All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I had a lovely dressage lesson with Suzin today! After warming up with some stretching, we did a lot of transitions between walk and trot and halt, with some rein back here and there.  Several times throughout the ride, Gia even offered to canter.  It was always a nice, more collected canter, with no bucking.  I brought her back as soon as I felt it start to come apart. We also did a bit of work on shoulders-in.  Finally, Suzin had us do a fun exercise where we started on centerline with a little leg yield towards the rail for a step or two, then haunches-in for a step or two, then back to leg yield, etc.  When I felt the shoulders leading and the haunches trailing in the shoulder-in, that's when I would ask for haunches-in.  As soon as things fell apart, I would go back to the leg yield.  I think we got one or two steps that were halfway decent in each direction.

 I took Gia out to the field today.  Since she was so good last time, I decided to see how she would do without lunging.  After we warmed up with some stretching and bending at the walk, I asked her to trot.  She felt a little tense and quick, so we did a lot of walk trot transitions.  It wasn't long before she felt much more responsive and relaxed.   We played over most of the small stadium jumps - most of which were crossrails or small verticals.  She felt like she relaxed even more once we started jumping.  She even did a little cantering, and it felt pretty good - no tension and no bucking. I decided to do a few of the smaller cross country jumps.  Most of them were good, even with a little cantering in between.  There were two that she did not really like - a small brick wall and a small tire jump.  She quickly got over her fear of the brick wall, and we ended up doing it several times.  She did not get over her fear of the tires.  We stopped and checked them out several times

 I worked with Gia on long lines today.  I mainly focused on her obedience to my cues at all gaits - walk, trot, canter and halt.  She wasn't as precise as I would like.  She was good with the walk and trot and halt, but sometimes not prompt when picking up the canter.  On the plus side, when she did pick up the canter, it was quite lovely!

 I needed an easy day on a horse today, so I took Gia out on the trail for a relaxing walk.  Of course, it's never completely relaxing with a young horse.  She did pretty well, for the most part, just a little nervous and looky.  However, when we got to the part where there is a bit of a mud puddle in the path, we had a hard time.  I kept trying to get her to go forward from the saddle, but it was no use.  I had to hop off and lead her over the puddle.  After I led her back and forth a few times, I attempted to get back on.  No easy feat with a 17 hand horse in the woods with no logs to step on, and in my jump saddle with the shorter stirrups.  I ended up having to lengthen my stirrup several holes, and then managed to climb back on.   When I got back to the ring, I just wanted to pop her over a couple of jumps and be done.  The jumps were good, but in between a few of them, she started bucking pretty hard.  So much for the easy ride.  I pushed her through it, and we ended with a d

 I'm a little behind in my writing this week.  Gia and I had a great lesson with Suzin on Wednesday.  We did a lot of lateral work, including shoulder-in, leg yield, bending, etc.  We really focused on getting her steadier in the bridle.  We also did a lot of stretching at the walk and trot.  We did only a tiny bit of canter, which was pretty good.  I believe she was only naughty once, and it was over pretty quickly.

 I took Gia out in the field today for our ride.  We haven't been out there in a while, so I lunged her first.  She was SUPER relaxed and obedient, so I didn't lunge for very long (hoping I wouldn't regret that). Under saddle, I started with some trot warm up around the field.  Basically, just trotting all over, working a little on bending, leg yields and half halts.  When she felt good, I tried her over a few of the very low stadium jumps.  Nothing was higher than 2'.  She jumped most of them from the trot, but I did get a few from the canter at the end.  No bucking at all, by the way! I moved into the other field after that to play over some of the cross country jumps.  I didn't really have a plan, except just to see how she felt after each one.  I started with all the small ones, which were easy.  The hardest one for her was the brick wall.  She stopped at it twice, but I kicked her to let her know that was unacceptable.  When we came around to it the third time,

 Gia and I had drill team practice yesterday.  In our practice session, we did the test one time all at the walk, and then added some of our trot the second time.  She was soooooo good with the trot work, and little Dover behind and beside her!  Some horses don't like when others are that close, but she doesn't seem to mind.  We also had to do a VERY collected trot to stay in time with Dover (who will definitely need to trot faster to keep up).  She was very patient with my request to go slow and collected and it felt pretty good!

 After warming Gia up with some stretching at the walk, and some walk trot transitions, I worked with her over a gymnastic.  We started with 3 trot poles to a medium sized crossrail.  That went pretty good the first couple of times, so I added a small vertical, then made it an oxer, then another small vertical, then made it another oxer.  Each time through went fairly well.  She wanted to get a little quick through the poles, but she was fairly eager to the jumps.  To finish things off, I raised the oxers and the crossrail, and added a barrel under each oxer.  She was a little hesitant at first, but I kept her going, and she went over everything.  The last few times, she tackled all the elements with ease!

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin this morning.  After warming up with some stretching and bending at the walk, we worked on walk trot transitions.  We worked a lot on softening her and keeping her off my hands,  We did a lot of bending and transitions between walk and trot and halt.  She was a little distracted by a new horse, but the lateral work and transitions helped to get her attention.   We also worked on some shoulder-in in preparation for the canter transition.  Her canter work today was quite good - only a hint of a naughty moment or two.  Since the canter work was going so well, Suzin had us work on our transitions in and out, as well as collecting and softening at the canter.  I worked some without my stirrups to get a better feel with my leg.  Gia gave me several nice moments at the canter!

 Hayley rode Gia first at CDP today.  She did a little bit of walk, trot and canter, making sure that Gia was going forward when asked.  That went pretty well, so she trotted and cantered over several poles and jumps.  That also went pretty well! I hopped on and repeated all the same work.  She was very responsive and obedient, and we had a couple of nice jumps too!

 Since Gia was bucking so much on Friday, I lunged her before riding her today.  It was only about 6 minutes of trotting and cantering, and she seemed pretty laid back.   Under saddle I worked on stretching and bending at the walk, then more of the same at the trot.  She kicked up her hind end just a little bit one time, and I sent her forward.  She didn't do anything naughty the rest of the ride.  I did a little bit of shoulder-in and haunches-in at the trot in preparation for the canter.  I ended up getting several really nice transitions in both directions!  I could even feel her start to sit down a little bit more in her canter transitions!

I started out with Gia working on getting her attention at the walk today.  She was quite distracted by a new horse that got turned out in a nearby field.  Once she was more focused at the walk, we did the same at the trot.  I also did a little bit of bending and leg yield work with her.   The next thing I wanted to do was to hop over a few little jumps, since she was doing well, and since it has been a while since we really jumped.  We did a couple of crossrails at the trot that she took quite well - nicely forward without being fast, and with good takeoff spots.  She even cantered a little after them, and it was all good.  Then, I was approaching a little bit bigger jump, and she started to pick up a canter a bit too early ... and threw in a little buck.  I ended up having to canter around several laps in each direction, pushing her more forward everytime she bucked.  And there were a lot of bucks.  When I was finally able to ask her to go forward without any bucking, several times i

 Hayley rode Gia again today at CDP.  She was a tiny bit naughty when Hayley sent her forward into the arena past the scary tractor.  Hayley sent her even more forward in response, and Gia was pretty good after that.  They did a little bit of walk, trot and canter, with some ground poles as well.  Gia was quite worried about all the jumps that the wind had blown over, but Hayley kept her moving forward, and she eventually relaxed.  They finished the ride with a small crossrail back and forth a few times.  She did really well with that!

 It's finally been dry enough here that I was able to get out of the main ring today and into the dressage arena.  Since it's a "new" space, and it was extremely windy, I lunged Gia for almost 10 minutes, with most of it being canter.  She actually did quite good under saddle, and didn't give me any naughty moments!  We did a lot of lateral work including shoulder-in, leg yield and haunches-in.  I also asked for a little canter once in each direction.  No naughty moments there either!

 Gia and I had a brief session today, so we did a bit of long lining.  We got right into it with the trot and canter, doing lots of transitions.  She was actually quite willing, although a little against the reins, especially to the right.  We were able to get several nice transitions each way though, and a couple of really nice stretches too!

 Gia and I had our lesson with Suzin today.  I started out with a good walk, changing direction, bending, leg yielding, and keeping her attention.  We moved on to walk trot transitions, but she had to stay soft and obedient.  Lots of lateral work helped with that! We also got to do a few canter transitions.  We worked on preparing with a lot of lateral work, and using a very light cue.  She actually did really well with her canter work today!  She was a bit naughty at the very beginning of the ride, when I wasn't even asking for the canter, but other than that, she was much more obedient.  We were even able to work a bit on collecting the canter today!

 Hayley rode Gia again to start things off today.  Gia was soooo much better!  She did not offer any naughty moments, and she only spooked a little at the beginning, in her usual places.  After a little walk, trot and canter with Hayley, I hopped on, and she felt great!  We also did a little walk, trot and canter, mostly focusing on going forward, and staying up in front.  She did not offer any naughty moments with me either, and also only spooked a tiny bit at the usual things.  Definitely a big improvement!