Gia - sessions 1113-1120, More of the same, but then some hacking on the trail

 So obviously, I am way behind.  I have had way too much going on in way too many directions lately, but I have finally found a minute to catch up on Gia's blog.  So, you get two weeks all in one!

Tuesday July 22

We worked on dressage at the halt, walk and trot.  I asked her to do a bit of flexions to loosen her up.  Then we moved into transitions between all the gaits, while also keeping up with the flexions.  Finally, we worked on several different basic dressage figures, focusing on straightness and bending.  

Wednesday July 23

I warmed Gia up with transitions, flexions and lifting the poll at the walk and trot.  Then we started to play over a few jumps in the arena.  The highest we got was up to about 2'3", with some interesting
fillers.  She doesn't seem to mind what I have been putting under the jumps to fill in the space - barrels, flowers, jump blocks, etc.  I worked with her on being very straight towards the jumps, as well as afterwards, and paid special attention to my position as well.  We also had some nice canter moments!

Friday July 25

More dressage!  I loosened her up with flexion work at the halt, walk and trot.  She was feeling very loose and obedient, and she offered something rather interesting, so I decided to play with it and see where it went - the Half Pass.  We mostly played with it at the walk, with decent results.  Probably not show quality at all, but I was at least getting a reaction of sorts.  At the trot, not much happened at all though.

Saturday July 26

I took Gia out in the field to play with some of the jumps.  We warmed up with a nice loose walk, then
trot with flexions and transitions.  Then I started pointing her at the jumps.  She was eager to go.  I focused on having her obedient to transitions and balanced beforehand, and then finding our rhythm and balance again after each jump.  We even took a jump that is a bit larger, that we haven't taken in quite a while, probably since before both our surgeries.  She did it beautifully.  She even had some really nice cantering around in the field!

Unfortunately on Sunday, she came in with a pretty deep puncture wound on her shoulder and a high fever to go along with it.  We started her on a course of antibiotics and Banamine, which she just finished up today.  Luckily, she has not been lame throughout any of it. 

Tuesday July 29

Gia was feeling better - no fever, and she was still moving ok, but I didn't want to do anything too stressful with her.  So, Danielle rode her on the trail while I rode Boots for the first time on the trail.  (For those who don't know, Boots is a new horse that I am leasing).

Wednesday July 30 thru Saturday August 2

Again, Gia was still feeling fine, but her wound was still draining, so still not wanting to stress her body too much, I kept our rides to the trail for the past three sessions.  I did reminisce on how far she has come though.  It was nothing at all to walk up to the trail and she was super relaxed on the trail.  In the past, it would have been a huge expedition.  So, there is definitely improvement there!

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