Gia - session 328 - Dressage in my grass dressage arena!

 It's been very dry and dusty here, so I decided to try Gia in my grass dressage arena, where there is much less dust, and even a little shade!  It means leaving the comfort and safety of the main arena, and it's in one of the fields that Gia has never ridden in before, so I wasn't sure how she would handle it.

She was SUPER!

I mounted in the main ring (because it has the biggest mounting block), and then opened the main gate to exit, walked across the driveway (slightly scary), and opened the gate into the dressage arena field to enter the arena.  She was a little nervous leaving the main ring, and a little tense when we started walking the perimeter of the dressage arena, but she quickly relaxed and got to work.

The terrain is a little uneven out there, and a lot of horses lose their balance as they go around and down the slight hill.  I worked with Gia on keeping her balance at the walk and trot, as well as maintaining straightness in her body.  We did a lot of transitions, especially going into the corners, to help with her balance.  She was quite crooked today, not in any particular way, just not quite straight.  I kept picking away at the parts that weren't straight, and she got better by the end.  As she got straighter, that also helped her balance, especially in the corners. 

We also worked across the diagonal lines at the trot.  She wanted to let her trot get bigger across the diagonal, which is fine, but then it was hard to come back before the corners.  We did a lot of transitions to improve that aspect, and it was better by the end.

We have a little path through a small patch of woods that one of my barn helpers had been working on expanding for us.  I hadn't been back there in a while, so I decided to take Gia back there to check it out, and also to see how she would handle a short hack in the woods by herself.  (She's been back there with Danielle in hand, and possibly with me under saddle, but it's been a while).  She was fantastic for that as well!  She got a little nervous when she would hear a squirrel skitter away, but she barely flinched.  As we headed back in, we had to cut our way back to the beginning (the path isn't quite finished yet).  She did ok until she got to one spot (not sure why she wouldn't go forward).  She stopped suddenly and then tried to go forward a few times, but not successfully.  She probably felt something underfoot that didn't feel secure enough to her to step on.  The good news is that she didn't panic and try to turn and go the other way, she simply waited until I could find her another way around.  Once I did, she calmly walked on.  Definitely good traits for a trail horse!