Gia - session 606 - jumper show!

 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 the first class at 2', she was a bit nervous.  I had decided to reward her with treats anytime she stood still while waiting her turn, and as soon as I went in the ring.  I tried to keep the same relaxed trot that we had in warm up.  She got a little tense and looked around, but not as bad as usual.  The first few jumps were in the "scariest" corner of the ring, so she did get tense and jump a bit too high, but she went forward and didn't buck, so it was a win!  She finished the course better than she started, although a little too quick and disorganized.  She did bring a rail down, and had time faults, but there was no bucking!

In the second class, over the same course, she was much more relaxed, and I was able to keep a much quieter pace.  She even got the correct strides between the related jumps (usually she leaves out at least one stride because she is going too fast and covering too much ground).  Again, no bucking!  So, since she was so much better, I decided to end on that class and scratch the last one, allowing her to quit while she was ahead and feeling good!

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