All The Kings' Horses

 I lunged Gia over jumps in the round pen today.  I warmed her up with a ground pole at the trot in both directions a few times.  Then I bumped it up to a small vertical, then a 2' vertical.  All that went fairly well.  I clicked and gave her a treat each time she had a successful jump.  Next, I added a towel draped across the pole.  She definitely dodged that jump the first time around!  When she came back to it, I had to keep her a little "penned in" against the round pen fence to make sure she went over it.  She got a click and a treat immediately.  I had her go over it a few more times in each direction, until it was solid.  She finished with much more bravado than she started!

 I took Gia out in my field to warm up and jump a little.  At the walk and trot, I focused on keeping her in the outside rein, and changing rein often.  I allowed her to stretch a little whenever she felt obedient and submissive.  Then I took her over several jumps, but all she did was trot over them.  She did stop at the small brick wall jump the first time.  I stopped and made her look at it, then brought her back to it and she went over it just fine.  Finally, I took her out to my medium grade hills to work on the canter.  She was a little anticipatory, so I made her trot around a few times, getting her into the outside rein.  When she was quieter, I asked for canter.  She did fairly well in both directions.  She wanted to twist out of the outside rein, but I kept pushing her into it, and then she finally relaxed and moved forward.

 I took Gia out to the field to warm up today.  We worked up and down hills at the walk and trot - collecting going down and stretching going up.  I also worked on keeping her very straight.  I took back in the arena to work on the canter.  I really focused on keeping a good feet on my outside rein during all our trot work - working, stretching, leg yields, haunches-in.  When I asked for the canter, I focused on keeping that same connection.  She did fairly well tracking right, but kept dropping out of my outside rein tracking left.  I had to do a lot of leg yield to the right to keep her in the outside rein, while asking for canter.  We did end up getting a few good canters in each direction.  She didn't really buck, but she did jump up and forward a few times.

 I took Gia for a lesson at CDP today.  We started with stretching at the walk, while also asking for leg yield and changes of bend and direction.  As I asked for the trot, she came up to a working frame, but was a bit against me.  I did more bending to get her off my hand, and then went to work with leg yield, haunches-in, going forward, coming back, transitions, and stretching.  She was quite responsive to everything.  As I started to ask for canter I could feel her start to come apart.  I noticed that she tended to anticipate the canter transition when she felt me sit the trot.  So, I started back with my trot routine, and added sitting trot and double posting down to mix it all up.  When I asked for canter again, she was more obedient.  I had to focus on keeping the connection in the outside rein more consistent, but I did get several good  moments in each direction!

 I took Gia to the Sedgefield Jumper show today at the Carolina Horse Park.  She warmed up nice and quiet on the lunge line at the walk, trot and canter.  In under saddle warm up, she actually started out kinda lazy and quiet.  I was pleasantly surprised!  She was even quiet in her first canter in each direction!  I cantered her around the entire warm up area (which is quite large), in both directions.   After a small break, we went back to work.  Unfortunately, when I asked for more canter, I got some ferocious bucking (and twisting) instead.  I tried walk to canter transitions, so that I could keep her straighter better.  It helped a little, but she was still determined to buck.  I finally got a halfway decent canter, and then rewarded her with a nice stretch at the walk.  She does love to stretch, so I tried to use that to my advantage.  After a short break, I worked on stretchy trot.  When that was feeling pretty good, I tried the canter again.  It took a few attempts, but once we

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail this morning.  She was a little nervous, but she didn't stop and spook at anything.  She did look around and "blow" a lot, but kept on walking.  She did walk fairly quickly (also a sign of nervousness), so I worked on getting her to slow down and breathe.

 I've been going through a tech upgrade, and due to that, I wasn't able to Blog for the last few sessions.  So, I'm catching up here: Sunday, September 17, 2023 - CT at Portofino, and XC schooling: I took Gia to the Portofino show for her first Starter level combined training.  She lunged very quietly at walk, trot and canter.  Her under saddle warm up was atrocious though!  After doing a little walk and trot work, where I practiced keeping her busy, I wasn't able to get more than about 5 steps of canter without some ferocious bucking.  I finally had to go in my class, feeling like it wasn't going to go well, but I had no other choice.  Not sure what happened, but she ended up cantering very well!  No bucking at all!  We scored a 31.33%, which put us in second place out of 9 entries!  Her stadium warm up was a little better.  There was a little bucking, but not as bad, and she really focused on the jumps.  We went double clear in stadium, and finished in first place

 I took Gia out in the field to lunge over several jumps today.  Once she was warmed up (she was very relaxed, by the way), I had her go over the white pipes, the rolltop, the ditch, the up and down banks, and the closed road jumps.  She handled all of them quite nicely!  She wasn't too fast or too slow, and she was very eager to do even the scarier looking ones.  As she went over each jump, I clicked the clicker, and then she got a treat!

 Gia and I started in a nice, stretchy, relaxed free walk at our lesson with Suzin today.  We worked on transitions between free walk and medium walk - encouraging roundness, while also keeping a correct tempo and relaxation.  We did the same with walk and trot transitions.  Most of them were pretty good today, just a few inconsistencies.   We did a lot of lateral work - shoulder-in, leg yield, renvers, shoulder-out, tiny steps of half pass, lots of changes of bend and direction, all mostly at the trot, and some at the walk.  Then we added canter transitions to the mix.  Most of them were pretty good!  Only one of them had a little bucking, but then she came back and went forward, more correctly.  She even had some nice transitions from canter to trot.  I still had to focus on keeping my lower leg on, but she got the idea quicker today, so I didn't need it quite as firmly, or quite as long.

 Gia was a bit tense when we started warming up at CDP for our lesson.  I kept my leg on, kept asking her to go forward, and softened as soon as she responded with a more forward walk.  That's pretty much the theme of our entire lesson - ask for something, then soften when I get it, then ask for something else, all the while keeping a firm leg whenever she got tense or stuck or didn't want to go forward.  We did a LOT of transitions and lateral work - leg yield, shoulder-out, collect, lengthen, walk, trot, canter, more walk.  I kept her very busy, and tried to go in the opposite direction that she wanted to (walk if she wanted to canter, etc).  I only asked for 3-4 canters, but they were all pretty good, quiet, forward and NO bucking!

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was a little worried about a few, random, things, but nothing too bad, and nothing in particular.  I kept my leg on her, firmly, whenever she was hesitant, and only had to add a few taps with the whip.  She didn't walk as quickly as usual, so I'll take that as a sign she was more relaxed.

 We had our drill team practice offsite again today.  It had rained a lot last night, and there was a large puddle right at the entrance to the dressage arena, and Gia was quite perturbed about it.  She refused to go through it, and darted around it several times.  We were working with our music for the first time, so I had to just make her keep going, and catch up with my teammates.  Every time we had to pass through it, I kept pushing her on.  Eventually, she started to relax about it, and went through it like it was nothing.   In her second test, there was a lot of canter work.  She was a bit more "extra" today about her canter, probably because she got worked up about the puddle.  I kept both my legs on her hard, and tapped with the whip when I needed to.  She did eventually settle down and go correctly, but not as smoothly as last practice.

 We had some nasty storms come through this morning when I was supposed to be working with horses, so Gia did a little work in hand today instead of under saddle.  A while back, Cameron (her chiropractor) had suggested working with her on walking straddle over a long pole, in hand, to help her track straighter with her legs.  I had done it a few times in the beginning, but we've been so busy with everything else, that it had fallen to the back burner.  Today was a good day to work on it again.  Gia remembered the exercise, but still struggled with it, physically.  Danielle had to guide her up front, while I guided her in the back.  Every time she took a step correctly, I clicked, and she got a treat.  It took several tries before she was able to get all the way down the pole without a mis step.

 I took Gia out in the field today for her flatwork.  We started with walk and trot up and down the hills - collecting downhill and stretching up.  I focused on her straightness the most, and used a lot more leg than usual.  I definitely felt a difference in how quickly she straightened up. I took her to a flatter area when we were ready to add the canter.  There were still gradual hills, which I used when asking for canter.  The first few canters were a bit rocky - lots of bucking, but I kept my leg on HARD, until she straightened up and went forward.  Then I completely relaxed, and even gave her her head and praised her.  We did that several times in each direction.  It was pretty good by the end.

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin today.  We started with a little free walk, then picked up to medium walk, and worked on a little lateral work for straightness and suppleness.  Then we worked on walk to trot transitions.  When I would ask for the up transition to the trot, I could feel Gia shifting her shoulder to the inside to avoid going forward.  Each time it happened, I straightened her back up, and then asked for the trot again.  It took a few tries, but she was eventually able to give me the trot without getting crooked.   After some good transitions, we worked on lateral stuff for straightness and suppleness at the trot.  Then proceeded to tackle the same issue with the trot to canter transitions.  In addition to getting crooked, Gia also stopped going forward, and threw in a few bucks.  I really had to focus on keeping my leg on, and tapping her with the whip until she finally went forward.  When she did, I made a big, positive fuss over her.  By the end of our ride, the las

 I took Gia out in the field to work on her flatwork today.  We started by working on the hills - collecting the walk and trot going down, and stretching going up.  She also had to stay straight, which was the hardest part for her.  She was quite argumentative about getting straight, but I kept my leg on, and kept guiding her.  As soon as she got a good moment, I relaxed everything for a few seconds. Then I started working on very square turns at the trot, using the entire field.  Again, the hardest part for her was staying straight.  When it was more consistent, I asked for a little bit of haunches-in, and then canter.  With both movements, she still had to stay straight, so if she lost that, we went back to the trot to get it back.  It was very frustrating for her, but when she got it, I made sure to make a big, positive, deal about it, and soften everything.  We did have one moment, where all the horses in the field started galloping, so I had to do circles and work to keep her atte

 I lunged Gia over jumps in my round pen today.  She started out very "fresh" and "up", so I just turned her loose in the round pen, and sent her around in both directions a few times at trot and canter, until she was more relaxed and focused.  Then I start putting the jumps up. We started with a pole on the ground, then a 12" vertical, then a 2' vertical.  When those were going well - not too fast, not too slow, centered, etc - then I started adding "scary" items as filler for the jump.  I draped a towel over the pole, which was a little startling to her, but she still jumped it ok.  Then I put up a solid piece at a slant down from the jump.  That was a LOT scarier to her.  She stopped hard at it, and it took several attempts before she got over it.  She did get a treat after each successful jump, and I had her do it until it was smoother.

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was a little concerned about my car that was near the head of the trail, so we checked it out and I "clicked" a clicker and gave her a treat whenever she touched it.  I can't remember if I talked about using a clicker with Gia in the past, but she had been trained to it, and she quickly remembered what it meant.  It really gave her some comfort, and helped her to relax a bit more on the trail.  She was quick on the trail, but seemed a tiny bit more relaxed than last time.  She didn't stop at anything anywhere on the trail.