All The Kings' Horses

 I took Gia for a hack out in the fields today.  She was fairly relaxed and obedient.  She did get nervous about a pile of brush, so we approached it for her to check it out.  Once she realized it really was just a pile of brush, she was fine.  We also worked a little bit up and down hills at the walk.

 We had our last drill team practice today, before our show next Saturday.  Gia was a little nervous and spooky, but no worse than usual.  She was unusually grumpy when Dover was near her, but once I worked on getting her attention better, she was less bothered by him.  By the end of the ride, she had settled down nicely.

 Last weekend, I took Gia to the War Horse schooling and show at the Carolina Horse Park.  On Saturday, we schooled the stadium course and cross country course.  She was much quieter for everything, but still had trouble getting through the water on her own.  She was fine after following Ali in though. On Sunday, she competed in the Green As Grass HT division.  Her dressage was fairly good.  She scored 34.4% and started out in 6th place out of 14.  For stadium, she kept all the jumps up, and was fairly consistent.  She did have 1.6 time penalties, but there was no bucking!  On cross country, she also was fairly consistent, although I did have to push her hard through the water.  She ended up finishing in 3rd place overall!

To prep Gia for the show this weekend, I took her out to lunge over some of her jump nemeses in the field.  Except for a sudden burst of excitement, where she decided to start galloping around, she was really good and jumped everything I pointed her at!  Part way through our session, I think she got excited because she was jumping (which she loves), and getting treats each time she went over something.  She started galloping and bolting, so I paused the jumping and just lunged her in each direction, focusing on obedience to my cues until she quieted down.  Then we resumed the jumping.  She went over the brick wall, the flat tires, the bank up and down, the ditch and the corner.  She was super eager to go to whatever I pointed her at, and didn't balk or stop at anything.  Fingers crossed she has the same attitude this weekend (minus the galloping, of course!)

 Gia and I worked with Suzin today on her dressage.  She started out with a really good stretch, and good transitions back and forth between medium walk and free walk.  We did a little bit of working trot, and then we came back and worked on turn-on-the-haunches at the walk.  We found that it was easier for me to feel the movement if I did it on the rail.  I had to get her neck bent about 45 degrees to the inside, but keep her body straight on the rail.  Then I had to move Gia like we wanted to do a shoulder-in, then haunches-in, then back to shoulder-in, until she got it.  I was able to get a few good steps in each direction. After that, we worked on lengthening and collecting the trot.  Her transitions to lengthening the trot were very good, and very prompt.  However, her transitions back to collected trot were a little mushy.  I worked on getting those a bit tidier.  She started to anticipate, thinking we were going to canter, and then got pissy about me tapping her with the whip an

I took Gia to CDP today for a lesson with Charlie.  I started by letting her walk around on a fairly loose rein, checking everything out.  After a few minutes, she started to relax, and get into a bigger, looser walk.  Then I started to put her together and ask for some bending and leg yields at the walk, then trot.  When it was time to jump, Charlie had us work on staying very straight in the front, and not worrying about what the hind end was doing.  If she landed at the canter (which only happened a couple of times), then I schooled the canter, working on keeping her more in the outside rein, and using hardly any inside rein.  She had one canter that she kept for several laps, and did quite well.  Before that one, there were a few attempts, but they either ended in bucking, or just generally falling out of the canter.  Her bucks were minor today, but each time, Charlie had me put her to work with a haunches-in exercise.  By the end, she was more relaxed, straight and obedient.

 I took Gia to the Sedgefield Jumper show today.  Hayley helped me warm her up and coached us in our classes.  She had us start by just walking on a relaxed (not loose) rein, allowing Gia to look around, as long as she didn't do anything naughty and kept moving forward nicely, which she did.  Within a few minutes, she started to relax.  When I put her to work, I insisted that she stay more focused, but rewarded her often with a relaxation of the rein, and lots of pats and praise.  She stayed fairly relaxed in her trot as well.  We jumped a couple of small crossrails in warm up, keeping the same idea we had at the trot.  Then I asked her to canter, very nonchalantly, and kept the same idea with the canter work each way.  She was a little abrupt in the transition, but then relaxed fairly quickly into a nice rhythm.  We jumped a few more jumps, at the trot and canter, up to about 2'3".  She kept going in the same relaxed manner, so we decided she was ready for her classes. In

 I worked with Gia on her jumping in the arena, using a gymnastic today.  We started with all the poles laid out - 6 trot poles, then enough room for one stride, then one pole, then enough room for another stride, then one pole.  She was a little overwhelmed with all the poles the first few times, but by the third time she had figured it out and we just had to open the poles up a little bit more to accommodate her big stride.  I typically prefer to start with just a few trot poles, and then add more as we go, but when you are working with minimal help, it's not very efficient to do it that way.  It's good for her to be able to adapt though. Once the trot poles were easier, we added a small vertical after the first 4 trot poles.  That was too small, so we had to make it a 2' vertical.  She jumped that fine, so we added another 2' vertical, one stride away.  She also jumped that fine, although the distance was a little tight, so we opened it up and added a third 2' ve

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  Most of it was good - fairly relaxed, but with a big walk.  There was just one part on the path that she balked at and didn't want to go forward over.  I kept at it until she finally went forward on the scary, bare ground.  She was perfectly fine walking on it when we were coming back home though ...

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We did a lot of work on transitions as well as stretching.  We focused a lot on trying to get a quiet halt without her anticipating.  She really wanted to rein-back on her own today!  Once I did get a quiet halt, I did ask for rein-back.  She gave me several good steps and then transitioned to working trot, or sometimes a lengthened trot.  We also did a lot of work on lengthenings.  Those were a little harder for her today, as compared to most days.  Throughout everything, I was working on keeping a very correct bend, and using a lot of shoulder-in to help with the movements.

 I took Gia to CDP today for a lesson with Charlie.  She started out a little unfocused and felt slightly naughty.  I worked on circles and leg yields at the walk and trot to get her attention.  Then we started to go over a few poles and a small crossrail.  With the smaller jumps, she just trotted them, which was fine.  I stayed focused on keeping her attention, doing circles when necessary to help her focus.  As the jumps got bigger (only to about 2'), she started to actually jump them.  When she landed at the canter, which was often, I switched gears and just worked on helping her balance at the canter.  Charlie had me primarily work with my outside rein, trying to use VERY little inside rein.  I also worked on half halting in time with her mane (every time the mane "came up" at the canter, I timed my half halts to match).  She was able to keep her canter for a fairly long time, several times in each direction.  She also only gave me a couple of (barely) naughty moments

 I worked with Gia on her flatwork today in my dressage arena.  We hadn't been in there in a while, but it didn't seem to phase her mentally.  The footing is quite different, since it's grass instead of sand, and not quite level, but she handled it fairly well for the most part.  I started out working on getting her to stretch at the walk.  My main focus today was to get her more in front of my leg, and get her hind legs more active.  One way to know if you are successful with that is to watch the base of the neck.  You are looking for the base of the neck to be thicker and then taper towards the head.  At first, Gia was quite quick as I pushed her up with my leg, but once she started stretching more properly, she relaxed and really got into it.   I focused on the same thing at the medium walk, working trot and working canter.  She did have a couple of minor naughty moments, but it was harder for her because I had been able to get her hind end under her better.  I also work

 I kept Gia's workout today fairly brief.  I worked on the hills out in the field.  Hill work helps build a horse's hind end muscles, which helps them to "sit" and collect better.  I started with stretching at the walk, up and down the hills.  Then I added medium walk and working trot.  Despite being a bit naughty in the barn, she was very well behaved in the field, and very obedient to what I asked her to do.

 I took Gia out to the field to jump today.  She was VERY obedient, and not a bit naughty!  After warming up with some stretching at the walk and trot, I put her over a couple of smaller jumps that she just trotted over.  I had to point her at something much bigger before she picked up her feet enough to actually jump it.  I went over most of the jumps we have in the field, and did a lot of them at the canter as well.  I mainly focused on keeping her straight and steady to the jumps.  She was a tiny bit worried about the brick wall, but otherwise jumped everything fine!

 Danielle and I decided to take advantage of this nice weather today, and a completely empty day off, and took our "ponies" out for a trail ride.  We had intended to go to Sandy Pines, but on arrival found out that they were closed.  So, we shifted gears quickly and decided to try out Raven Rock State Park.  It's only about an hour from the barn, but I had never been there before.  It's not bad - a little small with only two 4 mile trails, very narrow and rocky paths, so we could only walk, but VERY peaceful.   Gia was looky and alert, but fairly relaxed pretty much the entire time.  She set out with a very ground covering walk (Ali was either pretty far behind us, or had to trot to keep up with us).  There were times where Ali was in front, but Gia didn't seem to mind whether she led or followed.  The were two water crossings, where we had to cross a running creek.  Gia was definitely anxious and resistant.  Ali went first easily. With some prodding, and me letti

 I started Gia with some stretching down at the walk for my lesson today.  Then we worked on transitions to and from the trot while stretching down.  She was a bit resistant to those today, but I was able to get her a little softer.  I added a small spur to my boots for riding her.  It's not much of a spur, but I would like for her to respond to my leg better, so that I only have to use the whip if necessary.  I definitely felt more of a reaction from her today, but it wasn't bad.  She was naughty at times, when she felt resistant and I pushed her forward, but no more than usual.  I did work on trying to soften her more with my fingers today, when she became resistant, rather than just widening my hands and trying to keep the connection.  So, anytime I felt resistance, I immediately closed my leg like a vice, widened my hands to keep the connection, and added more wiggling of my fingers to soften her so she wouldn't invert and push back harder against me.  That definitely s

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  There were still branches down from the past storm, and the trail was littered with leaves, and also some bare spots where the water had washed the ground cover away.  She didn't seem bothered by the branches or the leaves, but the bare spots were a big challenge for her.  She stopped abruptly in one area in particular, refusing to go forward.  I asked nicely once or twice, and then had to get after her more sharply to let her know that stopping and backing up were not options.  She thought about being naughty briefly, and then went forward, although hesitatingly.  As long as she was making forward progress, I left her alone.  When we came back through that spot the second time, she was nervous, but didn't dare stop!  The rest of the trail was fairly uneventful, although she was nervous and blowing a little.