All The Kings' Horses

 I warmed Gia up with some stretching down at the walk.  She wasn't as good for that today as she was on Wednesday, but it wasn't too bad.  Then we worked on stretching down at the trot, as well as flexing and staying straight between my hand and leg.   Once we were warmed up, I trotted over several small jumps in each direction.  She was very game to jump today!  She had really good approaches and take-offs to almost all her fences.  When she landed to the left, we spent a little time cantering around, as long as she would keep it.  She didn't keep it as long today as she did last week.  She did have a little trouble landing on the right lead, so I had to work on that a little with her.  We did eventually get one good one though.   Finally, I videoed her working through the pole exercise #1 that I had mentioned in a previous blog post.  The first time, we did it at the walk.  Today, I did it at the trot.  T...

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin again today.  I started out asking Gia to stretch down, and right away she was very obedient about it.  Then Suzin had us work on a lot of transitions into and out of the trot.  When that was good, we also worked on changes of direction.  All of this while Gia had to maintain the stretch and flexion, and lowering of her crest.  That was all going quite well, so she had us work on other figures around the arena - 10 meter circles, half circles, shoulder-fore, shoulder-in, haunches-in, turn-on-the-haunches.  I may have left some out, but Gia put a good effort in to each thing I asked her to do.  Some of it was harder, like the turn-on-the-haunches and shoulder-in, but she definitely tried, and was somewhat successful.  We finished our ride working a little bit on the canter transition.  That was definitely harder for Gia today, but she was able to give me one decent one in each direction.  The main g...

 Gia and I had a lesson with Charlie again today, but we stayed in the dressage arena, rather than the jump ring.  She was very tense, although not nearly as tense as she was on Sunday.   After a little bit of stretching down, Charlie had us start out by just trying to keep her neck straight, and then positioning her to the left and the right, but only slightly.  She really wanted to be crooked today, so it was not an easy task, but she started to straighten up after a little bit of work.   Then he had me work on getting her to put her haunches-in on a circle.  This was to be a predecessor to the canter, but Gia was very fussy about the work and was really working against me today.  The first several times I asked for the canter transition, I got it, but with several good bucking attempts.  Charlie said this was because she was trying to move her haunches back out, and to keep focusing on keeping her haunches in.  As I worked to kee...

 I took Gia with me today to school at the Sharon Oaks Hunter show that I was taking several students to.  I had her wear a full set of normal shipping boots today for the first time since I started using the wraps.  She did great!  No fussing at all, just a little high stepping in the beginning (which they all do anyway).  When I put her on the big trailer, she even stood perfectly quietly with no "piaffeing" at all!  That's the first time she has ever been quiet on the big trailer! So, I thought the rest of the day would go just as well .... But ... horses ... After I got my students through their classes, I pulled Gia off the trailer to get her ready to school.  She had been standing fairly quietly while the others showed, maybe a little talkative, but nothing noteworthy. However, as soon as I pulled her off, she completely changed.  I did forget to give her the calming paste today, but she was worse than she has been in a long time, way before...

 Suzin had Gia and I start right away with more flexing and stretching work at the walk to get Gia even softer and more obedient.  When she was better at the walk, we worked on transitions into and out of the trot, as well as changes of bend and direction.  All the while, Gia had to stay soft, which meant I had to be more disciplined and strict to not allow her to come up or inverted.  Gia was definitely understanding the work and what was being asked of her.  She had a lot of nice moments where she was really reaching into the contact.   I also had to pay attention to where her haunches were going (I'm not sure if Suzin read yesterday's blog, but she immediately observed that Gia's haunches were trailing to the right). ☺.  That was harder for me to notice from the saddle, which is probably why Gia does it so much.  My work today gave me a new awareness for where her haunches were and what it actually should feel like.  Something I am of...

 After a nice warm up, where Gia did a really good job stretching down at the walk and trot, I started pointing her at the small jumps that Charlie had set up for us today.  There were a couple of familiar ones, but also a couple of new ones.  She was much more forward to most of the jumps today.  I even had to slow her down a few times because she was so eager!  However, there were also a few jumps where she flat out stopped.  One in particular was the one with the red blocks (which she has jumped before).  She stopped at that one a few times.  Each time, I kept my leg on and kept her pointed at the jump until she relaxed.  Then I circled back and tried again.  She went over all but one of the jumps the second time.  On the second trip to the red one, something else startled her and she skidded, kicking sand into the plastic box, and scaring herself.  Silly girl!  She went over that one the third time though.  At thi...

 I started out asking Gia to stretch down at the walk today.  She wasn't responding as well today as she did last week.  She was not really stretching down, and when she did, it was not very consistent.  Once I finally started getting somewhere with the stretching at the walk, I moved on to the trot.  The trot went about the same as the walk work, and I was only able to get one transition where she (sort of) stayed down in a stretch.  She also felt a bit crooked today, and I was focusing on straightening her as well.   Suzin happened to be out riding as well, and she observed that maybe I needed to ask more strongly, with more of a leading rein.  Once I did, I started getting better results from Gia with the stretch.  Gia is probably at the point in her training where I can start to ask more of her, especially if it's something she has done before.  Sometimes, it's hard to think of using stronger aids, when I've tried to stay soft s...