Gia - sessions 1250 - 1253 expect the unexpected
Last week, I mentioned that things with Gia were progressing and I had a plan. I also mentioned that things could always change. Well, this week was a bit of both! Basically, it was just another week living and working with Gia.
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| Gia and the scary jump! |
students on Sunday. Almost all of the lesson horses worked hard on Sunday, so we gave everyone the day off on Monday. Heather and I also took the day off (as much as we ever do...). Gia did not participate in the show, but she was an active spectator most of the day. She seemed quite intrigued by all the new jumps and activities. A few times, we even had to halt the classes because Gia came galloping up through the fields. As you can probably imagine, that can be quite the distraction and earth shaking. Gia seemed glad to be back to work on Tuesday morning and was very well behaved for her grooming, stretches, and saddle. However, things took a turn when we walked out into the arena to do her saddle work. As soon as I walked through the gate with Gia, she spun around and was displaying many anxious behaviors: snorting, blowing, swishing of her tail, even “popping up” off her front feet (like a baby rear). I don’t claim to be the bravest or stupidest rider around, so I made a decision to NOT ride Gia on Tuesday. My reasoning was simple: if I decided to get on, I stayed on until either Gia calmed down or I fell off. However, on the ground, I could handle Gia’s nervousness and help her relax without the added stress and concern of being on her back. With my new plan in place, I opted to work on Gia with focus work and have her pay attention to me until she was listening and calm. Once I accomplished this goal, we took a walk in hand around the arena. I paid attention to how Gia reacted to each jump and noted which ones were concerning her. Then we calmly approached them and I allowed Gia to examine the jumps. If she touched them, I praised her. I did not force Gia to do anything quickly or when she was frozen in fear. Using techniques, we have learned through clinics and experience, I helped Gia build her confidence and increase her window of tolerance. I then walked Gia back to the barn, gave her a minute, and brought her back to the arena. The second time we walked in, she was much calmer. We went for a walk around the arena again and Gia was much more relaxed. I decided to end her work for the day on that victory.
Wednesday 4/22/26 - I knew time was going to be short on Wednesday as we had a busy day with both the farrier and chiropractor coming in the morning. After I had told Heather about how Tuesday had gone with Gia, she gave me an assignment for Wednesday. On Tuesday, Gia learned to accept the jumps and interesting things in the arena. On Wednesday, she was going to have to work with them. I brought Gia in and immediately began working her on the lunge line. Heather advised me to not necessarily make Gia jump but allow her to do so if she chose. Well, it seems Gia misses jumping! I had to work really hard to steer Gia to only jumps she could jump on a lunge line! Gia would have jumped everything if she had the chance! I think she really enjoyed the change of work. The only jump Gia was avoiding was the jump lined up next to our planks. These are a new jump and therefor, still terrifying. Eventually, Gia was able to go over the little jump by the planks and focused on her work. After working all over the arena, I took Gia in for her chiropractor appointment. Dr. Jim even commented on how well-behaved Gia was for her appointment. Luckily, she also only needed one small adjustment. This is great news!
Friday 4/24/26 - Gia came in and was very well behaved for her grooming and stretches on Friday. I decided to give her a new challenge: letting Chloe saddle her. Gia ended up being very well behaved for Chloe. She did pick up her foot but responded well to the verbal command to “put it down.” I was quite pleased with her and set out to see if Friday would be the first day we rode in the new, “scary” arena. In fact, it was. I was able to walk Gia out to the arena calmly, adjust her saddle and climb on. Gia did feel tense when I asked her to move forward. She was a bit feisty, so we started on our small circles and changes of directions. After a few minutes, Gia calmed down and relaxed on the walk. Once Gia was able to walk around on a loose rein we began to expand our circles to include the areas where the planks were resting. At first, Gia was focused on the jump, but was responsive to me asking her to move forward. I was sure to keep my leg on and give her positive reinforcement for moving towards the jump. By the end of our 7 minute walk, Gia actually walked over the pole next to the plank jump multiple times. I was immensely proud of her.
Saturday 4/25/26 - On Saturday, I went into our work feeling confident after the accomplishments on Friday. I had Ashley try the saddle and she was fantastic. I’m so glad that Gia is learning to expand her tolerance and let others work with her. We went out into the arena and initially, Gia seemed calm. After I hopped on her, I noticed Gia focused on a couple of the jumps with a lot of anxiety. I quickly scanned the arena to see what may have been different. It was then I realized that some of the jumps had been set up for a lesson and now there were jumps instead of poles. It may seem like a slight change, but for Gia it did not go unnoticed. I started working with Gia on the small circles and
figures, but things were not going quite as well as normal. I think Gia decided it was time to test me a bit. There are many possibilities that caused Gia to act differently: we were working on a Saturday, the jumps were different, I may have had a different mindset as I had lessons to teach immediately after work, or perhaps the novelty of “work” has worn off a bit. For whatever reason, or combination of reasons, Gia made our ride a bit more exciting. Gia was barely moving forward and began her “tell-tail” sign of irritation by swishing her tail. Additionally, she was kicking up her back feet and giving little baby hops off the ground. The only solution when she does these things is to get her moving forward. To get Gia to move forward, we need to tap her with a whip and keep tapping until she goes forward. Gia’s size becomes less noticeable once you are on her back, generally. However, when she is acting up, she packs a ton of power and has a lot of body to move around. Gia’s height is less of a challenge in these circumstances than her length. We have often joked that Gia could carry 3 riders on how long her back is. That extra long back means the naughty wiggles feel a lot more exaggerated. Knowing that how I handled the situation was going to teach Gia a lesson (either a good one or a bad one). I put my leg on and asked Gia to move forward. I kept asking for more forward movement, paying attention to my position and where she put her head. Eventually, after approximately 5 hours…I mean minutes, Gia relaxed. We were able to both breathe and walk around the arena. I have ridden Gia many times, but this was my first real test. In recounting to Heather, I admitted I was scared. She replied with “tell me about it”! I have always respected Heather’s ability to ride Gia especially through her naughty days, but now I have even more. Hopefully, next week we will keep making forward progress. Heather is getting increasingly mobile so I’ve got to get her girl ready for her….Now we just have to figure out how to get Heather up there.
- Danielle
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