All The Kings' Horses

 Monday 11/2/26 - I tried another round with Gia of "What do YOU want to do?".  This time we went out in the field, and I stood on one of the cross country jumps, with her on the lunge line, while I taught a lesson.  She tried to get to the grass several times, but never really approached me at all.  When I was finished with the lesson, I allowed her to take the lead on a "field trip" 🤣.  She either wanted to find a way to eat grass or smell poop, or eat hay, or see the other horses.  She had absolutely no interest in doing anything I had in mind.  Time to rethink this plan.... Tuesday 11/3/26 - So, I decided to take things in a different direction.  I brought her in today and just turned her loose in the arena.  She immediately went to eating the grass that was around the edges.  Meanwhile, I proceeded to remove her fly boots, fly sheet and fly mask, one item at a time.  Each time I approached, my only request was that she was pol...

 Monday October 26th - Gia and I started on a loose rein at a walk in the arena today.  I did not ask her for anything in particular, I just allowed her to wander around while I focused on my own position and relaxation.  When I thought she was ready, I asked for the trot on a long rein.  She felt a bit sticky, not wanting to go forward.  I am working on listening to her small, polite requests, so she doesn't have to resort to "yelling", aka bucking.  This is her way of saying, something isn't right.  Now it's my job to figure out what.  That's the hard part.  It's not always obvious. In fact, it's not usually obvious, or I would have probably already done it.  TBH, I can't remember at this time what actually worked, but she did eventually go forward at the trot.  After a warm up on a loose rein, I started to add rhythm and then straightness.  When I was adding straightness, she again started to feel "sticky".  It took me ...

 Monday October 19th - I started out asking Gia to flex her jaw left and right in hand.  It seemed much easier for her today.  I got on her about the same time Danielle was getting on Belle.  Gia notoriously does not like to share the arena, so she immediately made it known (with ears back) that this space was all hers).  However, we don't share that sentiment, so I decided we would spend the entire ride next to Belle, much to Gia's disappointment.  We started at the walk, and a very safe distance away, but still close enough for Gia to feel slightly uncomfortable.  Belle could have cared less.  Gia likes to try a swift move of swinging her haunches at her opponent to kick them, so I decided today would be a good day to work on lots of haunches-in.  (Gia was positioned on the inside and Belle on the outside).  I used my outside leg to softly ask for the haunches to move slightly to the inside.  When she didn't respond, I tapped rhyt...

 Monday October 12th - I worked with Gia today on all the same things as last week, except when it came to the straightness of her path and her body, I used the outline of the outside  of her body rather than the inside of her body, as I discovered last Friday.  There was only one instance where she only thought about bucking, and it was at our first transition into trot.  Possibly because my hips stopped moving or my thighs gripped tightly, momentarily.  After that, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the ride!  I did find that she was in need of some flexion on the right side of her jaw, so we finished with a bit of that work as we were cooling out.  I will most likely start with that on the ground tomorrow. Tuesday October 13th - Before I rode Gia today, I started with her in-hand on flexing a little left and right in the bridle.  It was very easy for her to the left, but much more difficult for her to the right.  I was eventually able t...

 Monday October 5th - I worked with Gia today on much the same as the previous week - my position, her relaxation, rhythm, and straightness of her path.  I worked a bit more on asking her for straightness in her own body.  When we are on a circle, she is very counter bent, so I applied more inside leg to encourage bend.  I focused on keeping the outside rein more consistent in the contact (although light) than the inside rein, I applied my inside leg at a "one" (on an intensity scale of 1-10).  There was practically no response with that aid, so I kept my leg at that intensity on her side and added a rhythmic tapping of the whip right behind my leg (which would intensify if she did not respond), as I carefully kept the outside rein at a consistent contact, and guided with inside rein only as necessary.  Whenever she gave me even the tiniest amount, I released all of that and told her "good girl!".  We started that at the walk, and then progressed to th...

 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...

 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 discussin...

Gia has definitely been getting used to our work the past two weeks. I do think she is getting a bit bored and when she gets bored, Gia finds a way to entertain herself. The challenge for me (Danielle) is to keep her interested and focused on me without allowing my body to react.  Wild horses in Corolla For the week of July 20, 2026, we did a lot of the same work where I ask Gia to move her shoulder over to the left and to stretch over her back. When I am able to achieve that at the walk, I then encourage her to keep the stretch and pick up a trot. I noticed some tension returning to our work, but I was not able to pinpoint the cause. What I did feel is Gia was pulling me towards jumps or trying to speed up without me asking. While we are of course working on getting Gia to jump and canter again, it needs to be on my terms, not hers. I noticed that tracking left especially, Gia was trying to speed up. My goal for the week was to try to keep my body balanced and to work her through ...

 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...

June 22-26, 2026:  Many years ago, when I was a young child, my grandfather corrected me when I (in my very grown voice) informed him “I was an equestrian” because I had started taking lessons. He quietly and kindly, which was his way, informed me that I was a horse rider, not an equestrian. Before I could call myself an equestrian I had to do the following things: be bit by a horse, be kicked by a horse, be stepped on by a horse and fall off of a horse. Rest assured, by these standards, I became an equestrian MANY years ago. However, that has always resonated with me. Not that any of those things are pleasant or desirable, but they are part of the game. If you work with horses, these things will happen. Often times, they are preventable and, at least in part, errors made by people. However, to err is human and I have certainly made my fair share of mistakes. I could qualify by my grandfather’s standards as an equestrian solely by my work with Gia. I add all of this to be 100 perce...

 Gia’s Blog Jun15-19: Gia enjoys being groomed by a new groom, Nyx! This week there was a lot more of the same work for Gia. She continues to work well with the grooms and is becoming more and more accepting of multiple people handling/grooming. This is great news as we are in the midst of summer and bug season! As for the riding, I (Danielle) continue to work with Gia on increasing her trot minutes each day. We also work through her tension at the beginning of each trot set. Luckily, she is generally pretty quick to settle down into a routine and get to work. At the trot, I have been encouraging Gia to do more figures, shapes, and adding bend to her work. Friday proved to be a bit more exciting than I had planned, however. When I went to hop on Gia, her saddle started to slip as I put my foot in the stirrup. I had, of course, just tightened her girth prior to mounting, but I guess I could’ve gone a hole tighter! As I felt the saddle slip, I attempted to step down onto the mounting...

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...

 I got a little behind with Gia’s blog last week so this week will cover two weeks! Monday, May 11- I ended the last blog with a head’s up that there was a new delivery at the farm. A lot of the week will be dedicated to helping her adjust. Heather is in the process of giving the arena a major upgrade: TruTex footing! Currently, she still has a bit of work to do to prepare the arena, so we have 4 very large packages (mattress size) of fiber footing next to the arena. This also means that all the horses have to walk past the packages to go into the barn. Many of the horses were a bit bothered by the giant white bags, but they moved on past it quickly. Gia, however, as expected, needed some more time. I expected Gia would have a hard time with the change, so I had Ashley bring her in and head towards the barn by exiting through the further gate. I was prepared to step in and help out if needed. As expected, Gia stopped in her tracks and planted her feet while snorting once she saw th...

 Monday May 4-“May the fourth be with you”….Gia was channeling a charming Bantha on Monday. She was very well behaved for her grooming, stretches, and saddling. I debated on just hopping on without lunging, but I decided that I would stick with my routine. I am glad I did because while Gia started lumbering along like a steady Rontos on the lunge line, all of a sudden she started running and bucking on the line as if she was being chased by a herd of Nexu. However, this only lasted a minute and she calmed down right away. I hopped on in hopes she wasn’t going to toss me into a Sarlacc’s den. She was a bit tense at first and needed a few taps with my lightsaber to keep moving but by the end of the ride she was calm and sweet as a Porg. Kudos to anyone who followed along! Tuesday May 5th - It’s Cinco de Mayo and I needed a margarita! I guess Gia just isn’t a fan. I started off the morning with a feeder check-in note that Gia (who has been much improved in her feeding behavior of late...