Gia - sessions 1310-1318 - a mix of Heather and Danielle, and then things go on hold again ...

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 relaxation.  I asked for some treats to help with the encouragement, but she wasn't really interested.  It took some trial and error, but I finally remembered that she really enjoyed belly scratches, so whenever I got her near the block, I would immediately give her belly scratches.  That seemed to do the trick!  We didn't get too terribly far with it that day, but we did at lease get to the point where she was standing near the block and fairly relaxed at least once or twice, with belly scratches.

8/12/26 (Heather) - I started out with the same thing as yesterday, but I remembered to bring my treats in a pouch to start with today.  I primarily used them whenever she gave me a halt transition, good or bad.  When she wouldn't respond to my closing hand to ask for the halt, I would tap her on the chest with the butt end of the whip to help her understand not to go forward anymore.  It took her a few tries to understand what that meant, but once she got it, it really helped.  When we went back to the block, she was much better!  I worked with her on all the little steps that I would take to get on her from the mounting block, with belly scratches at each increment.  Once she relaxed, I would move on the next step, but I never got on her.  We repeated the exercise only once today since it did take a while to get through all the steps the first time.  She was much more calm with it all today though!

8/14/26 (Danielle) - Lately, Gia has been a bit more anxious with other people grooming her again. Most likely, this is caused by some sort of anxiety and/or discomfort. As we’ve discussed many times in the past, Gia has a certain set of expectations and how she would like things done. Some of these wishes (Danielle does all her grooming every time) are unrealistic, but there are certain things that we can and should accommodate. On this day, I worked with one of our groom assistants, Nyx, on understanding and communicating with Gia. Gia definitely views herself as a mostly alpha mare. She tries to assert herself in many situations. As people dealing with horses, we should always have the upper hand, but in a kind and assertive way. However, it is easy to allow our feelings and reflexes to take over. We are, after all, humans at heart. One of my biggest challenges in training others to working with Gia is to read her body language and be one step ahead. Since I have worked with Gia for so long, and we have a bond, I know what she’s thinking usually before or at the same time as she does. This is not to say Gia is never naughty or tries to get one over on me, but most of the time, I can sense and preemptively reprimand her. On this day, I tried to stay mostly out of sight, but still where I could observe Gia’s behavior and make suggestions to Nyx about what they could have changed/noticed sooner. The things I noticed were perceptively very small, but to Gia it made a large difference. I noticed when Gia became tense or agitated and pointed those out to Nyx and showed them the behaviors that I noted. The more people are able to sense and see what is about to happen, the sooner and more effective they will be in correcting her. By the end of this session, I felt like there was a clear line of communication between Gia and her groom.

8/21/26 (Danielle) - I had the opportunity to work with Gia and Nyx to follow up on their prior session today. I was hoping to see some positive carryover on communication between both Nyx and Gia. I think I definitely saw that growth. Gia tends to be a bit grumpy when removing her flysheet. It has a belly band, and we know that her tummy tends to be a sensitive area. Learning how to interpret Gia’s body language and be firm and assertive yet not threatening is a work in progress for many people. Nyx did a good job of reading when Gia was going to act out and I was able to coach them on keeping their voice calm and strong without sounding panicked or scared. They did a good job and Gia responded appropriately! Another aspect of grooming Gia that can be challenging is the fact that, despite time being a primary focus, Gia does not like to feel rushed. The kinetic energy that comes off of people rushing can cause a horse to also get amped up. They are mirrors to our emotional souls. One of the things that I have to work on with many grooms and students is the ability to compartmentalize and not allow the horses to pick up on your stressors. One of the most amazing aspects of working with horses is their ability to mirror and reflect our emotions and personalities. Gia is especially known for this factor. She has her own big feelings and emotions, so as her people, we need to ensure what we project is a positive example for her. While this may sound easy, it is harder than it seems. To be quick, but not rushed is a challenge. Many horses will overlook this difference, but the sensitive ones will not. They are prey animals and will sense that anxiousness in their people and match it. Once a horse’s senses are on alert, they tend to be a bit more challenging to get to comply. Gia is simply not a horse to “let it go”. In her mind, if her person is worried/anxious about something she should be too. This is how prey animals survive in the wild. Act first, think later. By continuing the education and observation of others with Gia, I am helping both Gia and her humans at working together and gaining each other’s trust. By the end of this session, I felt both Nyx and Gia were more relaxed and allowing time to process.

8/24/26 (Heather) - I finally got back to working with Gia again after working so hard on the new arena footing.  It is soooo worth all the hard work though!  And all the horses really seem to love the difference!!  With Gia, I started with groundwork, again with the walk/halt transitions.  She was fairly obedient, although I did have to remind her a few times, with the butt end of the whip, to halt more promptly.  Once that was better, we went to the mounting block, and she was immediately relaxed!  She walked right up to where she should be, stood calmly and waited for me to get on.  I did not immediately get on - I went slightly quicker through all the small steps than I had before, making sure the add the belly scratches after each one, but then I hopped on at the end!  She was perfect, except that she walked away from the block when I got on.  I just used a small circle, a few times, to remind her to wait for me to tell her.  Each time she stopped, she received a scratch from the whip on the neck as incentive.  From there, we worked on walk/trot transitions, keeping the poll up, and keeping her attention.  There were a few moments where she swished her tail and shook her head, but not much more than that.  For the most part, she was fairly obedient.

8/25/26 (Heather) - I repeated the in-hand work, as well as the mounting block work again, just like yesterday.  She did even better, and was even more relaxed!  I focused a bit on my position today at the walk and trot.  I also worked on helping her with keeping her poll up, as well as encouraging her to keep her neck long and her attention in the arena.  Things were feeling really good at the trot, and she felt like she wanted to offer the canter, so we tried it several times in each direction.  It wasn't great.  There was definitely some bucking.  It seemed to happen whenever she would lose her balance.  Then she seemed to get upset with herself, and then throw a tantrum about it.  I would help her rebalance and try again, but, looking back, I think it was too soon to ask for this.  I don't think she is strong enough to keep it all together, so that leads to her frustration.  I will try to keep that in mind as we continue our work together.

8/26/26 (Danielle) - In this session, I continued on the work Heather had started with Gia. This involved working from the ground in a manner to help Gia resolve tension. We worked on a lot of the same aspects from the ground that we had been working on under saddle. Obviously, this was a bit different than what I had been doing, but really focused on the same work. It is important that we maintain consistency with Gia’s work so I was happy to try something new. Gia seemed a bit confused when I DIDN’T mount at the mounting block as that had been our routine for months. She was intrigued and that gave me an advantage. I encouraged her to relax and move forward with a lot of verbal and physical praise. We had a good round of her moving forward mostly off my voice with less tension. At the end, she still seemed confused as to what we had done, but pleased with herself for all the positive affirmation she received. While I did not face the same challenges that I did under saddle, or the same Heather did on the ground, the asks and rewards were the same. This continuity and consistency is something many young horses thrive on and Gia is no different. I am thankful for the opportunities to learn and help both Heather and Gia.

8/31/26 (Heather) - I did not do the in-hand work prior to making my way to the mounting block with Gia this time.  However, she was still super relaxed, like the last several times.  We stayed at the walk only today, just working on obedient transitions, and me working on my position.  I'm still rehabbing from my broken leg, and pressure on the stirrup is still a bit painful.  I'm getting there, and the progress is steady, but very slow, kind of like horses 😊.

8/31/26 addendum - Gia appeared to be a bit colicky around dinner time - laying down, not interested in food, attempting to roll.  We got her up, gave her some Banamine, and walked her around.  After about 45 minutes, she seemed better.  The vet had already been on his way here for another horse, so he took a look at her as well.  By then, she was back to normal, so we decided to play things conservatively.  I put her in a stall to keep an eye on her, but I did put the "colic bridle" on her.  Basically, I keep an old bridle around that can be easily adjusted to fit just about any horse, and it's one that I don't care if they beat up or not.  It has a smooth double jointed snaffle bit on it.  There has been some scientific evidence that a horse wearing a bridle, will chew more, generating more saliva, and therefore stimulate the gut to move, making it more likely to resolve a colic.  It doesn't hurt, and it might just help, and in the horse world, we'll take anything we can get.

Gia and the rebreathing test

By morning, she hadn't pooped any, but was also running a fever, which was unusual for a colic, so we called the vet again, and we agreed that it would be a good idea for him to come out again.  I gave her more Banamine as well.  Banamine is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication), similar to Tylenol, so it typically lowers a fever and reduces pain.  However, when the vet arrived about an hour later, her fever had actually increased, which is not a good sign, and she had an increased respiratory rate.  The fever is not a symptom that typically goes along with a colic.  It's typically an indication of an infection somewhere.  However, the vet checked her all over, and couldn't find any source of infection, including checking her lungs and doing a rebreathing test by having her breathe into a plastic glove.  Once she uses up all the oxygen in the plastic, they take the glove away, and she wants to take several good, deep breaths.  It allows the vet to be able to really hear anything that could be deep in her lungs (since they are so huge).  Still nothing.  We also decided to tube her and do a rectal on her - things typically done if the horse were colicking - just in case.  She came up clear in both cases.   We decided to keep an eye on her, give the Banamine another hour to take effect, and give her Tylenol if it did not.  

About an hour later, her fever was down, but by then, she also had a huge welt on either side of her abdomen.  I sent pictures to the vet, and he was quite concerned, so he recommended sending her to the NC State Vet School for further treatment.  So, I loaded her up in the trailer, and off we went.

The welt on Gia's side

Once at the Vet School, they did an intake on her where they got all her info from me, and then swept her off for a LOT more testing.  I headed home, since it could be quite a while before I would know anything, and they were more than likely going to have to keep her overnight anyway. 

Unfortunately, they didn't have any answers for me that first day.

Or the next day.

By Thursday morning, they had run out of tests to perform, with still no answers, and she still wasn't feeling any better.  They were still waiting on results from one more test though.  When we did finally get those back, we finally got an answer - Gia has Mast Cell Equine Asthma of the Mild to Moderate Type.  It sounds much scarier than it actually is.  This type of equine asthma is more treatable than most.  She will have to go on Zyrtec, at least through the hot months, for the rest of her life, possibly up to 22 twice a day.  She will also never be able to eat from a round bale again, and will always have to have her hay soaked or steamed prior to being allowed to eat it.  This will prevent the allergens and spores in the hay from being inhaled through her lungs.  We also think that she might have anhidrosis, but it seems intermittent.  To help her out with that, I plan on trying a supplement called One AC, which is supposed to help a horse sweat.  I can also give her a Guinness or two if this doesn't work!  

Finally, after some further discussion, we decided to test her for stomach ulcers as well.  Those results came back on Friday.  She has grade 3 out of 4 glandular ulcers, as well as pyloric ulcers.  To treat those, she is receiving Gastro Gard, as well as a medication called Misoprostal.  After all that, she was release from the Vet School on Friday afternoon.  Due to her necessary environmental changes, I had already planned to move her to a new field, where she won't have access to a round bale.  Unfortunately, she also won't have any friends with her in the field, but there will be several horses adjacent to her. 

I was told that it would be fine to ride her on Monday (9/7/26), however, only if she had no fever and no elevated respiratory rate.  Unfortunately, she had fevers earlier in the week, and she has had elevated respiratory rates every day this week. 😢

Earlier in the week, we were giving her cold alcohol baths, which really helped.  But then I remembered that I had a HUGE fan that wasn't being used, and she has an outlet right next to her field.  I plugged it in and set it up near where she eats her hay, and that has really helped to keep her temps down!  She was nervous about it at first, but once she realized how good it felt, she didn't mind at all!

She has still had elevated respiratory rates, but that is most likely due to the allergens.  They started her on the Zyrtec at 11 twice per day, and said it could be increased by three tabs once a week until we reach 22 or find the right level.  It was just increased to 14 on Friday, so hopefully that will start to make a difference.  Until then I just have to wait to ride ... Keep your fingers crossed for Gia please!