Gia - session 512 - schooling at the show!

I entered Gia at the War Horse combined training show this weekend.  Today was the schooling day.  We have stalls for all the horses, and she gets quite upset anytime the horse next to her leaves to go do something.  I've had to maneuver horses around so she isn't alone.  Eventually, she will get used to all this.   So, I definitely remembered to lunge her in the rope halter this afternoon before I rode her.  She was quite talkative and excited at first, but it didn't take her too long to settle down and focus.  

Under saddle, I rode her up to the warm up area for the stadium schooling.  She is entered in the Green As Grass division, so the jumps are only about 18" high, but the hard part for her isn't the jumps anyway, it's everything else.  She was definitely tense in warm up.  After the long walk up to the warm up, I trotted her a little bit, focusing on little leg yields and bending to get her attention on me.  Once I started jumping, she calmed down a bit more.  We jumped a few of the warm up jumps and then waited our turn to school the show jumps.  She was fairly patient waiting her turn, but I did have to keep her walking.  Eventually, she will learn to stand still and wait.

In the show arena, she was terrified of the black mats.  And they were everywhere!  She had to step over them to get into the arena, and then they were on the outside of the arena in several spots. Those were the only things she really spooked at.  I just concentrated on keeping her feet moving and asking for little let yields.  She actually jumped all the jumps quite well, and didn't hesitate or refuse at any of them!

After our stadium round, I took her to the empty dressage arenas.  We had gotten a bit of rain earlier in the day, so there were large puddles in several of them.  I had her walk and trot through them until they were no big deal, then we rode her test through them.  I also rode her test in the arena that is closest to the road, since that one can be a bit scary.  She was tense in both, but fairly obedient.  I let her walk back to the barn after that where she got a nice bath (that she didn't really enjoy until I started washing her mane).  Silly girl!

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