Gia - sessions 1173-1176 - Danielle continues to search for a way with Gia

 Danielle here, again. This week I embarked on my mission to find a way to keep Gia happy while being groomed. We tried a few different things, and, possibly, an answer!

Monday 11/17/25 - There is a horse enrichment toy called a lick-it. It’s basically a hanging round tube that holds a lickable treat. Our horses are kept on turn-out 24/7 typically, but we do have a few toys available for them when they have to go on stall rest. The lick-it is one of these that we use. We also have used just the treat portion as a way to distract some younger or finicky horses during vet or farrier visits. I decided to try this first with Gia. I started by getting her treated for her wounds and fungus before the grooming. She was okay with this and, thankfully, the fungus issue has almost completely resolved. Next, I put the lickit in a feed pan in front of Gia and untied her from the crossties. She was quite interested in it at first but became frustrated that she couldn’t take a big bite out of the treat and began to wander. I tried to redirect her. I also tried hanging the lickit from the crossties to entice her, but she quickly bored of it. She was naughty during the grooming, but very wiggly. I finished up grooming and started brainstorming for a new option for the next day.

Tuesday 11/18/25 - I had to feed the horses before training on Tuesday morning. As I was walking out into one of the fields, I spotted another enrichment toy. This one is a ball that you can put carrots in to entice the horses to play. We have balls in the fields for horses to play with and since this one doubles as just a regular ball, we keep it out all the time, not just when a horse is on stall rest. I showed Heather
and she said, “Hey, lets give it a try”. Neither one of us was overly optimistic seeing as how quickly Gia had bored and moved past the lick it, but it was worth a shot. In order to make it last a bit longer, I broke the carrots into pieces and shoved them in the slots so Gia wouldn’t be able to just grab a carrot and move on. I did her meds first again and then presented her with the ball. She was very excited by this one! In fact, she actually stayed pretty still and worked with her ball throughout the grooming session. I decided that this toy was worth another try.

Wednesday 11/19/25 - As soon as Gia saw me come out with the ball, she perked her ears up and was excited. I decided to try doing her meds while she played with it, too. (very carefully!) She was perfect! I went on to groom her and while it is a bit of a race between grooming and her tiring of the work, we were again able to get in a full grooming session. All of this went pretty quickly, so I opted to take Gia out to the arena for a little play time before turning her out. I took her off the lead line and we did some fun little mental work. This included some basic focus work, natural horsemanship, and even a little

game with a ball. Years ago, when I was working on desensitization with Gia, I used to kick around a ball as we walked. At first, this was very scary for her as it seemed the ball had a mind of its own. Eventually, she would touch the ball or even sometimes push it with her feet. We hadn’t played this game in a long time, but I wanted to see what she would do. Part of me expected Gia to take off to the other side of the arena (she was still free and participating by choice). However, she followed me and watched closely where I retrieved a playground ball. When I presented it to her, she looked at me a bit sideways but stayed and allowed me to roll the ball towards her. At first, she came and hid behind me. Years ago, we joked I was Gia’s emotional support human as I had to lead her to many a ring or new place. I just kept quietly pushing the ball around and began walking around the ring. Gia eventually came next to me and started touching the ball. I praised her when she did so and she remembered the game and we were able to kick the ball taking turns and Gia seemed quite pleased with herself. After about 10 minutes of play time, I walked down to the far end of the arena to put Gia back in her field. As I opened the gate for her to go in, she left my vicinity for the first time since we started play time. She actually trotted down to the other end of the arena and touched where the ball was when we started. I went to her and brought her out to her field, but I was happy that she seemed happy and engaged. We can do all the groundwork in the world with Gia, but if she dreads coming in or being handled, we will get nowhere. 

Friday 11/21/25 - Gia reacted pretty much the same Friday as she had on Wednesday to the [treat] ball. I was able to groom her and get her fly gear on before she got bored. My only concern is how quickly we will have to move to keep her attention. I took her for a little stroll after with the clicker and some treats to reacquaint her with that “game”. It is pretty simple and something we use to help horses get more comfortable with scary items. The clicker is the same as a dog training clicker. Basically, when the horse approaches an undesirable item, they have to touch it. The handler will click when the horse touches the scary thing and then gives a treat. While we don’t want to give Gia treats for all grooming, this could be something that helps us finish up and lets her associate positive thoughts with grooming. After a few minutes of this activity, I turned Gia out to her field. All in all, it was a pretty productive week. At no point this week, did Gia try to bite or kick. She seemed generally well-mannered and interested in what was next. Hopefully, this reset will help her mentally in the barn and soon we can try some of these new things with the grooms. Then it’s back to work under saddle!