All The Kings' Horses

 Monday September 28th - I worked with Gia today on her relaxation and rhythm at the walk to start with.  I also focused on my own position and relaxation.  She was a bit distracted today, so we spent more time at the walk.  When the rhythm was there, I had Gia focus on staying straight on a certain path I had in mind.  Basically, I wanted her to stay just inside the track that typically runs around the outside of the arena.  It can be harder than it sounds, because a lot of horses (and riders) find it easier to just stay on the well-trodden path that falls right up against the rail.  But, in order to stay just off the track, you have to use your outside leg to somewhat "block" the horse from "falling" onto that path, which helps to keep them more balanced, and can also help to keep them more focused.  From there, I added circles and changes across the diagonal, on very precise lines.  Along with keeping up with the rhythm, she had a lot to k...

 Monday 9/21/26 - It was a busy day today with fall vet check ups going on, but I managed to get a decent ride in on Gia.  I allowed her to wander around the arena while I focused on my position - symmetrical feeling in my feet, pulling my thighs out and back, and relaxing my seat and legs.  Once that was feeling easier, I noticed that Gia was nicely relaxed, moving freely, and reaching her neck nice and long.  We started to work on the trot, but she immediately got frustrated and fussy - tossing her head, swishing her tail and swinging her back end.  I was working on keeping myself symmetrical, which in turn would help her to stay straighter.  However, I think that when I was getting things correct, I was relaxing my left leg too  much, and then she was falling apart again.  I tried just keeping my left leg as a constant on her side, but not too hard, just a steady, light contact.  She was much better behaved for the rest of the ride after t...

 Tuesday 9/15/26 - I was finally able to get on Gia today after a week and a half of her being home and still not being able to ride due to high fevers and increased respiratory rates.  Today was about 10 degrees cooler out, so that probably helped a lot as well!  I kept it very light on her, and we just stayed at the walk.  I also kept a close eye on her respiratory rate the entire time.  I mainly worked on  my own position flaws (of which there are many 🫤).  Today it was about keeping more weight in my big toes, rather than allowing my ankles to roll to the outside and letting the weight go to my pinkie toes.  And I had to keep the weight symmetrical in both stirrups, which meant I had to focus on putting more weight in my right stirrup, since that leg always wants to draw up.  I also worked on pushing my leg down and backwards, drawing my thigh away from the thigh block of my saddle - I thought about pedaling a bike backwards.  And f...

8/10/26 (Danielle) - I worked with Gia under saddle. We continued to work relaxing and moving forward at both the walk and the trot. Gia started out a bit tense, but I worked with her by talking to her and encouraging her to settle into her gaits and move forward. I think both of us are tired of the never-ending heat and humidity at this point! 8/11/26 (Heather) - I started out with Gia on the ground, working on walk/halt transitions.  I wanted to make sure that she would go forward when I asked her to, without any resistance (aka, bucking).  I am still rehabbing my leg, and I'm just not really up for that right now. 😉  We ended up doing quite a bit of transition work before she felt obedient enough to head to the block.  The biggest issue was actually bringing her back to the halt obediently.  Once at the block, she felt very anxious, and did not really want to stop there, or stand there, or be there in general.  I decided to work on encouraging relaxatio...