Gia sessions 1218-1221 Various grooms and good behavior!

Monday, February 16th-Ashley and I worked together with Gia again. The grooming went well so I asked Ashley to go ahead and pick out Gia’s feet. I am still watching over the process with her feet, but she has been more agreeable to having them touched lately so I figured it was time to move onto something new. Gia was very well behaved for having her feet picked. However, Ashley noted to me that her feet smelled terrible. Horses’ feet never smell great, but we all become accustomed to that “normal” smell. I have no sense of smell any longer, but I still knew immediately what Ashley was talking about: thrush. As I mentioned last week, Dr Jim had noted Gia had thrush in one foot. We had been treating that one, but not her others. It is not surprising that thrush popped up in her other feet and I was able to quickly get on top of treating them. Thrush is one of the smells that is imbedded in my brain and while I can’t physically smell it any longer, I sure can trigger that memory. It’s almost as bad!


Tuesday, February 17th- I was finally able to have Mariana work with Gia again! For multiple reasons, including timing, weather, and travel, I have not been able to work out a good day for Mariana to work with Gia. It has been awhile since Mariana groomed her. She does feed our horses in addition to grooming, so she has not been completely out of practice working with Gia. Mariana started with the blanket and went through the grooming basics with Gia reiterating all the steps we’ve changed and added along the way. It wasn’t perfect, but they did an excellent job working together. Gia clearly enjoyed her grooming a lot more than she did last time Mariana participated. These are the steps that we have been working so hard towards.

Wednesday, February 18th - Ashley was back and I had her practice more of the same things with Gia that we had been working on. I stepped back a bit further and allowed her to work a bit more independently while I worked with another horse in the arena. The goal of all this work is for Gia to allow anyone to get her ready at any time, so I do need to step back. While Gia was interested in what I was doing and looking for me occasionally, she did very well. Ashley has become much quicker at interpreting and seeing Gia’s tense moments. She has done a fantastic job of working through them. On an even more positive note, Ashley stated that Gia’s feet smelled a lot better.

Friday,February 20th - We were graced by a lovely, warm day. Chloe started out by grooming Gia while I stayed a bit further back. Gia was doing very well for all of her grooming. I have been very (im)patiently waiting for a warmer day to handle a rather sensitive grooming need. Gia has rather large teats. Occasionally, dirt and sweat will accumulate between them and it makes Gia rather uncomfortable. However, because this is such a sensitive area AND she is bothered by it, cleaning them out is a job that I will NOT be passing off to others (I’m sure they don’t mind!). With the warm weather only visiting us for a few days, I also handled another large grooming job: Gia’s mane. This is one thing that she does not mind being done. Oftentimes, Gia will put her head way up when I first put the hose on her neck. However, when it is time to start washing, she loves it. Gia seemed to fully enjoy the fact she could FINALLY get her bath!

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