All The Kings' Horses

June 22-26, 2026:  Many years ago, when I was a young child, my grandfather corrected me when I (in my very grown voice) informed him “I was an equestrian” because I had started taking lessons. He quietly and kindly, which was his way, informed me that I was a horse rider, not an equestrian. Before I could call myself an equestrian I had to do the following things: be bit by a horse, be kicked by a horse, be stepped on by a horse and fall off of a horse. Rest assured, by these standards, I became an equestrian MANY years ago. However, that has always resonated with me. Not that any of those things are pleasant or desirable, but they are part of the game. If you work with horses, these things will happen. Often times, they are preventable and, at least in part, errors made by people. However, to err is human and I have certainly made my fair share of mistakes. I could qualify by my grandfather’s standards as an equestrian solely by my work with Gia. I add all of this to be 100 perce...

 Gia’s Blog Jun15-19: Gia enjoys being groomed by a new groom, Nyx! This week there was a lot more of the same work for Gia. She continues to work well with the grooms and is becoming more and more accepting of multiple people handling/grooming. This is great news as we are in the midst of summer and bug season! As for the riding, I (Danielle) continue to work with Gia on increasing her trot minutes each day. We also work through her tension at the beginning of each trot set. Luckily, she is generally pretty quick to settle down into a routine and get to work. At the trot, I have been encouraging Gia to do more figures, shapes, and adding bend to her work. Friday proved to be a bit more exciting than I had planned, however. When I went to hop on Gia, her saddle started to slip as I put my foot in the stirrup. I had, of course, just tightened her girth prior to mounting, but I guess I could’ve gone a hole tighter! As I felt the saddle slip, I attempted to step down onto the mounting...

As is always the case, life is so busy. I will try and catch up here by giving you all some weekly synopses with the highlights. May 25-29, 2026 - What a week this one proved to be! I think I need to just start putting things into the universe via this blog. In the last entry, I mentioned how I hoped that Gia and I could get off to a better start to our work each day. Ironically, or maybe not so much, I personally had a breakthrough in a ride on another horse early in the week. The other horse *name redacted to protect the mostly innocent* was having a bit of a dramatic day. As I was riding through their feelings, I felt noticeably confident and realized I could ride through the silliness and I was able to breathe and work through the ride. It felt like a huge mental breakthrough. Personally, my riding journey has had a lot of (literal and figurative) ups and downs. When I was younger, I felt invincible and had no fear…even through major injuries. As I have gotten older, I’ve struggled...