All The Kings' Horses

 I worked with Gia on Wednesday April 23rd and Friday April 25th, continuing on with what we have been doing.  On Wednesday we stayed in the arena, but on Friday we ventured out into the field.  The work was the same in both places, but she definitely had more energy out in the field.  She was also a bit sassier!  We are starting to do more at the trot than we have been doing, especially when we were out in the field.  Gia felt like she wanted to buck and throw herself around a bit, but my reins were short enough, and my connection "there" enough that she wasn't able to get any leverage. 😁  She quickly got the idea to stay soft and obedient, and we ended up finishing with a lot of nice moments!

 I'm not quite as far behind today as last time!  Closing the gap! I worked with Gia on Monday, starting out doing much the same as last week.  She was more responsive to the down transitions, and I also added a little bit of rein back as well.  Also, in my efforts to help her straighten and yield to the rein, she ended up in the canter a couple of times.  It was actually pretty good!  My aids were actually working together pretty well, which kept her going nicely, but it did get her a little frustrated that she couldn't get me to leave her alone.  I did leave her alone once she yielded, but not while she was against me.  HOWEVER, I did not PULL against her.  I just stayed with her, following, never pulling, but never leaving a gap either.  She did end up with a lot of nice moments of yielding though! On Tuesday, Suzin worked with Gia and I.  We started out with much of the same.  There was a bit more focus on where the poll wa...

So unfortunately, I got behind again on posting my blogs this week, However, I pretty much did the same thing with Gia every day this week, so the blog would be the same anyway. I worked with Gia on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Each day we just kept focusing on finding the relaxation at the walk for her, and the following of my seatbones and arms at the walk for me. When we had that, I worked on having her yield to the rein that was a little bit heavier, as well as working on halting from my seat. The halting is the most difficult for her. She is definitely understanding the yielding to the rein, and gets that fairly quickly. However, with the halting, I am having to add follow up cues to help her understand what I'm trying to get her to do. She is getting it by the end of each session each day, but it definitely takes her a while to get it at the beginning of each session the next day. I have learned with Gia not to get frustrated with how long it takes her to learn s...

 Danielle and I went to a clinic last Thursday 4/3, that was recommended to me by a friend, and I've been raving about it ever since!  The clinician's name was Pippa Callanan , and you can click on the link to learn more about her.  She blends natural horsemanship with classical French dressage.  I LOVED it!  I found her saying things, even verbatim, to what I tell my students.  There is so much to tell from this clinic, but as I will be incorporating things from it as I go, I will just tell you stuff as I incorporate it.  (Although some stuff I'm already doing anyway 😊). So on Tuesday, April 8th, Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin for the first time in quite a while, since before both our surgeries.  One thing I saw from the clinic was that I was pretty much doing the same things that she was, especially when I stuck with my natural horsemanship stuff and my classical dressage stuff, and a lot of that classical dressage stuff was originally taugh...

I took Gia to the Portofino show this past weekend.  She and I were part of an Equithon team with Amanda and Annie.  Amanda and Annie did the dressage test of the Starter horse trial, while Gia and I ran both jump courses.   Gia warmed up ok.  She was a bit overwhelmed when we first went into the stadium warm up.  She was quite tense, so we just walked, and worked on responding to forward and sideways, like we had at home.  When that old familiarness started to feel good to her, she started to relax, and allowed the trot.  We did the same at the trot, and then we were quickly able to add a few jumps in.  After that the warm up was a breeze. Unfortunately, she tensed right up again when we went into the show ring.  She had no problem going forward though, but she went forward FAST!  So then, I tensed up ... which led to her bucking.  It took a few jumps before I was able to situate myself so that I could slow her down using my b...

 Okay, so I did fall behind again in writing my blogs. I will have to catch up on several of them in this one blog, and then I will try to stay on top of things. "Try" being the operative word 😆. Monday March 24th:     Gia and I worked on flat work at the walk and trot. Her impulsion was fairly good. We focused a lot on straightness. We also did a lot of work on transitions and got in some stretching. Tuesday March 25th:          Gia and I worked on flat work again. This time we did a bit at the walk, trot and canter. her impulsion was very good, as well as her transitions. We focused a bit more on straightness this time. Wednesday March 26th:     More flat work for us today. we worked at the  walk, trot and canter . Gia's impulsion was very good. We focused more on straightness, and added some focus on collection as well. Friday March 28th:     Gia and I were able to get out in the field today for jumping. We were able t...