Gia sessions 1258-1261 - a week of ups and downs

 Monday May 4-“May the fourth be with you”….Gia was channeling a charming Bantha on Monday. She was very well behaved for her grooming, stretches, and saddling. I debated on just hopping on without lunging, but I decided that I would stick with my routine. I am glad I did because while Gia started lumbering along like a steady Rontos on the lunge line, all of a sudden she started running and bucking on the line as if she was being chased by a herd of Nexu. However, this only lasted a minute and she calmed down right away. I hopped on in hopes she wasn’t going to toss me into a Sarlacc’s den. She was a bit tense at first and needed a few taps with my lightsaber to keep moving but by the end of the ride she was calm and sweet as a Porg. Kudos to anyone who followed along!

Tuesday May 5th - It’s Cinco de Mayo and I needed a margarita! I guess Gia just isn’t a fan. I started off the morning with a feeder check-in note that Gia (who has been much improved in her feeding behavior of late) tried to reenact the Battle of Pueblo with her adopted brother, Butch. I had hoped this was just a one-off and not indicative of her mood, but alas, it does seem that Gia woke up on the wrong side of the pond on Tuesday. When Marianna brought her in to groom her, she instantly noticed that Gia was more antsy and annoyed than usual. I opted to help her through the grooming and worked on her behaviors in the barn. Rather than ride, I took Gia out to the scene of her morning battle…AKA field one and decided to lunge her out there. She was actually fantastic for her lunge work. A few times she got a bit distracted and tripped over her own feet, but I added in some transitions and she did fantastically. I started noticing her pulling me towards a PVC pipe jump in the field. I lined up her up and she happily hopped over the jump in both directions. I decided to take her down to the bottom of the field where we have a stacked tire jump. For those who are new to Gia’s blog, Gia does not like the stacked tire jump in

field 4. It is only a single layer of tires and quite small but has been a bit of an obstacle for her for years. For this reason, I wanted to see what she would do if I gave her the option to take the much larger, presumably much scarier, stack of tires. We lunged around the tires, and she continued to listen quite well. I felt her pulling a bit to the jump, so I lined her up in the next circle to have the option to jump it. Initially, I thought she was going to soar right over it, but at the last minute, she skidded to a stop. I decided to give her a second chance and gave her a bit of encouragement as she approached the jump and the second time, she did indeed soar over the jump. In fact, she kept on her circle and went right back to it and did it again! When I changed directions, I did move her to further out as I did not want her to take that jump downhill and she actually seemed a bit disappointed. All in all, though, she ended up on a positive, upbeat note and was very good for her grooming after work. I guess she just had some energy she needed to work out.

Wednesday May 6th - Farrier Fun Day. Really, the fun should be in quotes. Something was in the air on Wednesday that seemed to be riling up a lot of the horses who were being seen by our farrier. Gia was in and waiting for me while I had to give a hand with a few offenders. As soon as things calmed down and our absolute quietest, most patient pony Cisco, was being seen, I decided to hop on Gia. Well, Gia’s not the only horse who teaches us not to put down our guards. For some reason, I didn’t see what happened, but Cisco went backwards out of the barn. To say this is unusual is an understatement. It is likely Cisco was spooked by something or bit by a bug, and he quickly returned to his normal, sleepy demeanor. However, I had just come around the corner of the arena on Gia and she saw him. Horses are definitely herd animals and when one horse acts scared, they all tend to go into flight mode. As prey animals, their instincts don't allow them time to stop and process their surroundings before acting. Gia jumped forward and got very tense. Usually, once we get through the first few minutes of a ride, she is nice and relaxed. This was in the middle, so it was almost like we were starting over. I put my leg on and encouraged her to MOVE forward. Once moving, I kept her in small figures until I could feel her relaxation. It only took a minute for her to be back in work mode, and we were able to resume our full arena work. Horses are like people and some tend to be more dramatic than others…. Gia certainly has a flair for drama!

Friday May 8th - We made it to the end of the week! Gia did well for all her groundwork. Overall, her walk work was much the same as it has been. I continue to push through the anxiousness for the first few minutes and then she is listening much better. She isup to 11 minutes walk now. We will see what next week brings! (Spoiler alert-Gia will not be a fan!)