Gia - session 796 - jumper show

 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 got the canter, there was NO bucking!  I was able to repeat it, in both directions, several times.  After each successful canter, she received a stretchy walk break, and then more stretchy trot to canter.

Finally, we had to go to our classes.  I had entered her in the 2'6" open jumper classes.  I went in the ring, and immediately asked for stretchy trot.  When I thought I had it, I asked for canter (luckily, we needed her good canter, on the left lead).  I was able to get a pretty decent canter to start out both courses.  There was NO bucking for either course as well!  The first course was a little messy, since I wasn't sure what to expect, but we went clear and received the blue ribbon!  In the second course, I tried to let her make some of her own decisions, when it came to deciding how big to make her stride and when to leave the ground for the jump.  I mostly just supported her through it.  She brought down a few rails, but then learned from her mistakes and had some jumps that were really nice!

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