All The Kings' Horses

 Monday Feb 9th-On Monday, we split the time grooming Gia. She was probably happier with her time being groomed by Ashley than me, for once. It’s past time I tackled Gia’s very thick, large mane. Having her mane pulled has never been a preferred activity of Gia’s. The goal is for her to stand still and allow me to pull it neatly. She prefers to throw her head up. This isn’t an uncommon reaction, but with Gia, when she throws her head up, she hits the roof of the barn…we will continue to work on this with Gia and hopefully soon, get her mane washed, as well. Stay tuned… **Tuesday and Wednesday-I (Danielle) was out of town. I know Gia saw our favorite chiropractor, Dr Jim, while I was gone. He confirmed she was sensitive to her feet, but due to a condition called thrush. This is very common especially with weather conditions as weird as we’ve had lately. Despite being in a drought, we had a lot of “moisture” (frozen) sitting on the ground for quite a while. We should be able to treat...

This was another shortened week due to yet another storm. At least we finally got some snow, not ice! We started our training horses on Wednesday this week due to the conditions on Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday, February 4- I opted on Wednesday to have Ashley jump right in with working with Gia while I watched. Gia has been making big strides (she’s good at that under saddle too) lately with her patience and tolerance. I actually asked Ashley to send me how she felt the work went. Here is what Ashley had to say: "I got to work with Gia on Wednesday and it was so needed. I miss working with Gia on my regular grooming days. With Danielle near by, I started by taking off Gia’s blanket. She was a little frustrated that it was me working with her instead of Danielle and when I approached her to take off her blanket, she lifted up her back left leg. Previously, Gia would not listen to me when I told her to put her leg down but this time, I told her once and she put it down for me. I wa...

Winter has officially arrived here in NC. Typically, we don’t receive much snow or ice and when we do, we are able to work around it. However, last weekend, we got a decent amount of ice. Temperatures remained cold enough to leave much of the property as an icy mess. On Monday and Tuesday, I (Danielle) was working on catching up on the regular chores around the barn and did not work horses. This (blog) week will start on Wednesday. Wednesday Jan 28, 2026 - This one will be a little bit of a multiple part as I ended up doing a bit of work with Gia a couple times in the day. In the morning, I decided to jump right in with a “new person.” Ashley is our groom on Wednesday mornings, and it has been a bit since she has groomed Gia. I opted to explain from a distance the processes of having Gia put her foot down and when to pause (not stop) grooming, etc. I chose to stay a little bit further back while Ashley was doing Gia. Lately, when the grooms have been working with Gia, I have been stayi...