All The Kings' Horses

 I took Gia out in the field for her workout today.  Her walk was a little quick, so I worked on slowing it down and helping her relax.  When that was better, we did walk to trot transitions.  She had to stay soft in the bridle during the transition, or we came back and did it again.  It took a few before she was obedient. Whenever she was soft, I pointed her at a jump, just small and medium sized jumps, nothing too big.  I focused on keeping her soft before and after the jump, but it didn't matter if she trotted or cantered the jump.  She was a bit anxious at first, but when her softness was more consistent, she relaxed a lot, and we got to do a lot of nice cantering!  The only jump she stopped at was my small ditch.  I gave her a minute to check it out, and then she walked over it.  We trotted and cantered it a few more times with no problems.

 Gia and I started out with a nice free walk and medium walk in our lesson with Suzin today.  When I picked her up to medium walk, she wanted to stiffen against my inside rein, so I did a lot of work pushing her off my inside leg, and making sure that her shoulders moved away, to the outside.  I repeated the same work at the trot, and worked all over the arena, on both sides of her body.  She was quite resistant at times, but when she softened, she felt great!   We did a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches, and she had to keep her neck soft there as well.  Finally, we did a little work on the canter - keeping the inside of her body soft, and moving into the outside rein.  I did have to be careful not to do too much, and to allow her to go straight when she softened.  We got several nice canter moments!

 Hayley rode Gia first at CDP today.  She was quite full of herself - lots of little bucks, a few big bucks, lots of tail wringing and general pissiness.  Hayley kept pushing her forward through it all, along with some tight circles, when Gia was especially naughty.  Eventually, Gia relented, and I hopped on.   We went through the same routine, but Gia had given up the fight by then.  I did find that when I was able to put both my hands forward, so as to create a light loop in the reins, she relaxed even more and went even more forward.  We will add that to this week's homework ...

 I was finally able to find a new trailer that my giant horse will fit in!  It's a 6 horse head-to-head, which means it has a lot more room for how long Gia is.  Loading and unloading on it is a bit different than the straight load 2 horse trailer, and the slant load 6 horse trailer that I have though.  The horse has to come up a steep ramp, then turn their body, then back into the allotted space.  I worked with all the horses on loading today, and Gia was actually fairly good.   She did not want to come up the ramp at first.  After a few moments, she relaxed and came up.  Once in, it only took a little maneuvering to get her to turn and back up.  She was not resistant at all, and seemed to understand the process.  Once she was in a stall, I let her hang out and munch alfalfa while I loaded someone else.  When it was her turn again, I brought her off the trailer and put her back on.  We repeated the process three times.  She was super about letting me put her in any of the stalls I

 We had drill team practice today, so Gia got to practice with all the kids on the walk/trot quadrille.  She was very well behaved, and very obedient.  She doesn't seem to mind the other horses too close to her at the back, front or either side!  

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with our usual stretching warm up.  When we were working on transitions, Suzin noticed that Gia was not yielding as softly as she should to the reins.  So, we focused a lot of our work on that today.  We did a lot of transitions and flexing and circles and shoulder-in.  We did a lot of work at the walk to help her get it, then at the trot.  I was able to get a nice canter circle to the right, and an ok canter circle to the left!

 Gia and I had a lesson at CDP with Charlie today.  I started her out with leg yields and circles at the walk and trot.  She was a little tense at first, but settled quickly.  We also did a little bit of haunches-in and canter work.  Most of it was good.  I worked on asking her to collect the canter on a large circle, and then go forward down a long side, and then collect again on a large circle.  That is a bit difficult for her, and she keeps wanting to quit, so I used a light tap with the whip to help keep her going.  She did throw in a couple of smallish bucks in response to the whip.  I kept at it until she quit over-reacting.  We also included a crossrail a few times in our work.  Making sure to come in with a peppy trot, and then collect the canter on a circle afterward.  She did all that fairly well.

 I took Gia to a local hunter schooling show yesterday.  I lunged her a little bit before getting on.  She was pretty undramatic on the lunge line.  She got a little excited when some horses in a nearby field galloped around, but settled down quickly after that. Under saddle was a different story.  I got on and rode her up to the warm up ring.  She was a little hesitant to move out at first, but it didn't take long to get her going.  She was VERY nervous in the warm up ring.  I allowed her to look around for a little bit, and then went to work with leg yields and circles.  We did a LOT of leg yields and circles at the walk before I thought she might be ready to trot.  The trot was ok, but we still did a LOT of leg yields and small circles.  We also jumped a 2' vertical, and did a little cantering.  That was all ok.  There was a little bucking, but not too bad.  I was definitely using the neck strap, so that helped to quiet things down.   However, when we went down to the ring t

 I lunged Gia over some jumps in the round pen today.  As she did last time, she had a hard time taking them tracking right and getting her hind end under her to get the correct lead.  She was able to get it once by the end.  To the left, she did fairly well.  She was a little excited, in general though. I also worked with getting her to walk straddle along the pole again.  It was a little easier, but she still made mistakes, wanting to cross her legs over to the wrong side.

 I worked with Gia on walking straddle along the pipe again today.  She was not afraid of it at all.  She found it fairly easy to keep her left legs on the correct side of the pipe, but found it very difficult to keep her right legs on the correct side.  She kept wanting to cross her right legs over to the left side of the pipe.  By the end, she was getting it more consistent with both, but would move her right legs much more slowly and carefully. After that, I took her for a hack on the trail.  She was a bit nervous, especially about going in and coming out.  She looked around alot, but did not react too badly, just little jumps here and there.

 Gia and I started our dressage lesson today with a good stretch at the free walk, and a good medium walk.  We worked on getting her a bit steadier in the medium walk, without slowing down.  It was a tedious process, but every time she got a little busy with her head, I had to close my leg until she softened and quieted.  It was very subtle, but she did make some nice changes. We did a lot of transitions between medium walk and working trot, and down to medium walk and halt. I worked on catching her at the right moment - immediately after softening, to ask her to go more forward, or make an up transition.  I worked on making the down transitions just by quieting my seat or slowing my seat.  We also did a bit of turn-on-the-haunches, as well as shoulder-in to get her straighter and more obedient to my aids.   Finally, we did do a little bit of canter.  It wasn't much, but we worked on a more collected trot to canter transition.  She wanted to quit a few times, because she isn't

 Gia got on the trailer with pretty much no problems this morning.  We started our lesson at CDP with some work at the walk and trot, focusing on obedience to the forward and back aids, as well as haunches-in, leg yield and shoulder-in.  We added canter work - focusing on collecting the canter a tiny bit, and then organizing her giant trot when she broke from the canter.  She also had to work on going a tiny bit more forward at the trot without breaking into a canter.  Finally, we went over a few small jumps, focusing on collecting and organizing after each jump, as well as having a better tempo before each jump.  Some of it was hard, but she tried her best at everything. 

 I lunged Gia over a small jump in the round pen today.  She was quite eager to do it - I really think she likes jumping!  It also helps that she is a people pleaser :).  She would sometimes struggle with having the correct takeoff, so I just had her repeat the jump until she got it right, then praise her and give her a break.  It was harder for her tracking right.  She really struggled with getting her hind end under her well, especially on the landing.  

 Gia had her regular 8 week appointment with Cameron, her lameness vet, chiropractor and acupuncturist.  She has always carried her haunches a little bit to the right, but Cameron said they were worse than usual.  He gave us an exercise to try that should help.  Since it was so rainy today, I decided to work on it with her.   Basically, she is supposed to straddle a pvc pipe between her right legs and left legs, and walk the length of it.  He said it would be hard for her, and he was right.  She was very nervous and there was a lot of anxiety and nostril flaring/blowing at first.  I stayed calm, and helped explain/show her what she had to do.  The pole moved around a lot, and there were a LOT of mis steps.  But, gradually, she started to understand.  Each time she took a step correctly, I praised and rubbed her.  Each time she was incorrect, I tried to move her foot back or  have her take another step, or move the pole.  By the end, she understood what she needed to do, but still strug

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin.  We mainly focused on me using my leg to encourage engagement of the hind end, resulting in roundness.  Gia was very responsive at the walk and trot.  It was much harder to keep it all together for the transitions, but we did have a few good moments.

 I took Gia to CDP for her lesson today.  She stood in the crossties this morning with almost no fussiness!  She also got on the trailer with no hesitation at all! At CDP, Charlie had us warm up with leg yields and haunches-in at the walk and trot.  We did small circles around the jumps whenever the trot got too big.  I also asked her to increase her trot at times, to make sure she was listening and obedient.  She was fairly prompt to her canter transitions, and no hint of naughtiness.  She did miss her right lead a couple of times, but increasing the haunches-in work helped with that.  We used larger circles around the jumps to help balance the canter, as needed. Charlie had us go over a crossrail jump, mainly focusing on the trot (or canter) we had on approach and on landing.  If it wasn't right, then we used circles and haunches-in to get more balanced, both before and after the jump.  At one point, tracking left, her canter felt fantastic before the jump!  She never quite got t

 I worked with Gia on her flatwork today.  We warmed up with a nice medium walk and free walk.  I focused on using my legs to encourage her to lift and round through her back.  I repeated the same exercise at the trot, and through the transitions to the trot.  She was VERY responsive to this work today!  I also worked on pushing her haunches a little to the inside, and encouraging a little counter bend.   She was VERY willing at the canter, and even offered it right to me without asking, once I picked her up after a walk break.  We cantered several times in each direction, and there was only the slightest hint of a buck once.  I didn't even really have to reprimand it, because she immediately changed her tune and went back to work.  I worked on encouraging the roundness at the canter, and it was more difficult for her, but she did give me a few good moments.

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was a bit nervous and quick, but nothing more dramatic than that. When we got back, I untacked her, and loaded her on the trailer.  She went on perfectly fine.  I allowed her to get partially off, then asked her to come back on.  She was very obedient.  I repeated that a couple more times, each time letting her get a little further off.  She came right back on every time, with no hesitation.  Hopefully, she keeps this trend up!

 I worked on flatwork with Gia today at Castle Farm.  I started with work on softening her at the walk and trot.  I also worked on haunches-in at both gaits, as well as transitions.  She was very responsive and obedient to all that.  The canter work was also good!  She may have had a hint of a thought about being naughty on the first canter, but it went away quickly.  We worked on 10 meter circles at the trot, and 15 meter circles at the canter to help regulate her tempo.  It felt like she may have held her canter for a little longer today.