All The Kings' Horses

 I worked with Gia in the arena on her flatwork today.  She was much less dramatic since we stayed in the arena and not in the field, but there was a hint of the resistance she gave yesterday.  We started at the walk, and she was quite forward due to the cooler temperatures today.  Her poll was staying up more than usual, so she's definitely getting the hang of that.  I asked for several transitions in and out of halt, and we did several circles and changes of direction.  Then I asked for trot.  This is where the hint of naughtiness started to come out.  However, I kept my leg on, and kept her poll up, and the naughtiness quickly went away.  She wanted to be a bit quick at the trot after that, so I had her work on a lot of walk and trot transitions.  As soon as I would ask for the trot, she would get quick, so I would immediately ask for walk again.  Once we got back to the walk, I asked for trot again, and we repeated this several...

 I took Gia out in the field today for a jump school.  She immediately felt a bit tight and tense.  Her poll was up, so I started by asking her to flex left and right with her poll up.  This is fairly new for her, so she was a bit confused with the request for a little bit.  I had to continue encouraging her with a bit more motion in the bit to help her get the idea.  She was able to figure it out a few times, possibly just by chance, but I'll take it.  Each time she got it, I relaxed and let her go wherever she wanted for a few seconds. When I started to ask her for a trot, she really started to get pissy - dropping her head, tossing her body around, acting like she was going to buck, not wanting to go forward, etc.  I nicely asked her to lift her poll and go forward, but as soon as she resisted, I lifted more sharply and kicked her more sharply.  It definitely caught her off guard, but it also kept her from being able to throw herself aroun...

 I was back on Gia Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week. Tuesday and Wednesday were a little rough still with other stuff going on, but I did my best to give Gia as much of me as I could. On Tuesday I rode her on the flat at the walk, trot and halt.  I worked on keeping her poll up, and transitions, as well as bending.  This was the worst day with distractions, so I can't say I really got a lot done, but I tried. On Wednesday I took her out in the field for a little jumping.  I warmed up with the same work I did on Tuesday.  Once that felt pretty good, I pointed her at a few jumps.  She did really well!  After each jump, it was easy to bring her back to her flatwork "home base", and then set up for the next jump.  We actually had a little fun! Finally, on Friday we were able to take a little breath!  We stayed in the arena, mostly at the halt, and I worked on her reaction to me asking her to lift her poll.  It only took a few tries fo...

I had to be away from the farm on Monday, so Danielle took my place in the saddle on Gia.  She wrote the blog for her that day as well: "I haven't ridden Gia in a few months since Heather has been back to riding full time and show season is upon us. However, Monday, circumstances were that Heather had to be off the farm in the morning so I took over the reins. The first thing I noticed when I got on Gia was that she felt strong. Not strong in a bad way, but powerful. When I was last riding Gia on a regular basis, it was while she coming back into work after her surgery. The way she felt on Monday was much more akin to how she felt before her surgery!  It had been a crazy morning and the horses were all a bit on edge. Gia was focused on her work, but not moving forward. She felt quite lazy. I worked on getting her to move forward and then resumed the work that Heather had been doing with the release of the bit. She was actually quite responsive. I noticed that when we were on a...

 This week was back to more of the same work for Gia.   On Tuesday we had a lesson with Suzin, and worked at the walk, trot and halt.  Suzin had me focus on bringing my thighs back more so that they fall under my body better, and she also had me work on bringing my shoulders back more so that they aren't so hunched.  With Gia, we worked on a lot of transitions between gaits and straightness and bend.  When I was able to keep my shoulders back and my hands together, I was able to feel what corrections Gia needed better.  I was able to get her travelling more correctly, and more consistently at the walk and trot, and through transitions. On Wednesday we practiced the same stuff, but added a few jumps when we had things going well.  Everything felt pretty smooth. Friday and Saturday was more of the same flatwork.  I also asked her to keep her poll up whenever she felt heavy and leaning on the reins.  

 As I had mentioned in the last blog, I took Gia to the War Horse schooling and show this past weekend.  No thanks to a fall from Phillip and a sprained ankle, I was only able to ride her on Saturday for the schooling.  But, with the torrential downpours on Sunday, I didn't mind too much. As soon as I got on Gia on Saturday, she was immediately tense, and immediately resistant to go forward.  None of this is a new reaction for her at a show, but I had hoped it would be a bit better.  Unfortunately, we were running behind in our timetable, and me pushing her to walk on to get to the stadium warm up did not help matters at all.  I was able to get her to work through her tension with circles to help redirect her attention, and we were able to get over the warm up jumps.  They started out rough at first, but ended up going fairly well.  When we went into the show ring for our schooling round however, she reverted, and we didn't get very far.  The...

 I worked with Gia on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week in preparation for the show this coming weekend.   Tuesday was flatwork at the walk, trot and halt.  We worked on transitions, keeping the poll up, yielding to the rein, and staying straight.  She did pretty good with all of that. On Wednesday, we did much of the same, but out in the field for our warm up before jumping.  Once she was ready to jump, we worked on jumping an obstacle, and then getting back to the correct tempo, relaxation, rhythm, position, and lightness.  She was very quick to respond and return to the right shape.   Today we went back to flatwork, but added canter.  I had hoped that I could go unjudged for the dressage at this show like I did at the last one, but it isn't going to work out.  Our canter work is not as far along, and Gia is not as confident with it, as she is with the halt, walk and trot work.  Once we had run thru the halt, walk and t...

 Each day of this week's sessions with Gia started with more of the same work - halt to walk, walk to halt, walk to trot, trot to walk, and yielding to the heavier rein.  All of that was getting a lot more consistent, and we were adding bending and changes of bend as well.  She was definitely getting a lot more comfortable with the new work! On Monday and Wednesday this week, I worked with her out in the field where the jumps are, in hopes that if things went well enough, I might just point her at a jump or two and see how that would go.  It was a little messy at first on Monday when she first realized that things were changing a little.  But by the end of the session on Wednesday, we were doing an entire course, comfortably, in a dressage frame! On Tuesday and Friday this week, I rode her in the dressage arena, mostly to get us out of the dusty main arena, but also for a change of scenery.  That didn't seem to affect her at all.  Since things were goi...