Gia - session 645 - free jumping!

 We decided to free jump a bunch of the horses today, and Gia was one of them.  Free jumping is where we set up a couple of jumps, about two strides apart, and set up a "chute" to funnel the horse through so that they get to the jumps with no rider aboard.  It's a great way to build confidence with jumping, teach a horse how to figure out their striding, get them used to "scary" jumps, and see how high they are capable of jumping.  Gia has done it twice before, but in the past, she was still trying to figure everything out, so we didn't go very high, or challenge her in any way.  Today was different!  She knew exactly what she needed to do, and quickly figured out how much to adjust her stride so that she would get to the jumps correctly.  I worked on keeping her very relaxed before entering the chute, and she even corrected her leads every time!  It was a very successful free jump session for her.  She ended up jumping 3'10" high, with a 4'8" spread!

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