All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I had our dressage lesson with Suzin today.  After warming up with stretching at the walk, and walk/trot transitions, we moved on to do a little shoulder-in work.  I have to work on getting Gia to move her shoulders more off the rail in order for the movement to be more correct.  I also have to work on not bending her neck quite as much.   After that, we moved right into the canter work.  Her canter to the right was actually quite good - no bucking, fairly obedient and responsive, and fairly collected while still moving forward.  Her canter to the left, not so much.  She was very disobedient and threw in a LOT of bucking, a couple that were really rough.  I was not having any luck with asking her for the canter using the traditional cue, and I noticed that her haunches were really trailing to the outside.  So, I abandoned the canter for a minute, and started to work on haunches-in.  Suzin also had us alternate that with leg yield to the outside to encourage bending to the insi

 I took Gia out to the field today to school some of the jumps.  She was very good for her walk and trot warm up.  When I started approaching the jumps, she trotted them fine, but she didn't really jump them.  I pushed her to canter them, but her canter was not that great - there was disobedience (bucking and tail swishing), she also didn't want to go forward, and was cantering a little bit sideways instead.  I mainly focused on getting her canter better, and when it was, I would let her jump.  It took a little while, but I was able to get a decent enough canter in each direction.

 I entered Gia in her first full horse trial on Sunday!  A horse trial includes a dressage test, a stadium course of jumps, and a cross country course of jumps.  I kept it easy on her (and me), and entered her in the Green as Grass division, which has a walk/trot dressage test, and all jumps at or below 18". She lunged fairly well before her dressage test.  Her warm up for dressage was very good - nice and quiet and relaxed, and obedient.  I thought her test went very well.  She did everything I asked, and was very  obedient and relaxed.  She ended up scoring a 27.2% and started out in second place out of 14 entries.   Later that day, we had our stadium round.  She warmed up very well - no nonsense at the walk, trot, ground pole, or over the jumps.  On course, she was fantastic!  She cantered pretty much the entire course and didn't refuse or knock anything down!  I ended up missing one jump because it's number was knocked over, but after I circled to figure out what was g

 On Saturday I took Gia down to the War Horse schooling event at the Carolina Horse Park to school stadium and cross country in preparation for the show the next day.  Danielle lunged her, and said that she did fairly well.  She was a little quieter in the stall this time, as compared to last time, but still a bit upset when her neighbor left her.   When I warmed her up for stadium, we did a bit of walk and trot, including going over a ground pole several times.  Then I put her over a few jumps.  She was actually fairly good - focused, well-behaved, etc.  In the ring, she also did fairly well.  There was one jump she didn't like, and she refused it the first time, then jumped it pretty big and clumsily the second time.  We came back at the end and got it again, and she jumped it just fine.  All the other jumps went just fine.  I think I remember she only bucked once We moved on to school cross country after that.  That was a little harder for her.  There were a few jumps she refuse

 I took Gia out into the fields to jump today.  We warmed up with stretching at the walk, then a bit of trotting and relaxation work.  She was a little tense when I first started jumping.  I heard her tail swish and she did buck one time.  I reprimanded her, then pushed her on.  She became much less anxious, and much more obedient as we went along.  I also worked on getting her more balanced in her canter with lots of half halts and transitions.  By the end, she was much more relaxed - jumping, cantering off in a nice balance, and balancing nicely in preparation for the next jump.

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin on Wednesday.  After warming up with the usual stuff, we decided to switch things up and work on the canter before really working on the trot stuff.  We wanted to get it out of the way, and then end on something that wouldn't have her anticipating the canter work.  Time will tell if it worked or not!   Her canter work was not too bad.  She had several nice moments, interspersed with some mild bucking.  We mainly worked on getting a decent trot to canter transition, but came back to the trot as soon as things began to fall apart. At the trot, we did a lot of work on lengthening and shoulder-in.  She also had a lot of nice moments there, where she was really sitting down and pushing off with her hind end!

 I worked with Gia at home yesterday, in my arena, on a little bit of jumping.  She warmed up very well with stretching at the walk, nice walk/trot transitions, and some nice trot work with changes of bend all over the ring.  We went over a few poles first, and those felt pretty good and quiet.  When we started jumping, she was a little sluggish at first, but I easily moved her up to a better speed.  However, when she landed from the jumps, she wanted to canter away and add some flair (a buck here and there).  Each time, I pushed her through it with more leg, but kept working on getting her to soften at the same time.  It took several jumps, but we gradually worked through it, and the cantering after the last couple of jumps was quieter, although I could still hear her tail swishing behind me.  For those who don't know, the tail swishing is often a sign of irritation, and if you watch her videos, she always swishes her tail right before a buck.  Still, this was progress.

 I took Gia to the Sedgefield Jumper show yesterday.  I entered her in the 2' division for three rounds.  She warmed up much better than she has at the last few jumper shows.  She was still tense, but she never got a good buck out, and I was able to get her to relax quite a bit.  I did a lot of trotting in a figure eight over a pole, and then occasionally pointing her at a jump when she felt good.  In her classes, she also did much better!  Out of all three classes, she only bucked one time!  She also only pulled about 4 rails in total, and even went clear in one round.  She was able to canter rather than trot for more of the courses.  By the end, it also didn't take as much on my part to keep her together. She was FANTASTIC at the trailer too!  Definitely an improvement all around!

 I worked Gia lightly on Saturday, since she had a show the next day.  I just worked on lunging her over "scary" jumps.  I included a flower box, a jump block, and a set of cones.  The jump itself was no more than 18"-24".  She had no problems with any of the jumps and could have cared less about the "scary" stuff!

 Gia and I worked with Suzin today on our flatwork.  She had a nice stretch to start with, and came up into a nice medium walk as well.  It took a couple of transitions before I was able to get a nice one from walk to trot.  Then we worked on some suppleness at the trot - leg yields, shoulder-ins, bending, changing direction, etc.  She was anticipating the canter quite a bit, so we avoided that for today, and instead worked on trot lengthenings.  She did those quite well!  The difficult part was bringing her back afterwards.  I ended up having to go all the way to the walk or halt at times in order to get a more obedient response.  We attempted to get a lengthening to a collection to a lengthening to a collection, twice per long side, but we never quite got the second lengthening (my arena long sides are not that long).  However, by the end, she had stopped worrying that we might canter, and was having fun with her lengthenings!

 I worked with Gia lightly on her flatwork today.  She was a bit tense and quick, probably due to the wonderfully cooler temperatures.  I did a lot of work on stretching her down, and a LOT of work on transitions between halt and trot.  She kept thinking I was going to ask for canter.  She also kept getting tense about anticipating the transitions, which actually put her behind my leg.  I had to work on keeping her stretching, as well as keeping her forward, without cantering.  It was quite a balancing act, but she finally got it by the end and was more relaxed.

 Gia and I had drill team practice yesterday, off the property.  It was probably our roughest practice, but it wasn't just Gia.  Gia was a bit tense when I started warming her up.  I ran through my test at the walk, working on getting her to stretch into my hands and relax.  She was doing pretty good by the time Dover and Julia were ready to join us.   However, as we came around the arena to enter at A and start our test, the ground was a bit mushy from all the rain, and Gia decided she was not going to go forward.  I instructed Julia to just keep going, and that we would catch up, so that "the team" stayed with the music that was playing.   Gia put up a bit of an argument - bucking, side stepping, even a little rear, but I just kept pushing her forward and kept my hands wide to keep her straighter.   We eventually got through it, but she was a bit of a hot mess after that as well.  I managed to get her back together, but then Dover saw an opening in the ring, and took it

 I kept it easy with Gia on Saturday.  We just did a little bit of lunging over jumps that I set up in my arena, since it was so wet out in the fields.  Nothing was higher than two feet, but I did add some filler under the jumps, partly to encourage her to round her back over the jumps, and partly to work on pushing her over something a little scarier than plain poles.  She was very responsive, and even excited to jump!  I used a flower box, as well as a jump block under the pole, but neither seemed to bother her.  She was also super obedient to my cues on the lunge line, even when I asked her to stand still while I adjusted the jump.  She was very attentive to my voice and movement, and was looking eagerly for the moment that I asked her to do something!

 I haven't been feeling well this week, so I'm a little behind on my blog post from Wednesday.  Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin.  We started the usual way - stretching at the walk, walk/trot transitions, etc.  We did a little shoulder-in for straightness as well.  Suzin had us try an exercise where we did a quarter turn-on-the-haunches at the walk, then right into canter.  We had a lot of moments where things didn't go as planned - couldn't get the turn correct, didn't have enough bend, not as responsive to the canter cue, little bit of bucking, etc.  However, we also had a few moments where the canter transition was REALLY good! I felt Gia sit down behind, and push off well with her hind end, and lift in the front.  She even did an (unplanned) baby capriole.  It was definitely hard for her, but I could feel her trying to get it.  The work did create a bit of tension, so we finished with working on getting the canter transition from more of a stretching position. 

 I rode Gia lightly today at home.  We did a little bit of stretching at the walk, then walk/trot transitions.  She felt like she was a little resistant to go forward, so I just kept my leg on and tapped with the whip occasionally, as needed.  Once she felt more in front of my leg, I slowed her trot down a little and popped over a few little jumps.  She immediately felt better once she started jumping.  We just did a few more, mostly at the trot, then went for a walk on the trail.  She was a little nervous, but better than last time.

I actually rode Gia twice on Friday.  In the morning was her regular session.  We started with free walking in the field, as well as walk, trot work to stretch and loosen up.  Then we worked on jumping and balancing.  She was fairly good, not really resistant to go forward to the jump.  She was a little unbalanced and quick after the jumps, but I cantered her and worked on half halts to bring her up and more balanced. In the afternoon, one of my students was having her last lesson before college, and she wanted a bunch of us to have fun on horseback in the field together, including me and Gia.  Things started out well with our warm up, but my neighbor's unruly dogs rushed her at the fence and scared her quite a bit.  She was resistant to go forward and be obedient after that, so it took a while to get her behaving again.  We had several naughty, bucking moments, but I was able to get her back eventually and have a couple of good jumps and canters.

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin today.  We started with free walk, then walk to trot transitions.  Suzin was insistent that I keep Gia together during the transitions, and that she not come up against my hand.  It only took a few tries and repetitions before Gia was surging into the trot with a lot more push from behind!   We played a little with turn-on-the-haunches, and with lengthenings, and with shoulder-in for straightness.  During the walk to trot transitions, Gia felt like she might canter a few times, so we went back and worked on walk to canter transitions with the same parameters as the walk to trot transitions.  She also had me hold my hands a bit higher, at times, to help keep her poll up.  It was obviously harder, especially to the right, but Gia was eager to try.  She did throw in a few bucks, some wrong leads, and apparently even a baby capriole !  I was able to get several really nice canters in each direction though, and I even felt a couple of steps of canter pirou

 I took Gia to CDP today for a lesson.  I hadn't been there with her in a while, for one reason or another.  Despite the fact that there was a lot of construction going on, she seemed fairly relaxed and comfortable.  We started with free walk and working trot - going all over the arena in leg yields and bending.  Then we worked on haunches-in at the trot, in preparation for the canter work.  She had to do haunches-in without actually cantering.  It was more difficult for her tracking right.  She kept trying to break into canter or trying to canter on the wrong lead.  When I did finally ask for canter, she went quite willingly, and no bucking!  Her canter was even fairly balance for longer than usual.  She's coming together!

 I worked with Gia yesterday on her flatwork.  She's had a few days off because I was out of town for a small, but much needed, vacation.  I am working on taking vacations more often (very hard in this line of work).  But whenever I come back to work, I feel like I have more relaxation, patience, feel, and energy in my rides.  This time was no exception.  Gia's ride was simple - just a little bit of free walk, medium walk, walk to trot transitions, shoulder-in and canter.  But with the added stuff I mentioned above, it felt like the quality of all those gaits and transitions was much better than usual.  She only thought about bucking once, and her canter work felt really good!