Gia - sessions 1269-1280 would you believe - pony rides!!??

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 with some mental challenges that many adult riders experience: the realization that we are, in fact, not invincible. Darn frontal lobe development. While I know logically that I am a competent and capable rider, sometimes my brain gets louder and I’m fairly sure I was holding onto some tension. The day I had my confidence boost, I got on Gia and she was noticeably less tense at the beginning of the ride. Gia was not perfect, but I must have been holding my breath or creating tension in some other way. As soon as she got tight, I applied the leg and whip and we immediately worked through the issue and within seconds, Gia was ready to work. In fact, as I tested this theory day after day, I found only improvement. In fact, by the end of the week, I approached Heather with a new idea. I had been working on Gia’s rehab very slowly due to the prior issues. She seemed ready to move on, and I felt confident doing so. Heather agreed and at the end of the week, we began adding trot to Gia’s daily work. This week we did just a few minutes each day, but we did it!

Jun 1-7, 2026- Gia has been doing a fantastic job with the grooms. They have also been doing a wonderful job working with her. We even have a new groom and a returning volunteer who I have been working with, and they are showing success in reading and working with Gia. I continued adding in a little more trot each day. We had some interesting events including one where a small child came running up the road just as Gia bucked. That led me to send Heather a thank you text for all the work I’ve been doing on my leg position! As each day of trotting continues, I continue to gain my confidence on working through Gia’s issues. There are certainly some quirks with Gia that Heather has documented through the years, and she can be a bit dramatic. However, I am getting increasingly familiar and comfortable riding through her challenges. Additionally, I am learning how to handle some of her unique challenges under saddle like how long she is and how much her back end swinging around can throw you off balance. I have preached to my students for years and continue to stress it to myself: each horse you ride will be different, but you need to ride the same on all those horses. What I mean by this is I need to be responsible for my position and make sure I am not throwing the horse off balance or giving incorrect ques. Another highlight of this week was that Gia had an appointment with our chiropractor, Dr. Jim. He found that Gia was not sore in any area, and he remarked again how well behaved she was! I love hearing how all our work is translating all around.

Jun 8-14, 2026 - This was another big week for Gia. In fact, last week was the first for Gia and Castle Farm. Most of the riding during the week continued to extend Gia’s trot day by day. We are working through our challenges together and even had a few days with no bucking under saddle. A few times, Gia has even offered a few steps of canter. One time, I realized I had adjusted my outside leg back on a trot circle and it was clearly too much and Gia jumped into the canter…. not in a fun way. However, I was able to get her back and continue to move forward (at the trot). She feels much stronger and ready to go these days. My goals for the trot now are to help Gia bend and maintain a steady contact. I am happy to report that each day is presenting us with new victories, big or small. Sunday was an amazing day for Gia, and I am just oozing with pride! It was our annual fundraiser in memory of Heather’s beloved pony, Schuyler. He was a super pony and continues to give to so many, even years after his passing. One of the events of this year’s fundraiser was brand new: Gia pony rides. Gia is captivating and riding her is an experience. Most riding horses are not nearly as large as Gia. Currently, Gia is not an appropriate horse for Heather’s lesson program, so her riders are extremely limited (at the time, only I am riding her…. Hopefully, Heather’s knee will keep improving and very soon, we can up that number to 2!) However, Gia is very well behaved when being walked in hand. Therefore, we tried a sign up to see if people would be interested in doing a “not nearly a pony-ride.” The answer was a resounding “YES!” In fact, our last sign-up ended up being her first ride as they were my perfect test subject-my older daughter, Rain! It has been a few years since she has ridden regularly but is very comfortable around the horses and surprised me by asking to ride. Gia did great with all her rides. She had a total of 10 people ride her. They vastly varied in ages, sizes, and levels of experience. We were out walking for about 2 hours in the heat, but I couldn’t have been happier to introduce each person to riding Gia. We even proved to a few horse owner husbands (still have a few to go!) that, in fact, the horse does NOT do all the work. After all her hard work, Gia had a blast bobbing for apples and was so pleasant with everyone and everything. A year ago, I would have laughed out loud if someone had told me that this was on the radar. She has come so extremely far. It’s great to see all our hard work paying off and allowing others to enjoy Gia in a brand-new way!