Gia - sessions 1289-1300 Catching up, consistency, canter

 Well, here is another three in one blog. This blog entry is all about the letter C: catching up, consistency, and a little CANTER!


June 29th thru July 17th - As I stated in the last blog post, I did ride Gia in a lesson with Heather. She did fantastic! Heather had me work on getting her to stretch over her back and move her shoulder to the left. Generally, Gia allows her shoulder to fall to the right. This causes her to be quite crooked and the faster she moves, the bigger the problems can arise. We worked on moving her shoulder and keeping my own alignment in the lesson. We were even able to ask her for a little canter in each direction. I am proud to say she did very well. She only had one little buck that we rode through and did not allow it to elevate. It was so nice to see that all of our collective hard work is paying off!

Since then, it has been extremely hot here. As much as I hate the heat, Gia hates it even more. We are northern girls! (Gia is a Canadian WB despite being born here!) Also, 2 years ago, Gia had tie back surgery. Since then, she does struggle a bit more with keeping her respiratory rate low in the summer. With all these things considered, we have been working on Gia moving her shoulder, keeping a steady rhythm, and stretching. I have been doing this mostly at the walk and adding in a little trot. As the weather eases up, we can add more trot and canter to the work, but she is learning the cues and getting much more responsive to my leg. On a very positive note, Gia has also been doing very well with her behaviors under saddle. She has been very well behaving and seems to be happy to work. Hopefully, the slow and steady consistent work will pay off, and all of these positive (huge) strides will continue.

-Danielle B.

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