Gia - session 581 - lesson at CDP

 I took Gia to CDP Stables yesterday for a lesson with Charlie.  For various reasons, it had been a while since she had lessoned there.  She was a little looky and nervous, but not too bad.  We did a lot of bending, circles and leg yields to warm up at the walk and trot.  She was starting to get a little naughty, and thinking about bucking, so Charlie had me "keep her busy" with smaller circles, leg yields and haunches-in more often and more demanding, letting her know that she had a job to do.  She did throw in a couple of good bucks, but I kept riding her through it and putting her to work.  Charlie coached me to be a bit more demanding with her than I had been, so that she gets the idea that she has to work instead of throw a fit.  It wasn't anything harsh, just harder work for her in the way of smaller circles and stronger lateral work - making her work harder so she stops thinking about being naughty.  Eventually, we were able to get several nice canter moments!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 So, the last 6-7 months have been a bit crazy.  You may be wondering why I wasn't blogging, and partly that was due to my own injury, and partly that was due to Gia's surgery. Let me back up. Early in July last year, I had a "bit of a fall" off of Phillip, while schooling cross country.  I immediately knew something wasn't quite right, but luckily, it didn't hurt too bad.  When I stood up, I could feel my right arm dangling quite a bit from my shoulder socket.  When I visited my doctor a few days later, he confirmed that I definitely had injured my shoulder, but he couldn't tell me how bad it was without an MRI.  We discussed doing PT first vs an MRI first, and we both decided PT would be the route to go first.  Unfortunately, there was no improvement after two weeks, so I scheduled the MRI.  It took a few weeks to get on the schedule, and then another week to get in to see the doctor for the results, but basically, I had F'd it up real good...
Read more

Carolina Horse Park Pipe Opener - and our first show back since both our surgeries!

Image
 Gia and I ventured out to the Carolina Horse Park this past weekend for our first horse show since our respective surgeries!  My long stretch spent out of the saddle gave me a lot of time to really think about my riding. And, when I was able to get back in the saddle, I was able to pick up pretty much where I left off without losing much, if any, ground.  I'll get more into that in my next blog, since this one is just about the show ☺.  But, suffice it to say, Gia and I felt ready and excited!  For the last few months, she had been looking longingly at the trailer leaving her behind a few times.  She would even run down the fence line, along the road, as the trailer slowly drove away without her in it.  And I was really missing showing, since I lost practically the last half of last year, including one of my favorite shows of the year. We started the day off warming up for dressage.  The ring was quite empty at first, since we were one of the fir...
Read more

Gia - sessions 1125-1142 - A lot has happened over the last month!

Image
 Sorry guys, I know I am sooooo far behind!  I have had a LOT going on in my personal life, in addition to the usual craziness that I always have going on, but I am starting to catch up!  (I think)  I'm going to try a weekly synapsis to get you all caught up on what Gia has been doing though. 😁 Going back to the week of 8/12-8/16 - I had three dressage rides that week and one jump ride.  Even on the jump day, I was working with her at all gaits (yay!).  I was doing a lot of work on suppleness - flexing left and right at the poll, as well as making sure she kept the poll lifted when necessary.  Sometimes she would get a little behind, so I worked on making sure she went forward, and we did a lot of transitions between, as well as within, all the gaits.  I was even able to work a little on the stretchy trot that week, which we haven't done in a while! For the week of 8/18-8/20 - This was a short week for me and Gia, since I took a brief break (YES...
Read more