All The Kings' Horses

This week was an exciting one for Gia. It has been the first week where everything went according to plan in a long time! Monday April 13th-On Monday, Ashley started grooming Gia. She was particularly good. After her grooming, I began working on her stretches. One of Gia's stretches is a belly lift. I must run my finger, or an instrument like a hoof pick or a comb, along the underside of Gia's belly encouraging her to lift her back. At first, she was a bit jumpy and picked up her foot. As soon as I told her to put it down, she obliged and realized what we were doing. These stretches are not new to her, but it has been a while since we have used them. I suspect she will get reaccustomed to them very quickly. After her stretches were complete, I worked on the saddle, for which she was very well behaved. I took her out into the arena next to do her rehab ride of 5 minutes of walk. For whatever reason, she was quite tense and anxious when I got on her. I started off taking her in a...

 Monday April 6th - On Monday, I had Ashley groom Gia. I made sure not to let Gia know, but I had plans for some changes this week. Gia was very good. Just to clarify: Gia is not perfect. She is an animal with free choice. The goal of the work has been for Gia to get used to others grooming her and educating the grooms on how to read Gia’s body language. Everyone has been doing a great job with their respective roles, and I feel it is time to take a step forward! Tuesday April 7th - On Tuesday, I did not have a groom when it was time for me to work with Gia. I decided to see how far I could get with putting on the saddle if Gia behaved for grooming. Gia was very well behaved, and we got through her grooming very easily. I was curious as to how Gia would act with the saddle as it had been a while. She was very well behaved. Even when I discovered her girth no longer fit and I had to take the saddle off and put it back on with another girth, she stood well for me to make adjustments....

 Gia has been doing a lot more work without me (Danielle). I have been leaving her to the grooms to handle and see if they can work through any issues. When new things arise, I will step in and give them a hand! All the grooms and Gia have been doing well with this new challenge. For the week of March 23rd, I will share some notes from the grooms to show how paying attention to the small details makes a HUGE difference. First, Ashley noticed that as she has become comfortable again with Gia, she was perhaps going a bit too fast with her. We are quite busy and we do tend to try to get through things quickly. As Gia became better behaved, Ashley let down her guard a bit and went faster. As you all know, Gia does not like things done differently. She became nervous and anxious. However, as a result of all the work we have done, Ashley was able to identify not only Gia’s behavioral shift, but also the root cause. As a result, she was able to change her behavior and Gia was perfect. Als...