Gia - sessions 1212-1214 - Making big improvements!

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 was then able to take her blanket off without any naughty behavior. Yay Gia. We then moved on to her least favorite brush, the curry comb. She only had one issue with me doing the curry comb which was on her left side under her belly. She was swinging her tail and was dancing around but didn’t kick up her back left leg which was huge for her. With the help of Danielle walking me through to properly tell Gia, “I know you don’t like this area being brushed but I’m not going to back off and you shouldn’t be naughty about it.” She only did the swinging of her tail and dancing for a tiny bit more but then she showed us a release of calming

down with licking and chewing so I told her good girl and left that area and started brushing her back hip. It’s important to not back off of her “no no spot” but also not to over do and make her more mad. I continued talking to Gia throughout the rest of the brushing, which she stayed calm and didn’t do any more naughty behavior. Which was awesome to see all the positive progress she’s made. Danielle stepped in to pick out all of Gia’s ginormous hooves and then had me pick up each leg and just brush out her hooves to see how she would do with someone else doing it. With both of her back legs, Danielle had me hold her leg when I was done and slowly put it down until it was touching the ground and then I would let go. Gia took this like a champ and was so good for me. It’s amazing to me to see the progress Gia is making and all the hard work Danielle and Heather are putting into her. It’s paying off yall!" I love that Ashley came out of this experience feeling a sense of accomplishment. I am so proud of Ashley and Gia!

Friday, February 6th, 2026- My plan for Friday had been to go ahead and have Chloe do the same thing as Ashley. Chloe has been able to work with Gia lately, but I still want to make sure picking out Gia’s hooves are done by myself first. Everything started out very well. Chloe worked with Gia on the same things and it went very similarly to how it had been going. However, at one point, she noticed Gia becoming agitated when she was brushing close to Gia’s left hip. This is not usually an area that Gia is bothered by, but I did see the tension, as well. Chloe was being soft and asked me to look at the area she was grooming. I noticed that there was a patch of fungus resulting in a red mark and loss of hair. I wanted to brush the area a bit harder to be able to apply skin lotion. I know how sensitive Gia’s skin is and I didn’t want to set all her work backwards with the grooms. Therefore, I took over and scrubbed the area with Gia’s curry comb and gloved hand. It was far from Gia’s favorite, and I could see the irritation both on her skin and in her body. I followed the same procedure, however. I stayed grooming the area but also stayed out of the way while she processed the uncomfortable grooming. I did tell her to put her foot down when she raised it. The only change was that I did give her a break and step away when she relaxed as this was a necessary but uncomfortable experience. Ultimately, I was able to get the area cleaned and treated with anti fungus lotion. This job will fall on Heather or me. After all of this was finished, I opted to allow Gia to end without Chloe picking up her feet. There is always another day to try new things.

Saturday, February 7th -Typically, we do not work horses on Saturdays. However, on weeks when we are unable to work on our regular days, we do oftentimes add Saturday work into the mix. Saturday morning started quite blustery here in Knightdale. We had wind gusts over 30 miles an hour and temps in the upper 20’s/low 30’s. It was not a pretty start to the day. I actually thought I was not going to get time in to work Gia as we all had to work on securing things around the farm. However, most of our students opted to work on groundwork Saturday morning. The wind was brutal, so I don’t blame them. One of my students actually had a full hour lesson and she is one of our youngest feeders. She wanted to work on lunging and being comfortable with different horses. I had the idea that Gia might be a perfect candidate. (On ground days, some of our “non- lesson horses” get a chance to interact and work with students!) My student was excited at this opportunity as she was a bit nervous about dealing with Gia at times. As I’ve stated before, Gia knows her size and is very food motivated. This means the feeders often see her at a time when her emotions are elevated. We started with me showing her some tips on how we have worked with Gia to help put her halter on, how to lead, etc. Once we had Gia brought into the barn, we worked on grooming which she seemed to enjoy. She seemed curious and was well behaved for this. I then took my student out to the arena with Gia and gave her a demo on lunging. Gia is very well behaved on the lunge line and is actually a great horse to teach students how to lunge correctly. She is forgiving and obedient. I will say this wasn’t always the case, but Heather did a ton of work to help her, and it paid off. After my student felt confident with the lunging, I realized we had a whole empty arena, and I asked her if she wanted to see something cool. Of course, she said yes. I took Gia off the line and demonstrated some natural horsemanship work. Gia is quite a good student and loves this work. She was practically perfect for me and my student was quite impressed to see her focus and stay with me as I walked around the arena. I asked her if she wanted to try and I knew this would be a bit of a challenge for both of them. This free lunging natural horsemanship work is based on essentially interpreting and mimicking a horse’s natural instinct and behavior. As the person, you take on the role of the boss horse, and you establish your place by making the horse move unless they are showing signs of submission. These signs include putting their heads down, licking and chewing, sighing, moving with you, amongst other things. An added challenge for me to teach this is that I do want to stay close with my student, but I don’t want Gia to be focused on me. I have to step back and move her away if she comes near me. As soon as I left the immediate vicinity, Gia’s behaviors changed. She became distracted and anxious, but my student did a fantastic job of following directions from afar. I had to step in a few times to get Gia away from a corner where other horses were hanging out, but mostly I just guided the process. Eventually, Gia gave my student a sign of submission and was focused on her and even took a few steps to follow her. We ended the lesson on this positive note. I think both Gia and my student had a great time.