All The Kings' Horses

 I worked with Gia today in the arena on our flatwork.  We started with stretching at the walk, and then worked on keeping everything together for our walk to trot transitions.  We also did a little work on our turn-on-the-haunches.  It felt really good, but I would like for Suzin to confirm from the ground that we are on the right page.  Gia was definitely trying to give me the right answer though! We also did a lot of work on different transitions - trot to halt, halt to trot, and trot lengthenings.  Finally, we worked on shoulder-in at the trot to canter.  She was a bit sticky in the canter, but I was able to help push her through it.  She did offer to buck a little though.

 I took Gia out to the fields for her workout today, keeping in mind what I figured out about her last week.  She was tense to start, but we did a lot of stretching at the walk and trot, and she started to relax a bit.  I made sure that the first few jumps were in the direction of her girlfriends.  She went willingly, and there was no bucking afterwards.  As she cantered and jumped around, I gradually worked her away from her friends, and she did fine.  She did struggle a bit to get on her right lead today.  She also stopped at her nemesis - the tire jump.  I did get her over it the second time though.

 We had our drill team practice today, but instead of practicing at home, we went to another farm.  My dressage arena is only 20m by 40m, but the drill team test has to be ridden in a 20m by 60m sized arena.  My arena is fine for creating and memorizing our test, but once we are ready to put music to it, we have to go somewhere else to practice in the larger arena.   I was concerned about how Gia would behave in a new place, and within the constraints of drill team.  I opted not to lunge her, however, and see how she did.  I hopped on a little before my smaller partner, and took her down to the ring to settle her.  She was definitely tense and nervous in the new area.  I basically just ran through our test, but at the walk, working on stretching her into my hands and helping her relax.  It worked pretty well, and she was fairly relaxed by about half way through our test.   Then Dover and Julia joined us so we could run the test together.  At our first outing in the larger ring, we have

 I started Gia today with a walk in the fields.  We also went into the pond again today.  She did not hesitate at all, but walked right in and wanted to play.  I encouraged her to keep moving and we finished our warm up with some trot around the fields.  She did not feel tense or anxious at all! When I started jumping her, and she landed in the canter, she did throw in a few bucks.  I pushed her to go forward, but she was very resistant.  I noticed that she was more resistant when we were heading away from her friends that were in the same field.  So, I used their presence to help Gia work on being more obedient to my leg.  I jumped her over something that was headed in their direction.  When she landed at the canter, it was polite, so I encouraged her to keep going in their direction.  Once we passed them, she was still pretty relaxed, so I encouraged her to keep going, and she was more responsive to my leg.  We did this a few times, always starting out heading towards her friends, bu

 Gia and I started our dressage lesson today with a lovely free walk.  We then did free walk and medium walk transitions, working on keeping the rhythm and shape the same.  At the trot, we did A LOT of transitions between walk, trot, halt, rein back, etc.  We did a lot of suppling exercises as well, such as shoulder-in, leg yield, bending, softening, changes of direction, etc.  We also did a little bit of collected walk and turn-on-the-haunches.  Finally, we worked on some shoulder-in to canter transitions, as well as collected, medium and lengthened trot.  Gia was super responsive, although sometimes confused.  I worked to help explain things to her a little better, and to be more clear with my aids.  Even at the canter, there was no bucking or naughty moments.  She had a lot of really nice moments where she lowered her hind end and elevated her forehand! 

 I took Gia to the Sedgefield Jumper show at the Carolina Horse Park yesterday.  I lunged her, uneventfully, and she was very relaxed almost immediately.  I hopped on to ride up to warm up.  She was a little nervous, but not too bad, at first.  As we got into the warm up ring, she felt quite tense, especially in her back, and then some bucking started.  It was on and off throughout my warm up and classes.  I sent her forward, popped her on the shoulder with the whip, straightened her with positioning to the right (she was very stiff on the right side).  It did subside, but it was always in the background.  I did get her over several good jumps in warm up though.   We did three courses, each at 2'.  Each course did get successively better.  There was more bucking in the beginning than the end.  She was quite quick at times, and at others she was sucking back behind my leg.  Sometimes she was responsive to my half halts, sometimes she was not.  She was difficult on turns - wanting to

 I took Gia out to the field for her work today.  My intention was just to play over the jumps and canter through the field in a "play-like" manner.  Gia had other ideas ... We started out with a bit of stretching at the walk.  I also took her down to walk in the pond.  She was hesitant at first, but then went in.  When we came out, I took her right back in, and she went in willingly.  At the trot, we did some transitions and stretching as well.  She felt a bit stiff to the right, and a bit resistant to go forward.  I noticed that she was willing to go forward if we were heading in the direction of her friends, but otherwise, she was stiff and wiggly and sucking back.  When I popped her over a jump, everything was about the same.  So, I worked on getting her more forward on the flat.  I pointed her over a jump in the direction of her friends.  When she landed at the canter, I just kept her going.  She became resistant as soon as we headed away, but I pushed her to keep going.

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started with stretching at the walk, then free walk to medium walk transitions, then walk to trot transitions.  She had a nice walk, and was only a little against my hand at first for the transitions.  We proceeded to do a lot of bending and suppling and transition work.  She kept wanting to put her haunches one way or the other, so I countered with a leg yield that had the shoulder leading.  We did a lot of halt transitions, but she was very fidgety at the halt, so it took quite a few to get some good ones.  We also did some lengthening at the trot.  She really loves to lengthen, so most of those went quite well.  I also did almost all my work off the rail.  Hence, the main reason her haunches wanted to wander.  The rail helps to keep them in line, but off the rail, I have to work on the straightness more myself, and Gia has to learn to keep her own balance.

 I started Gia off with some stretching at the walk.  She felt a bit tight on the right at first, but after some bending and stretching work, she was feeling much more supple.  I picked her up into a nice medium walk, and worked on walk/trot transitions.  Each time she went against my hand in the transition, I halted, softened and proceeded to try again.  Eventually, I was able to get a transition to trot that was more supple.   At the trot, I felt her haunches trailing to the right a lot, so I did some leg yielding to the right, with the shoulder leading, which led to her haunches being more to the left.  Once she was straighter, I worked over some of the jumps in the ring.  She would only trot over the smaller jumps, so I had to canter a bit to put her over the larger ones.  Her canter and jump to the left was fine.  Her canter and jump to the right was a bit less balanced and difficult for her.  There was a little bucking, but I didn't feel like it was naughtiness, but rather fr

 Gia competed in the Green as Grass combined training division at the War Horse event yesterday.  I started with some lunging, and she was about the same as the day before, maybe slightly more relaxed.  Once we were under saddle, we headed up to warm up, with one of the other ponies from the barn, Cisco.  She was slightly less spooky than she has been in the past.  In warm up, there was absolutely no naughtiness, although she was very distracted by keeping an eye on where Cisco was.  I did a lot of leg yielding and bending to get her attention, but she was still a bit distracted.  I started to add some shoulder-in, and she started to pay more attention to me.  The she offered a few canter steps, so I decided to play around with that.  Again, no naughtiness.  She didn't keep the canter for very long, but she was fairly relaxed, and seemed to be more focused on what I wanted her to do.  She was starting to get a little stuck, so I asked for some trot lengthenings as well.  She felt a

 I took Gia to the War Horse Schooling day at the Carolina Horse Park today.  I forgot that we had entered the open schooling for this show, which included the cross country schooling.  I didn't really think we were ready for it, but I had already signed up, so I figured that if all we did was walk around the course and work on relaxation, that would be a good start. I warmed her up with a little bit of lunging.  She was pretty relaxed from the beginning, and was licking and chewing, and lowering her head very quickly.  After I tacked up, we went up to the stadium ring to start our schooling there.  She felt a bit tense, but we started by walking over a ground pole, and then trotted over it a few times.  That really helped to relax her, so then we popped over the crossrail.  That went well after the first few jumps, so then we did the verticals very successfully.  When it was our turn to enter the ring, we schooled over the course very well!  She was a little tense, but there was n

 Gia started out with a nice stretch at the walk today, but then she got a bit tense when I picked her up to a medium walk.  I tried a few walk/halt transitions, but most of them were filled with tension and "piaffe" steps.  When we finally got to the trot, she was still tense.  We did a lot of circles and changes of direction, in addition to going over a ground pole.  She was very tight on her right side, so I did a lot of suppling work on that side in both directions.  When she finally relaxed and started to bend better, I jumped her just a few times over a medium crossrail and a smallish vertical.  She did very well with those!

 I took Gia for a walk on the trail to warm up.  She was a little nervous, but not too bad.  I worked on stretching at the walk.  Back in the arena, I worked on walk halt transitions.  Once she was obedient, I worked on walk trot transitions.  She was feeling a little stuck, so I threw in lengthenings to get her more forward, as needed.  I needed them here and there throughout my ride.  She was also feeling like her haunches were going to left, but her body was going to the right.  I worked on getting her to bend and soften on the right side, but to carry her haunches to the right as well.  I used a variety of lateral movements to help her with this - leg yield, haunches-in, shoulder-in, etc.  I also did a little bit of canter work.  She was against my right hand, and a bit stuck, at first, but I eventually got a nice canter in each direction.  There was only a tiny bit of bucking when I popped her with the whip to move over.  Other than that, she was very good.

 I rode Gia in the fields at home today.  Once she was warmed up with some stretching at the walk, some walk/trot transitions and some trotting throughout the fields, I started her over some jumps.  She was fairly relaxed and obedient.  She did get a little against my hand, especially my right hand, at times.  I could sometimes feel her swishing her tail and hopping a little with her hind legs, but she never did anything more naughty than that.  We jumped a lot of the small and medium jumps, and mainly focused on straightness and relaxation.  

 I worked with Gia on the lunge line in the field today.  Once she was warmed up with some trot work, I started putting her over jumps.  I didn't have much time today, so I started tackling the hard jumps right away.  I've been starting with the tires, and those have been difficult, but the other "hard" jumps haven't been as hard afterwards.  So, I decided to start with a different "hard" jump today - the brick wall.  She was actually quite eager to go over it today!  Once she had done it both directions without fumbling, we moved on to the tires.  Those went well also!  Then we finished with the corner jump.  She actually didn't want to wait for me to get there, she was eager to take it early!  She even could have dodged it a couple of times due to her approach, but willingly chose to go over the jump instead!  I will be on the lookout for some new "scary" jumps now!