets very offended, and behaves, well, like a giant teenager throwing a tantrum. In their lesson today, they worked with Gia on how to make her go away when she exhibited inappropriate behavior, but also how to relax and welcome her back when she exhibited correct behavior. Gia LOVES this type of work, so she was very excited to help teach the lesson tonight!  She did get quite tire

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin today.  It was definitely not her best. Gia was extremely distracted by her "boyfriend" Boomer, by the girls running in the field next to her, by any horses coming in or out.  It was no busier today than any other day, but her hormones were definitely raging.  We had several times throughout our ride where I was struggling just to get her to go forward, and there were even some mini airs-above-the-ground.  I did manage to work her through it, however, it was a bit disappointing and frustrating that we had to spend/waste so much time and energy on her tiny attention span today. We did a lot of work with the various figures to get her more supple and stretchy.  She really liked the stretchy trot today, probably because her back is a bit tight right now.  We did some transition work, but we did not work on the canter or rein-back at all.   Towards the end, when she was a little better, we did a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches.  She was very

 Gia had a much needed appointment with Cameron today.  She was a bit tight over her lower back, and when I mentioned how she has been in a very strong heat lately, Cameron said that was very likely the reason for her sore back.  He did say that she was moving very symmetrically, so our work with the Theraband pads has definitely been paying off.  He recommended continuing with her massages, as well as making sure to add belly lifts to her set of stretches.  He wants her to hold the belly lifts for 30 seconds, if possible.  We also talked about the different supplements I have tried with her to help stabilize her hormones.  He has not had much success with all the supplements that are out there, and highly recommended that we start her on Altrenogist injections.  Altrenogist is the active ingredient in a very commonly used medication called Regu-mate.  It has a variety of uses for mares, and even stallions.  For Gia, it should help to regulate her hormones more effectively than just in

 Gia was quite distracted when I first got on this morning.  She's definitely in a strong heat, and there were horses running around in the fields, and it was also a little windy.  I used a lot of circles and changes of direction to help her focus on me better.  Eventually, she relaxed a little and focused better, and I was able to get a decent stretch out of her. We worked on walk/halt transitions next.  She was fairly good with the down transition, but sluggish with the up transition, so I had to use the whip to get her a little more prompt to my leg cue.  Then she started to get a little tense, and a little jiggy at the halt.  So, I had to go back and work on relaxation.  We had to go back and forth a bit until she could stay relaxed at the halt, but prompt to the walk.  I also worked on getting her a little softer during the transitions. We repeated the same exercise with the trot.  Those transitions were pretty good. Then we worked on the walk to canter transition.  That was m

 I took Gia to the Sharon Oaks show today to hang out and school a bit. She was an absolute brat for the most part! She had to stand on the trailer for a while before it was her turn, but no longer than she usually does.  She was throwing quite a tantrum on the trailer, almost the whole time - pawing, piaffing, kicking out, hollering.   When it was finally her turn, I pulled her off, put on a rope halter and lunge line, and went right to work lunging her.  It took a while before she was paying more attention to me than her surroundings, and it took a while for her to relax.  I didn't quite get her as good as I would have liked before I had to help my next student, but sometimes that's the way it goes. I took her down to hang out at the side of the show ring.  She did a bit of hollering and moving around, but not too bad.  Eventually, she did quiet down and stand still. Definitely not her best day.  Maybe next time ...

 The bad news - Gia lost one of her back shoes this morning, so I wasn't able to ride her. The good news - I haven't had a lot of time set aside to pull Gia's extremely thick mane on her extremely long neck, so I've been doing it just a little at a time.  Today I was able to get it all done!  Finally, she doesn't look half kempt!

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We warmed up with stretching at the walk, and then moved on to trot work - circles, leg yields, changes of direction.  She seemed a bit crooked today, in all directions, and a bit twisted.  I used a lot of lateral work to help get her straighter, and it definitely helped. Then we started working on a lot of transitions.  Walk to halt to walk, trot to halt to trot, trot to halt to rein back to trot, etc.  There were a few times when Gia started to rein back before Suzin came up to help her, but most of the time, she still needed Suzin tapping her on the chest to understand the rein back cues.   Then we started adding canter in to the transition work.  She actually gave me a lot of good walk to canter transitions, and even a couple from the halt.  However, her canter was a bit wild today.  She did a lot of bucking and kicking out at the canter.  Luckily, her bucking isn't that hard to ride, so I stuck it out and pushed her through. 

 Gia and I had a lesson with Charlie at CDP today.  We started out with some lunging in the rope halter to get her more focused and obedient. In the arena, we worked on a lot of circles and leg yielding at the walk and trot.  When she was paying more attention to me and less attention to outside distractions, we went over a few small jumps.  Anytime she cantered after the jumps, we worked on the canter - leg yields, and getting her nose up and out.  She was fairly quiet and well focused on what we were doing today!

 I warmed Gia up with stretching down at the walk today.  I focused on keeping her body straight as she stretched.  When I brought her up to prepare for the trot transition, she felt a bit tight, so I did a little bit of leg yielding and circles until she was softer.  Then we worked on walk to trot transitions until she was softer and more obedient and prompt. Once at the trot, we worked on suppling exercises, such as circles, leg yields and changes of direction.  She got a little distracted at one point when a few horses were running around.  I put her into a few leg yields, and quickly got her attention back on me. We focused a lot of our work today on trot - halt - trot transitions.  She was slow to respond to the down transition at first, but that got better with time, especially when she started to anticipate it.  Once at the halt, I asked her to soften before asking for the trot again.  She was fairly good with everything tracking left, but things were more difficult tracking rig

 Gia was a bit sassy when Danielle went out to catch her today.  So, with that in mind, as well as the drastic drop in temperatures and the blustery winds, I decided to work on some ground work with Gia today.  As Charlie reminded me on Tuesday, I don't want to get on her if she's not making good decisions! So, I worked with her loose in the round pen.  She, as expected, started out quite fresh, running around with a VERY suspenseful trot, and with her tail straight up in the air.  I kept her moving and working, changing direction often, until she started to relax, lower her head, lick and chew, and look a bit more humble.   Whenever, she would start to act more humble, I would relax my stance, and allow her to have a break.  But, as soon as she, got uppity again, I would put her back to work.  I've done this work with Gia many times in the past, so she knows what the expectations are.  Finally, she relaxed, lowered  her head, licked and chewed, and stayed humble.   I broug