Gia - 549 - schooling stadium and cross country at the show!

 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 no bucking.  She went over every jump, even though she took a couple of detours when she saw something scary off to the side.  She even cantered a little bit, but no temper throwing at all.

From there we moved on to the cross country course.  It helped that Gia had her BFF Ali there to support her.  She was actually a rock star on cross country!  I wanted to see how she would do on her own, so I attempted all the jumps first, so she wouldn't feel like she was following Ali over the jumps.  She only stopped at 2 of them, but went over both of them the second time.  For most of the jumps she was eager to go, even if a little unsure, but very well behaved.  She was doing so well that I even let her try a few of the Maiden jumps (the next level up).  Most of those also went well, so I did try one Beginner Novice jump.  She stopped at it the first time, but then went right over it the second time.  She also went right down the little bank with absolutely no hesitation!  The hardest part for her was actually the water,  Kind of hard to believe if you've ever seen her go in the pond at home (almost every day, sometimes multiple times, and at least up to her rib cage).  Ali had to lead her in a few times, but eventually she was doing it all on her own!  She was WAY better out there than I could have ever expected!