All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I had a lesson with Charlie today.  I let her walk around the arena on a fairly loose rein to start.  She was a little more tense than usual at first, and it took her longer, but she eventually relaxed and we got to work.  We started with bending and leg yields at the walk and trot, with lots of circles.  Then we went over a pole, and a medium sized X.  Eventually, we added a few verticals and oxers.  If she trotted the jump, no big deal.  If she cantered after the jump, then we worked on steadying the canter - using the outside aids to keep her straight and balanced, and not letting her get too long or quick.  She kept her canter for quite a while in each direction, and there was no bucking today!

 I intended to take it fairly easy on Gia today since she had a few days off due to the holidays.  I was just going to hack her on the trail, but since she has been overly reactive to the two new piggies we got on Friday, I decided to work on some desensitization with her.   All I really ended up doing was going back and forth near the pig pen until she was a little better.  She started out VERY reactive and resistant to go forward.  Despite me keeping my eye on something past the pigs, rather than the pigs themselves, and keeping her feet moving, and keeping her "funneled" in the correct direction, when I was coming past the pigs away from the barn, she would not go all the way.  I was able to get her fairly close, and then gave her a treat.  After that, I hopped off and hand walked her back and forth past the pigs.  Each time we got by, I gave her a treat.  She was definitely easier to lead whenever heading towards the barn, rather than away.  I went several times back and

 I worked with Gia on lunging over some jumps today.  She was a bit distracted by our new farm friends (we have new pigs!), so I thought it best to stay off her back for the first day. I worked with her in the arena, and set up three poles about 9' apart.  After she had trotted through them on the lunge line in each direction, I started to raise the center pole.  We started with a small vertical, then a larger vertical, then a tall vertical (about 2').  Then I added an oxer and made it fairly wide.  She was able to trot in to all but the last two height changes.  Those she had to canter into.  She wanted to drift outside the circle when she jumped, so I added a few blocks to help her stay straight.  Once she got the hang of it, she did really well!

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started with some stretching at the walk.  As we moved into the medium walk, I was insistent that she not come against my hand.  I tried to keep that theme throughout the lesson.  Each time she did, I would bring my shoulders back and down, tighten my abs, tighten my legs and brace.  As soon as she softened, I would relax EVERYTHING!  I had to do this ALOT throughout my lesson, especially before and after up and down transitions between all gaits.   After Gia was warmed up and more supple, we started working on transitions.  We started with walk to halt, then walk to trot, then trot to halt to trot.  Once those were better, we worked on trot to canter and walk to canter.  I only had her go a few steps of canter at a time before making a down transition.  She did give me a couple of naughty moments at first, but once I used a lighter cue, with my leg not as far back, she seemed to do better.  By the end, she was giving me a couple o

 I worked with Gia lightly on her flatwork today.  We did a lot of stretching, at both the walk and trot.  I also did a lot of transitions between free walk and medium walk.  I really focused on her staying soft and not against my hand when brining her up.  We worked on transitions between medium walk and working trot as well.  Focusing on the same thing - keeping her soft and not against my hand.  Once she understood her limits, she was very good.

 I gave Gia last week off since the show season was over and she had worked so hard all year.  She probably didn't appreciate it though, since she really loves to work! To get her back into the swing of things today, I just kept it simple and took her for a hack on the trail.  I had trouble getting her to stand still.  That is something that has been brewing, but I have ignored it up until now.  I will be cracking down on that behavior for sure.  She was also very nervous about a pile of junk that we passed on the way to the trail.  I worked with her for a while, encouraging her to get closer and closer, until she finally touched it and realized it was no big deal.  She didn't care about it at all when we passed it on the way out.  Meanwhile, on the trail, she was nervous in general, not at anything in particular.  I just kept encouraging her to stretch down and look straight ahead.

 I took Gia to the last show of the season this past weekend for the Carolina Horse Park War Horse Championships.  She had qualified for the championships earlier in the year, and she was entered in the Green as Grass Championship division. On Friday we  schooled the Green as Grass show jumping and cross country courses alongside Ali and Danielle.  Schooling went fairly well.  Show jumping was uneventful.  On cross country we schooled some Maiden jumps alongside the GAG jumps.  There was a boggy area in between a couple of jumps, and a wet area in between a couple of other jumps, that I had to really push to get her through.  We went back and forth through them a few times, until they were easier.  Apparently, we were fairly successful with those, because by the time we got to the water, she went in without much argument, just a little hesitation.  It was also extremely windy, so there was a LOT of stuff blowing around to spook at.  We took our time in these situations to work on some

 Gia and I worked with Suzin today on our dressage.  We started with a relaxing and stretchy walk, then worked on transitions to the trot.  She was a bit resistant, so I used shoulder-in, and other lateral work to soften her before the transitions.  At the trot, I also did a lot of lateral work, including shoulder-in, renvers, leg yield, and haunches-in.  We also did a few steps of turn-on-the-haunches at the walk.  Sometimes we would transition to a trot lengthening when she felt lighter and softer, and sometimes we would transition to a canter.  Her lengthenings were good, her canter had a lot of bucking again.  I worked on desensitizing her to taps of the whip, especially at the canter, and that helped subdue the bucking.  I also worked on getting her right into a shoulder-in after we lost the canter.  She did have some nice moments today.

 Gia and I had a lesson at CDP today with Charlie.  We warmed up with a fairly loose walk, allowing her to look around, but guiding her slightly where I wanted her to go.  Then I added some bending, circles, and leg yields, as well as some trot.  Charlie had us trot over several 2' jumps in the ring.  She mostly just trotted them, without any effort to jump them.  We were hoping she would land and canter so we could work on it, but that never really happened.  So, Charlie had us work on haunches-in at the walk and trot, and then ask for the canter.  I had to concentrate on using just the outside rein and leg, with little to no inside rein, which would have pulled her off balance, leading to the wrong lead, and/or bucking.  We did get a little bucking at one point, when we were going the difficult direction and I lost control of her haunches.  We came back to the walk and trot and tried again, and it was much better.  We were able to get several good laps of GOOD canter in each dire

 I worked with Gia on her flatwork today.  We started with a bit of stretching at the walk, and then worked on free walk to stretchy trot transitions.  At the working trot, we also worked a little on bending, leg yields and shoulder-in, as well as more transitions.  Finally, we did a little bit of trot/canter transitions.  I used a lot of haunches-in to help set her up and prepare her for the canter.  I also used it right after coming back to the trot to help her get better organized.  She was a bit naughty, with a lot of small bucks thrown in.  I just kept pushing her to do what I asked, and relaxed as soon as she was more well-behaved.

 Gia and her cohort Dover competed their drill team test at the Portofino Dressage show today.  She was a little wild on the lunge line, but fairly quiet when she came up to warm up.  She warmed up fairly quiet, although a little spooky in some areas of the indoor arena.   The show arena was next to a wall of mirrors, so she freaked out a little there, and had to be led into the ring by her tiny partner (ha ha!).  Our test went really well!  We had a few minor errors, but overall it was great!  We scored a 58% and won our "class"!

This morning's work with Gia was a bit interesting.  It started out with me noticing that the arena rake was facing the wrong way, so the tines were out.  I rode up to it on Gia, and attempted to pick it up and turn it around.   Now, I have done stuff like this many times with many horses.  If it's their first time, they often react a bit nervously, but usually relax fairly quickly.  I should have known this would not be the case with Gia....    When I picked it up, she immediately got nervous and started to walk away from it, but because I was holding it, it followed her, so she got more anxious and I could tell she was going to bolt.  So, I dropped it, which also terrified her, causing her to leap into the air to get away from the most offensive rake.  Danielle had come out and picked it up off the ground, so I attempted picking it up myself again, only to have the exact same reaction.  I decided that, for today, the best thing would be to have Danielle handle the rake, but b

 Suzin worked with Gia and I today on our dressage.  We started with a very nice, relaxed, stretchy free walk.  Moving into the medium walk, I hit a little resistance.  Any time I hit resistance throughout my ride, I closed my driving leg, braced with my core, and kept my fingers moving until she softened.  As soon as she did soften, I would relax those three things, and often pat her and praise her.  For the most part, the worst thing she did today was to push against me with resistance, especially during up transitions.  She did throw in a few little bucks, but not that often, and not that big.   We worked on a variety of schooling figures and exercises, including turn-on-the-haunches, shoulder-in, leg yield, haunches-in, transitions between all gaits, including halt.  Gia added her own flair with a few nice lengthening steps, and even a half step of canter pirouette!

 I took Gia to CDP today for a lesson with Charlie.  The rings were too flooded to jump, so we worked on her flatwork out in a field near the road.  I started by letting her relax and look around at the walk, with not much pressure to actually work.  As she started to settle, I started to ask her for a figure 8, bending and leg yielding appropriately on the circles.  Then at the trot, we did the same thing.   Once she was warmed up, Charlie had us work on a haunches-in type exercise where I keep her slightly bent to the outside and leg yield down the rail, getting her to put her haunches more to the inside and under her body.  We worked on that at the walk and trot, and then straightened to ask for a canter transition.  She was very good to the left.  When she picked up the canter, I kept her on a circle and let her find her balance, going back to the haunches exercise when she broke to trot.  To the right, it was harder for her to pick up the canter because her shoulders kept falling