All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I started out with stretching at the walk in our dressage lesson with Suzin today.  Gia was very soft and fairly relaxed.  We did a few free walk/medium walk transitions, which were also good.  We had to do a few walk to trot transitions before I got one that was not fussy or against my hand.   Once we were warmed up, we did a LOT of lateral work - turn on the haunches at the walk, shoulder-in at walk and trot, leg yield at walk and trot, travers at walk and a little at trot, haunches-out at walk and trot.  Sometimes, she would get stuck in a movement, so I used trot lengthenings to get her un-stuck.  I also allowed some canter transitions when she felt good.  She did not offer any naughty moments at the canter.  Her canter work was a little against my hand, but when I was able to soften her (with a leg yield or shoulder-in), it felt really nice!  She even offered one step of canter pirouette !

 I had a brief, but successful, ride on Gia today!  After warming up in the arena with some stretching and bending, I started putting her over some small jumps.  She was a little awkward to them at first, but then more thoughtful about her footwork.  She often cantered afterwards, but there was no bucking!  She also did a little gymnastic, and although it was a bit tight for her, she worked through it quite nicely!

 I took Gia on our little trail today to warm up and get her out of the ring.  She didn't like it as much as the trail from the other day.  She was more spooky and looky than usual back there, but so were all the other horses I took back there.  Maybe they can feel the weather that is coming in later ... After her walk warm up, I rode her in the dressage arena working on some light flatwork.  I did a little bit of walk, trot and canter, mainly focusing on straightness and softness.  I did a lot of transitions, and a lot of shoulder-in.  She didn't offer to buck once!

 I had a crazy busy day today, so I kept Gia's workout light this morning.  All I did was a little bit of lunging in the rope halter in the field.  Then, once she was warmed up, I lunged her over the "scary" jumps - the tires, the brick wall, and the corner jump.  She stopped at the tire jump the first time, then went over it hesitatingly, then was fine in both directions.  She gave me pretty much zero problems with the other two jumps!

 I took Gia on her first trail ride today!  Danielle and I ventured out to the newest trail location, very close to our farm - Sandy Pines Preserve.  It was awesome!  They have wonderful parking spots for trailers, complete with ties and mounting blocks along the trail! I was expecting Gia to be quite nervous, and despite that, I still decided to ride her without lunging.  Most of the time there isn't a good place to lunge a horse before a trail ride anyway.  Ali was with her, and he is brave, and she trusts him, so that helped a lot.  Her first scary encounter was when we had to cross a sidewalk to get to the trail.  She didn't want to walk on the pavement (most horses don't like when the ground changes in color or texture).  Ali had no problem walking past her, so after a few minutes, she nervously followed him.  There were random things that made her look, anxiously, along the way - benches, mounting blocks, rolls of fake grass in the ditches, drainage pipes, etc.  We sa

 Gia and I started our lesson with Suzin with some stretching and transitions at the walk.  Then we moved on to transitions at the trot.  She felt a little tense, but not too bad.  Suzin had us start working right away on a lot of lateral work.  In this work, Gia felt a bit against my hand, especially my right.  We worked on shoulder-in, leg yields, shoulder-out, haunches-in, etc.  Gia was struggling with trying to give me the correct answer to my questions.  She kept offering a variety of answers to me, especially the canter, since we had worked on it so hard lately.  I realized that I had to be much more clear with my aids, but also more disciplined with my corrections.  Even though she gave me some really nice canter transitions, if they weren't what I had asked for, then I stopped her and continued with my previous request.  She finally started to offer the correct answers.  I would reward her with some lengthenings (which turned into a REALLY nice medium trot at one point), an

 I rode Gia today in the field at home.  I started out with the same warm up I've been doing - stretching and transitions, working on no resistance.  She was actually very relaxed and submissive today!  Once we had warmed up at the walk and trot, I popped her over most of the smaller jumps in the field, including the up and down bank and the ditch.  She did hesitate briefly at the down bank and the ditch, but then went over them just fine.  She never gave any indication of being naughty or disobedient today.  She just went forward and did her job.  It was the most enjoyable ride I have had on her in a long time!

 I worked Gia fairly lightly today.  We did some stretching at the walk, then medium walk/free walk transitions, then trot transitions.  She was tight and tense throughout all of this.  So, I worked on a lot of bending to try to loosen her up.  We did leg yields and half circle reverses.  She loves to lengthen, so I also did transitions between walk, halt, trot and lengthened and collected trot.  That actually helped release the tension better than anything!

 I took Gia to the Tri-Area horse show today.  It's a blend of dressage and hunters, and some western classes.  I entered Gia in Intro test A, as well as a few over fences classes at 2'.   I started out lunging her, and she did quite well.  A little nervous and quick at first, but settled down a little quicker than last time.  Under saddle, I worked on free walk/medium walk transitions.  She did not feel too tense.  I also worked on walk/trot transitions and trying to get her to stretch at the trot.  She started to feel a bit more tense in the trot, and carried most of that tension into the show ring.  It wasn't too bad.  We still got a 70% and finished in first place!  She also had the high score of all the dressage rides that day, so she took home the championship for dressage! In the over fences classes, things went a bit differently.  There was a lot of bucking (not as much as 2 shows ago, but a lot more than the show last weekend).  After the first two rounds at 2'

 I took Gia out in the field for a brief ride today.  We stretched at the walk, and worked on transitions between free walk and medium walk.  She was a bit quick and tense at first, but she was not really resistant.  Then we worked on the same at the trot.  She felt pretty good at the trot today.  When I started her over fences, she also felt really good, and got better and better with each jump!

 I started Gia out with some stretching at the walk today.  We walked all around the arena, changing bend, and then changing from free walk to medium walk until she was not resistant.  Then I started to ask for trot.  She was quite resistant at first, so I did a few transitions to halt, where she wanted to piaffe.  I kept transitioning between gaits until she finally could halt without fidgeting, and trot without resisting.   Then we worked on bending and shoulder-in at the trot.  Her shoulder-in was fairly good today, especially to the right, which is usually her harder direction.  Suzin also had us do some leg yields, and work a little on some baby half-passes.  Those were quite hard, but once Gia understood what I was asking for, she actually gave it quite easily.  We also played with a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches, which was also difficult, but better once she understood the request. Finally, we played a little with the canter, coming out of the shoulder-in at the trot.  She

 I took Gia to the June War Horse schooling and competition this weekend.  We had reserved stalls for the whole weekend, so she got to practice a lot of patience.  She definitely needs to work on that.  Anytime her stall buddy (Annie) left to school or show, she would get very anxious - pawing, running, kicking, hollering.  I worked with her each time to help her become quieter and more still.  Each time she started to throw a fit, I would circle her in the stall several times, really moving her feet around.  Then I would let her stand still and see if she could keep her feet still on her own.  She would for a minute or two, and then she would start back up again.  As soon as she did, I would circle her the other way a few times.  I had to repeat the exercise several times before she got the idea.  She had done this sort of work before when she was younger and stressed out about horses leaving her.  It's pretty typical of most horses.  She was slightly better by the end, but this i

 I worked with Gia out in the field today.  I started with the same stretching at the walk, and then worked on free walk to medium walk transitions until she was not resisting.  Her walk was a little quick and tense.  Once I could get the transitions without resistance, I worked on trot transitions, and then stretchy trot and working trot transitions.  She did think about bucking at first, and managed to get a tiny buck in once.  Each time I felt her tense and put her head up, I positioned her and made her move on.  Eventually, she relaxed into the work, but it did take a little longer, probably because we were in the field.  Finally, I worked over a few of the small jumps in the field.  I just wanted to see if we could get over them without resistance.  She actually did quite well, and finished our ride fairly relaxed

 I had a lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with some stretching at the walk, then moved on to free walk, medium walk transitions.  When Gia was not resisting, we moved on to trot transitions.  At the trot, we did a lot of bending, leg yields, transitions between halt and walk and trot, and lots of shoulder-in.  Anytime she resisted, I immediately positioned her to soften her, and then went right back to what we had been working on, like nothing had happened.   When she felt good at the shoulder-in, I asked for the canter.  I repeated the same exercise as above, whenever she got resistant at the canter.  At first, she would come out of the canter when I corrected her.  Eventually, she learned to stay soft, and was able to keep the canter longer.  Also, because I was correcting her quickly, she was only able to get one slight buck in the whole time.  I let her finish when I had gotten a good, confirmed canter, without resistance in each direction.

 Hayley rode Gia again today at CDP.  Gia only thought about being naughty one time, but it never escalated, and she quickly decided it was better to just do her job.  Hayley ended up cantering around and jumping several jumps, and Gia was a perfect lady!

 I kept Gia's flatwork very simple and easy today.  We basically did a lot of stretching at the walk.  When that felt low and relaxed and consistent, I worked on bringing her up to a medium walk without any resistance.  She actually did that fairly well today.  In medium walk, I worked on getting her body straighter.  In that work, I did start to feel resistance.  Anytime she resisted, she would put her head up, and I asked for a halt while positioning her to let go of her stiff side (mostly the right).  Suzin had noticed that Gia would throw her head up right before she would start to buck, and I could feel that coming today.  She tensed up with that work, but started to relax after a few minutes of defusing the resistance with walk/halt transitions.  Then I started asking for the trot.  Since we had worked through most of the resistance at the walk, there wasn't a lot at the trot.  She was a bit behind my leg to start, and a bit nervous, but anytime she came against my hand,

 I worked with Gia today on her flatwork.  I did A LOT of stretching down and picking her back up at the walk, until she could do it without resistance.  Then we repeated the same exercise at the trot.  Her transitions were a lot better than usual - much softer and less resistant.  I worked all over the ring, and also did a little shoulder-in.  Finally, I tried some canter transitions.  She was tight at times, and bucked a little.  But as soon as she did, I reprimanded her and then put her right into a stretchy trot with transitions to working trot.  I also tried a few canter transitions while she was stretched down.  We did get a few that did not include bucking, so I only went a couple of strides before bringing her back to the trot.  

 Today went better than I expected.  Suzin and I explored some options to help get Gia through her tension.  The most successful one was to stretch her down at the walk, and then slowly bring her up to medium walk, flexing her on the stiffer side as I slowly shortened the reins.  The goal was to be able to bring her up with no resistance before moving on to the trot.  I repeated the exercise several times before I was able to get to that goal.  I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke, so I asked for two more sets before I asked for the trot.   It was one of our best trot transitions ever! It was very light, with no resistance, and she went forward willingly. We moved on to work on some bending, changes of direction, shoulder-in, shoulder-out, and leg yields.  All of that went pretty well.  If she was resistant, I positioned her to break it up.  She did not really feel tense at all.  We also did a little bit of stretchy trot to working trot transitions the same way we did the stretc