All The Kings' Horses

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  Gia was a bit tight through her neck and body, so we started by working to get her to stretch down into my hands, but also to stretch so deeply that her neck comes up out of her withers more.  It was pretty easy for her to do this at the walk, but to keep it, and keep it steady, when she came up to medium walk was a little harder.  It was also difficult for her to get it through the transitions to trot.  In each transition, I worked her through it, using a lot of "inside leg to outside hand" to encourage her to release and stretch from the withers more.  She eventually started to get it at the trot and through the transitions better.  Then we took it to the canter transition, and the canter itself.  She easily cantered, fairly well, when tracking right, and easily stretched while cantering as well.  Tracking left, it took a bit more "finagling" to get her to stretch at the canter and through the canter transition. 

 Gia and I went down to Vass for a dressage lesson with Charlie today.  It was super windy here, so she was a bit anxious from the beginning, although not too bad, considering.  Charlie had us work on much of the same stuff - medium walk, working trot, transitions, leg yield, haunches-in, collecting, lengthening.  Despite the wind, it was not terribly difficult to keep her attention, and a baby shoulder-in usually did the trick.  We did a few canter transitions, when everything felt good, but scattered randomly throughout the ride.  After our ride, on the walk back to the trailer, there were multiple things that were terrifying her - a fallen jump, a shadow, the guys powerwashing the car right near the trailer, Hayley ...  I stayed a bit behind her motion, with my feet out in front, a bit defensively, but completely relaxed, and just kept her moving forward.  We walked back and forth through the "gauntlet" several times, until she was a bit more relaxed about everything.  

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  With it being chilly and windy, I expected her to be a bit more reactive.  She did hesitate a little, going into the trail.  Once on the trail, she looked around alot, but did fairly well overall.  There was a new small tree that had fallen across the path that she had to step over.  She did stop at that for a few minutes, the first time through, but crossed it just fine the second time.  She was a little quick in her step today, at times, but not for the majority of the ride.

 Gia and I had drill team practice today.  It was our last practice before our drill team show next weekend.  We started out with our walk/trot quadrille.  There was a puddle and small drainage ditch at the entrance at "A", so I walked her back and forth over that a few times before we started.  She did really well for the walk/trot practice!  Next up was our First level practice.  We've definitely had some challenges at the canter, but today she was great!  I was able to relax a bit more with her as well, and she really seemed to have fun!  I can't wait for next weekend!

 I worked with Gia lunging over jumps in the round pen today.  She did really well with the warm up work - pole, small vertical, large vertical, oxer.  When I added a towel draped over the oxer, she stopped at it the first time through.  I allowed her to check it out, and when she seemed more relaxed, I turned her around and sent her to it again.  She was anxious about it, but she jumped it.  I sent her back and forth over it several times until she was pretty easy going about.  Then I layed the towel on the ground.  She was very anxious about it the first time, but she did go over it.  Again, I sent her back and forth over it several times until she was very relaxed about it.  It took about the same amount of time as the first "towel jump".  After each successful  jump, I clicked and she got a treat.

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started with a good free walk, a good transition to medium walk, and a fairly good transition to trot.  It started good, but then we hit a little resistance, so we went back and did it again.  At the trot we did a lot of changes of direction and bend.  I used lateral work, as needed, to get the correct bend and straightness.  It was easy to get her to bend right, but much hard to get her to bend left.  It wasn't that she was stiff, just crooked in a way that required me to fiddle around with my position and lateral work until we found it.  I discovered that she wants to shift me off my left seat bone and left leg, so I have to work to keep them in position.  When my left seat bone and leg are in the correct position tracking left, then it's easier to find what I need to do to get her straight.  When she was correctly bent, we had some really nice canter work!  There was only one buck, when we were tracking left, and I was t

 I took Gia out for a jump school in the field today.  As we were walking out to warm up, she noticed, right away, that there was ...  dun, dun, dun ... a barrel that was absolutely out of place!!!  Gasp!!! She was very upset by the offending barrel, and made quite a big deal about it for a while.  I stay very nonchalant, and just insisted that she move forward at a polite pace.  After several passes, she was ok with where it was, but still aware of it for most of the ride. We warmed up with some trot work around the field, and did a lot of transitions.  She was a bit "up" today, so when she didn't respond the my half halts within about 3 steps, I transitioned down to the next lowest gait, and then right back up.  We basically worked on that throughout the jump school as well.  Her first few jumps were at the trot, but as she got more confident, obedient, relaxed and balanced, she added in some canter.  It was a bit tight at first, but as she went on, her canter became mo

 I took Gia for a hack yesterday.  I had to check out a potential problem at the cul-de-sac at the end of my road, so I took her down there first.  She was definitely looky and worried, but she went forward.  When we came back, I took her out on the trail, and she was MUCH more relaxed and happy.  She did walk a little too fast at times, so I had to slow her down, but otherwise, she was perfect!

  On Friday, Heather was feeling a bit under the weather so I took a turn at Gia's training for the day. Lately, in the field, Gia has been trying to "flex" her teenage attitude when people go out to get other horses. She is not mean, but wants all the attention, and becomes agitated when they ignore/walk away from her. Like all of us, sometimes horses need a little attitude adjustment. One way to do this is with a natural horsemanship exercise. I oftentimes tell my students that horses are not native English speakers, so we need to learn to communicate in "horse" to them. Natural horsemanship is a great way to communicate to them what we'd like them to know (that we are the bosses and they must respect our space, rules, etc) in a way that they instinctively understand (by speaking "horse").  The idea of Natural horsemanship is that you, as the human, set the same expectations of behavior of the horse in training that an alpha mare would in the w

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started with a very nice stretch at the walk.  Picking her up to medium walk went fairly well.  Her first few trot transitions were a little "sticky", so I had to do a lot of softening and suppling work to get those better.  We used a LOT of lateral work today - leg yield, changes of bend, haunches-in, haunches-out, shoulder-in, half pass, renvers.  Throughout all the lateral work, I did a lot of transitions as well, between all gaits, including halt and canter.  Her first canter transition wasn't smooth, but there wasn't any bucking.  As she became more supple, the canter felt better.  I really focused on keeping the correct bend, and getting her to feel equal in both reins.  We had a lot of good moments!

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Charlie today.  We worked on the usual stuff - transitions, leg yield, haunches-in, shoulder-in, lengthening, collecting, stretching.  We really tried to mix it up, especially if she was anticipating the canter, which she did after the first couple of transitions.  All of her work was very obedient and relaxed.

 Gia and I went to the last War Horse schooling and show of the season - the War Horse Championships.  We had qualified in the Green as Grass division, so even though we had technically moved up already, we went back down, for one more show, to compete in the championships. Friday was the schooling day.  Danielle lunged her, while I schooled a student, and said that she was pretty quiet and relaxed.  Under saddle, we trekked out to the cross country field first.  She warmed up pretty good.  I mainly focused on keeping her (looooong) body as straight as possible.  She was a little worried about the ground in a couple places, but mostly that didn't bother her this weekend.  She did stop at the first jump on course, but when we came back to it, she went right over it.  I think that was the only one she stopped at other than the new bank.  The Carolina Horse Park had added a new "baby bank" to the course.  They put it right next to a giant concrete tube that Gia has hated for

 I took Gia out to the field for her ride today.  We started with walk up and down hills, stretching as we went up, and collecting as we went down.  She felt really relaxed and obedient.  We did a little of the same at the trot, as well as some bending and leg yields around the field.  When she was warmed up, I trotted her over several small jumps.  Everything was pretty unremarkable.  After a bigger jump, I urged her into the canter, and we cantered around the field, working on her balance.  She felt very relaxed, so we added jumps as we cantered around.  We were able to get three good canter and jump sets in, and she never bucked!

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson at CDP with Charlie today.  She was a bit more tense today that last time, for whatever reason, I don't know.  Charlie had me put her to work right away with leg yield, bending, changes of direction, haunches-in, shoulder-in, transitions between gaits and within gaits.  When we added the canter, she was a bit feisty, and did throw in a few, small, bucks.  Charlie had me gain control of her outside shoulder, which helped a lot.  Tracking left, I had to focus on pushing her into the circle with my outside leg, and tracking right, I had to focus on pushing her out of the circle.  We were able to get several decent canters after that.  Not her best, but acceptable.

 I worked with Gia in the round pen today, lunging over jumps.  I started her off with three ground poles, about 9 feet apart.  She had to trot them, then canter them, correctly, before we moved on.  As she progressed, I raised the center pole to a small vertical, then a larger vertical.  Finally, I added a towel draped over the center vertical.  She had a much easier time organizing her footwork when tracking left.  When tracking right, she had a harder time getting her feet under her, and would often go too quickly, or jump too big.  She was slightly startled by the towel, and stopped at it on the first attempt, but all attempts after that were very good.

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was fantastic!  She never stopped, or even hesitated, at anything.  She was a little quick, but responsive when I asked her to slow down.  She did look around alot, but other than that was fairly relaxed.

 In my lesson with Suzin today, we worked on getting Gia to unlock in her neck, and reach and stretch over her back more.  It also helped to straighten her.  I had to work her between my hands and legs until I felt/saw the base of the neck get bigger.  Whenever I got it, I would do a transition or change of bend between all gaits, even canter.  I was also able to get it during shoulder-ins, haunches-in, and even some turn-on-the-forehand.  Finally, we worked on getting it at the stretchy trot and free walk.  We also worked on making smoother free walk to medium walk transitions.  She was really good today, and only a few hints of bucking.