Gia - session 1054 - Portofino Equithon

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 body, and not my tight arms and hands (instincts are a bitch!).  Once I did though, we were able to finish with a softer feel than we started.  We did pull a couple of rails in the process though.

On to cross country.  Again, warm up was a little tense, but I was able to practice slowing her with my body a lot more, so she and I were on the same page.  When we started the course, she seemed willing to go forward, but anxious.  There were some rather large and unwelcoming jumps on this course for Starter level.  Gia did OK with the first few, but then got rather nervous and started stopping at the jumps.  By the time we were about half way through the course, we had already had enough stops to eliminate us (Sorry Amanda!), so I focused on making this a schooling outing.  Anytime I felt her uncomfortable coming to a jump, I made sure she was straight at it when she stopped, and I kept her pointed at it for a few seconds before we turned away, then came right back at it.  She would come right back pretty well the second time each time.  The water was the only thing that really got her.  It was died blue, which was one thing, but then when she stepped in it, the water immediately changed color to brown, and that completely freaked her out.  I really tried to let her relax there before pushing her on.  We did manage to get through the entire course, but we were, of course, eliminated.  Hopefully, our efforts will pay off another day though!

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