All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I had drill team practice today.  She was very obedient and correct throughout our ride.  There were a few moments when I had to ask her to move more forward, and I felt a nice moment of lengthening!

 I worked with Gia in my arena over fences today.  I thought she was going to be a little spicy at first, but when I started stretching her down, she felt fairly loose.  I worked on free walk to medium walk transitions, as well as bending at the walk.  Then I added walk to trot transitions, and bending at the trot. Over fences, I started her a little slow at the trot, and all she did was trot over the jumps.  Then I pushed her into a bigger trot, but she still just trotted over the jumps.  I was finally able to get a canter from her by letting her do a small line of two jumps. She did swish her tail and think about bucking at the canter, but she never followed through.  I made sure to keep my feet forward, keep my leg on, and keep her poll up. 

 Gia and I worked on a lot of transitions in our lesson with Suzin today.  We started with free walk to medium walk.  Gia has a really nice free walk, but tends to get inverted when I pick her up to the medium walk.  So, I worked on keeping her softer as I picked her up.  It's a little slow right now, but the speed of picking her up will increase eventually. We also worked on halt to rein back to walk transitions, and eventually to trot, and finally to a lengthened trot, with the goal of getting her to sit down more behind, and engage her hind end more.  She also had to work on not inverting during the up transitions, especially.  Finally, we added that she had to come back to a medium walk after all that.  She did a really good job of moving off my leg, and we had a lot of lengthening moments.  However, we only had one moment in each direction where she actually camp up in the withers and lowered her hind end in the lengthening.  Those two felt amazing!

 I took Gia to CDP for a lesson with Charlie today.  She did not start out feeling as tight as she did yesterday.  I warmed her up with a bit of walk work - going forward, coming back, bending, leg yielding.  Then we moved on to trot work - pretty much the same as the walk warm up.   Then Charlie had us start over a small vertical to work on her landing and cantering afterwards.  She did ok the first couple of times, actually a little slow, then she started landing, cantering off and throwing in some bucks.  So, we went back to just working on the canter itself.   First, she had to be more obedient.  She was not allowed to canter unless I asked for it.  If she tried, then I would go back and work on going forward and coming back at the trot, until she was listening better, then try the canter again.  That helped a lot!  Then, I had to work on putting my leg on her after I picked up the canter, so that she would keep it, and not fall out of it.  At the same time, I had to carefully watc

 Gia felt quite reactive and tight when I brought her into the arena today.  I decided to start with a nice stretch at the walk to loosen her up.  She wasn't responding as well to that, so I started throwing in some walk to halt transitions, and added bending, mostly in the left rein.  She had also felt stiff on the left, and hollow on the right.  Gradually, the transitions and bending work helped to loosen her up.  I started asking for trot, and it was still a bit tight, but I kept working on trot to halt, then bend to left, then trot again.  Gradually, I added bending in the corners, which was easy to the right, but still a little harder to the left.  I also worked on going across the diagonals, with concentration on bend in each corner.  The trot was a bit unsteady at first, she really wanted to surge ahead in some places, and quit in others.  As the bending got better, I worked on getting the trot more steady and consistent in tempo.  By the end, she was much looser and steadie

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was a little nervous getting started on the trail, since there have been some new things added in that area recently.  I allowed her to check things out and relax, and then we went on with pretty much no issue through the rest of the trail.  She was a little bothered by some chairs when we came back to the barn, but she did eventually get past those as well.

 Suzin had Gia and I working on a lot of bending in our lesson today.   After some free walk and medium walk warm up, we worked on getting her to yield to my inside rein at the halt in each direction.  It was a little difficult for her at first, and she was a bit fussy with her feet, but once she got it, she settled down. We repeated the exercise at the walk and trot, and through transitions, and it definitely got progressively easier.  Then we started to work on lengthening the trot, once she softened.  She offered a LOT of canter, and even though I probably shouldn't have, it was so nice and not naughty, so I allowed most of it to continue.  After I had gotten a lot of nice moments at the canter, I disciplined myself and focused on the lengthenings.  She got a REALLY nice one to the left, and and OK one to the right.

 I took Gia to CDP for a lesson today.  We worked on her flatwork - going forward and coming back at the walk and trot - making sure she was obedient to the aids.  She was a bit resistant and had some tail swishing when asked to go forward at the trot at first.  I also asked for haunches-in and leg yields.  Finally, I worked on canter transitions.  We had some slight naughty moments.  I worked to push her forward through them, and not let her neck get short.  Once we got through those, I worked on collecting the canter slightly, using my shoulders rather than my hands.  She finally got a good moment in each direction by the end.

 I took Gia to the Pleasant Hill Farm hunter show yesterday.  I started out lunging her in the rope halter.  Since she was so naughty last time, I decided to lunge her a bit longer than usual - until she was completely done with her antics, and VERY tired.  It took a while, but I think she was a much quieter horse when I rode. Under saddle, I started by warming her up in the VERY crazy warm up arena.  She was quite nervous with all the horses going in all different directions, so quickly and so close to her.  I really worked on getting her to focus on my leg and hand, rather than all the action.  At the walk and trot, she was fairly good.  When I started jumping, and a little cantering, she was ok, then she started throwing in some small bucks.  Each time, I reprimanded her, then went on.  I don't usually advise this, but since she really loves to jump, if she bucked between lines, I pulled her out and made her behave before I let her jump again.  By the end of warm up, she was jum

Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin yesterday.  We did a lot of work at the walk - stretching down, relaxing, transitioning from free walk to medium walk and back again without coming up against my hand.  We also worked on walk/trot transitions without resistance, and straightening Gia using counterbend, and a variety of figures.  I was feeling some good moments at the trot, so I asked for canter.  We actually got a lot of nice canter moments - relaxed, not too fast, fairly collected.  We did get a few buck moments, but they were smaller and less intense, and I was able to give good corrections to deter future bucking.

 Gia was acting especially anxious when I came out to put her on the trailer today - lots of dancing in the crossties, and pooping.  I put her right on the lunge line, first thing, and lunged her until she was being obedient to my cues to halt and trot.  It took her longer than usual, but once she was more humble and obedient, I loaded her on the trailer. We have recently found that her favorite treat is a carrot.  So, armed with a nice, fresh, long carrot, I led her to the trailer (there was hardly any stomping of the hind boots), and she was even excited to get on the trailer! At CDP, she was much less anxious, and actually worked really well!  We worked on leg yield and bending at the walk and trot, as well as lengthening and collecting the trot.  We also worked on haunches-in, and then the canter.  There was NO bucking!  There might have been a tiny tail swish, but that was about it.  She was hesitant to keep the canter the first couple of times, but once she did, we worked on coll

 I worked with Gia on her flatwork today.  She started out feeling very stuck in her body.  I worked on helping her loosen up, mostly by asking her to move her shoulder to the outside, and soften on the inside.  It took a lot of repetition at the walk before she felt a bit looser.  I also did halt transitions, and she had to soften there as well.  Moving on to the trot, I did the same thing with her, and it again took many repetitions before she felt looser.  She had an especially difficult time moving her shoulder to the right, softening her neck on the left, and putting her haunches to the left.  She was starting to do much better with transitions and changes of bend, so I asked for some canter work.  She ran into the same difficulties at the canter, and did launch a few bucks.  I would immediately bring her back, and then push her forward again to the exercise.  She eventually gave me a lot of nice canter to the right, but her canter to the left only got a little better.

 Gia and I started our lesson with Suzin today with a nice stretch at the walk.  We also did a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches, leg yield and transitions at walk and trot.  Then we mainly focused on canter transitions.  It didn't matter if it came from the walk or trot, but most of them came from the walk.  She had to be obedient, not naughty, and keep her shoulder out and haunches in.  Once we would get the canter, I had to soften, and then ask her to go a tiny bit more forward.  She mostly started with a very collected canter.  Eventually, I was even able to ask her to stretch a bit at the canter.  Finally, I had to bring her back to the trot before she broke on her own.  She only bucked a few times, and I was able to catch it and correct it quickly.  After that, she really tried to behave and give me what I wanted.  It was definitely hard for her, but she gave me a lot of small, but good, moments!

 Hayley rode Gia first today, in our lesson at CDP.  Gia was a little better than last week, but still threw in some bucks here and there in the beginning.  It did not take as much from Hayley, this time out, to get her submissive and obedient.  I hopped on and put her through the same paces.  She was much better for me as well!  I focused on positioning her to the inside, and pushing her shoulder to the outside, in the beginning.  I asked her to go a little more forward with her trot, and then to bring it back, and a little more collected, but still peppy.  She was very obedient to all that.  I also asked her for haunches-in, and for the canter transition.  Everything was prompt, obedient and smooth.  When I brought her back to the trot, I quickly worked to get her trot smaller and more coordinated.  She was super obedient about everything today!

 I took Gia to The Portofino Equestrian Center for their spring horse trials yesterday.  We entered in the Green as Grass division.  I started out her day with a bit of lunging in the morning.  She was excited at first, but settled down pretty quickly, even when I asked for canter. When it was time for dressage, she made her way, fairly well, to the warm up area.  She warmed up rather nicely.  We did a lot of positioning the neck to the inside, while pushing the shoulders to the outside, anytime she didn't want to go somewhere, or was spooky, or looky, or felt tense.  As soon as she relaxed, I relaxed and allowed her to straighten.  She was being very obedient and relaxed, so I decided to ask for some canter work, just as practice for the day when we are finally able to canter at a show.  There was definitely some bucking, but less than we normally would get at a show, and less intense.  I was able to get her back with more of the positioning and leg yielding work.  I was also able