Gia - sessions 1210-1211 more steps forward!

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 staying in the immediate vicinity (within 8 feet). It has seemed for a LONG while that Gia oftentimes uses me as an “emotional support human.” I think it’s time to start expanding her tolerance with others, but, at the same time, I will stay where I can watch everything and step in immediately if necessary. Additionally, the physical distance is good for both Gia and me to work on talking someone through a problem and not my innate desire to step in and fix it. While this works in the case of an emergency, and supervision is essential at this point, it is not a good idea to me to rush in whenever there is a negative behavior. By doing so, I would be inadvertently training Gia to act up whenever she wanted me. (Undoing all these months of work)

Ashley started right away taking off Gia’s blanket. All the horses are feeling a bit extra this week coming off of the storm. Almost all of our horses (exception to our old man and pregnant momma) stayed out for the storm. They all have access to extra hay, shelter, and plenty of water. Heather and I check them multiple times a day and address any issues immediately. We also keep our boarding horses' owners updated due to the fact they cannot get here to check on their babies! Because the horses here at Castle Farm live on 24/7 turnout, we do not have enough stalls to bring them all in nor would that be conducive for their mental wellbeing. However, with ice especially, the horses with good brains tend to be very cautious (THANK YOU) when moving around. This can cause them to become like toddlers stuck inside for too long. I expected Gia to be a bit fidgety, but I wanted to see how she and Ashley worked through it. At first, there was a lot of Ashley having to tell Gia to put her foot down and me reminding Ashley to tap her immediately with the whip if she did not do it. The process of not getting excited, keeping your tone even, tapping and increasing the tap slightly while being resolute AND not stopping what you are doing can be a bit of a mental and physical dance. It is a bit easier for me to do, as I developed the plan and have been working with horses my whole life. It is a bit harder when you are still interpreting their body language. Ashley is a great student and took my instructions well. The blanket was okay, but the curry comb provided her with lots of practice! Gia is so sensitive to how she likes to be brushed that the curry comb is usually the hardest for people to “get right.” It is a brush designed to push through the hair and get all the loose dirt, skin, and shedding hair off the skin’s surface. I like to compare it to a loofa. It is the only brush that you tend to use more or less pressure and therefore, each person’s use will feel different to the horse. This is one thing I cannot practice with Gia. We are all creatures of habits and tend to start brushing on one side and move through the process of grooming in a certain way. Gia had become accustomed to “my way” so I tried to mix that up while I was the only one grooming. But, with the curry comb, it is what it is. Gia needs to accept different feelings. However, after quite a few reminders, Gia did accept a thorough curry from Ashley and even seemed to enjoy it where she was itchy from shedding. After that, Ashley was able to finish Gia’s grooming (except for her feet) on her own with little objections! This is definitely a great step.

After Gia went back out for a bit, she had to come in for the farrier. This used to be a challenge for her, but she has gotten MUCH better in recent years. Our farrier is super resilient and quick, which Gia likes. He had decided to try and start with her on the cross ties, but realized that this wasn’t going to work (standing tied while getting their feet done is NOT easy. Honestly, only our calmest and best trained: Butch, Dover, Cisco and Ali are able to do this consistently). For whatever reason, Gia had decided to make Greg’s job a bit harder on Wednesday. He asked for my help, and I quickly saw the problem. Not only did she not want him to hold her feet, but she was shifting her weight, so he was helping hold her up. Gia weighs about 1500 lbs. Greg is a strong guy, but not that much! I’m not sure of why horses do this, but it can definitely be obnoxious. It is a bit of a coordinated dance between the holder and the farrier to try to get the horse in the correct position. Gia’s method to try to get Greg to stop was to “sit back” on her hind legs. Heather would love for her to do that under saddle, but on the ground while trying to pick up feet, it is a pain. My job was to get Gia to step up onto her forehand (front legs) and try to keep her standing squarely. I don’t know, good reader, if you’ve ever seen Gia’s head, but I assure you, there is no amount of pulling I could do to move her. I would essentially be playing tug of war with a semi. In order to rectify this, I needed to tap her with the whip forward and reward her when she stepped up. Luckily, Gia knows what she should be doing and was simply testing Greg. It only took a few corrections before she was standing like a lady, and I was able to hand the line over to Ashley!

Finally, in the evening, a recurrent problem we have had with a certain field popped up. For whatever reason, the field Gia is now in has issues with water heaters. That is a longer story, and any electricians out there are welcome to reach out to Heather for guidance! We had a water heater in the field with the prior horses, but they let us know they were feeling currents in the water so we had removed it. Amid this storm, I had put a different heater back in the water thinking that it was a heater issue or a sensitive horse issue. For a few days, all seemed well. Last night however, we heard Gia pawing at the water trough. This sign of frustration is common when horses feel tingling in the water. They want and need water but have extremely sensitive sensory whiskers on their muzzles. The feeling is so slight that a person can stick their hands in the trough and feel absolutely nothing (except freezing hands). When we realized what Gia was doing, Heather asked our afternoon feeders to unplug the water heater and remove it entirely. However, an hour or so later, I could still hear Gia pawing away. Horses MUST have ample access to fresh water for they can become extremely ill very quickly. For multiple reasons: my role as feeding manager, my relationship with Gia (frustrated Gia in the dark), my lack of sensation in my hands, etc.…I took it upon myself to try to get Gia to trust the water again. To do so, I used treats, both apples and carrots, to lure Gia down to the water. Horses are extremely sensitive and once trust (even in water) has been breached it is hard to get back. This job would be even harder if Gia didn’t trust humans. I needed her to trust me enough to try something scary and I needed to have the patience to allow her time to process. I could tell Gia was thirsty and WANTED to drink. I started with a treat above the water trough and gave her a small bite. Then I moved my hand lower and closer to the water. I was sure what had been happening when Gia didn’t immediately go for the treat. She was extremely cautious and while I knew she desperately wanted the treat, she was fighting her inner battles about fear and lack of trust of the water. I put my hand in the water to show her I wasn’t going to be hurt. This also meant I had to control my emotions especially in frigid water. IF I allowed myself to get anxious or jumpy over the cold, Gia would have felt that kinetic energy and most likely interpreted it as a scared or pain response which would have validated her fear. Eventually, I was able to coax Gia to touch the treat in the water. Once she touched it and didn’t get shocked, it was much easier to get her to put her nose in. I stayed with her (and her bestie Annie) doing this for about 10 minutes. By the time I left their field they were both actively drinking water from the trough. Patience paid off. I was able to head in for the night with a deep sense of accomplishment which almost made up for the complete lack of sense of feeling in my now frozen hands!

Friday Jan 30, 2026 - On Friday, we were preparing for yet another winter storm! This winter is giving me flashbacks to my youth and childhood in NJ. I will tell anyone who will listen that I prefer winter over summer so yes, I am quite content with this weather. In addition to storm prepping, there was also a large crew clearing land at the end of the road. There was quite a lot of machinery and a controlled fire burning. This made all of the horses a bit on edge. Between these two situations, we were short on time and Gia was a bit on edge. Rather than have anyone else work with Gia today, I opted to do her grooming work myself. As soon as I started to take off Gia’s blanket, she was picking up her foot. I immediately slowed down and took my time reinforcing the “put it down” command. Gia wants my focus on her and that is only fair. Oftentimes, we are all too distracted in the outside world to be in the moment. Gia demands this from me and it was a good reminder. I usually greet Gia with my forehead to hers (which she has to initiate and consent to due to her size) and we take a deep breath and relax. It’s always been an instinctual response for me and I don’t recall ever being taught such a thing, but I recently saw an article on how the Native American’s would always greet their horses in such a way. It naturally mimics how horses meet in the wild. I guess being in a rush, I had forgotten to stop and greet Gia and she took that personally. After realizing my mistake, I took a step back and started over. Once I took a breath and slowed down, Gia responded much better to my requests. In fact, she was amazing. I began with the curry comb and I honestly expected a bit of difficult time. She tensed up for a second when I first started and then audibly gave me a big sigh of relief. She was leaning into the brushing! By the time I reached Gia’s hip, she did something that I hadn’t seen her do in awhile: she accommodated my height. This sounds funny, but Gia is tall and I am not. Through the years, she has realized this fact and has a way of stretching her legs out and dropping her hip so I can reach her back without a stool. When she first started doing this, I was afraid something was wrong. By doing so, she has to stand very “splayed out” and drop her hip. This is a bit of a vulnerable position because she could not move quickly if necessary. Additionally, as prey animals, horses greatest strengths are their size and speed. By posing herself in this way, she is removing both of those and showing me a lot of trust. Plus, it’s just darn helpful! I hadn’t thought much of the fact she hadn’t been doing it until today. I had noticed it, but honestly, I just assumed it was part of her accepting other people grooming. However, I also noticed a remarkable amount of relaxation in Gia’s body language as well. She felt like the same Gia I have been missing. I don’t know why today was so good, but I will take it. Hopefully, this transfers into next week and with other people. Today, I will take the win, though!