Gia - sessions 1307-1309 A short week for Danielle-small gains, big changes!

 Monday, August 3rd -It was most certainly a Monday! Gia must’ve enjoyed her weekend and didn’t really seem to want to go to work on Monday. Gia was quite spicy and had quite a few bucks in store for me. I had some choice words for her. Typically, when Gia gets to work, she stops bucking, at least it slows down. But, once in a while, I think Gia ponders her eventing career and wants to give broncing a try. We were towards the end of our work, but I was starting to get tired and opted to choose safety. I hopped off and put Gia to work on the lunge line. Once I was solidly on the ground, I could push Gia to keep moving. Because she had been a bit naughty, I was looking for her to give me a sign of submission (lick, chew, head down, sigh, etc.). Once she did this, we finished for the day. I opted to call in back up for Tuesday!

Tuesday, August 4th - After talking to Heather on Monday, we decided it would be best for her to come and watch me ride on Tuesday. While we had been discussing Monday’s ride, Heather picked up on one word: work. Gia generally enjoys her work, but she can get annoyed if she’s asked to do the same thing over and over again. She loves to work if she feels appreciated, but, as a rider, it is easy to become hyper focused on the job. Heather had me spend extra time loving on Gia at the mounting block. I basically reset the tone. We were there to have fun. It didn’t matter what we accomplished. I started by letting Gia wander around and not asking her for anything. Heather asked me to relax and just focus on myself. Once I was sure I was not holding any tension, I asked Gia to focus on me and stretch over her back. Rather than ask her for the trot, I simply asked her to walk a little bit faster. She did this and towards the end of the ride, even volunteered a little trot. Once we did that, she was done for the day.

Wednesday, August 5th -Wednesday was a big day for Gia. One of Gia’s favorite feeders, Emma, asked to have a pony ride birthday party for her 30th . The only difference was that the “pony” requested was Gia. Gia did such a fantastic job at Schuyler’s memorial, Heather agreed. In order to have Gia ready both physically and mentally for pony rides, I opted to ride her in my evening group lesson. We went into the ring and did all the same things we had done on Tuesday. Once I mounted, Gia felt very relaxed. We began our slow warmup of mostly walking. When Gia felt relaxed and focused, I began to ask her for a little trot. She did great. Heather had me add one more piece to the puzzle: poll up. The poll of a horse is the point between their ears. It SHOULD be the highest point in dressage. Gia is a very upright horse. This means she tends to travel with her head and neck up. However, she also tends to invert her back and stretch her body out behind her rather than getting her hind end under herself. That is why we have been asking her to stretch down and over. However, now that she is doing that much better, we have a new goal. Gia should be stretching over her back but bringing her poll up. The challenge is to keep the feeling of her back lifting and stretching but asking her poll to come up and travel with shorter reins. It took me a little while to accomplish this, but we did it! I made sure to give Gia lots of positive reinforcement when she either waited for her turn or accomplished her goal. I wanted her to have fun. 

After the lesson, it was time to party! Gia had some wonderful pony ride participants including our
birthday girl, someone who swore they would NEVER ride Gia but chose to be a brave bad a$$, and a more familiar mount. You may have guessed it: Heather! Between winter break, paperwork and breaking her leg, it had been almost 9 months since Heather had ridden Gia. On Wednesday, she felt she was able to not only stretch legs to Gia’s formidable size, but to also be able to mount her. These have been the two biggest hinderances to Heather getting back on Gia. Well, she did it! On Wednesday, she just took Gia for a lap around at the walk, but she told me it felt good enough that she was ready to start working with Gia again. For now, we will be sharing the rides on Gia and Phillip, so my work is not done, but I’m so happy for Heather to be back on her girl! It is a great feeling to know that our hard work has paid off, and Gia is in shape and ready to ride for Heather.

- Danielle