All The Kings' Horses

 I took Gia out in the field for her workout today.  Her walk was a little quick, so I worked on slowing it down and helping her relax.  When that was better, we did walk to trot transitions.  She had to stay soft in the bridle during the transition, or we came back and did it again.  It took a few before she was obedient. Whenever she was soft, I pointed her at a jump, just small and medium sized jumps, nothing too big.  I focused on keeping her soft before and after the jump, but it didn't matter if she trotted or cantered the jump.  She was a bit anxious at first, but when her softness was more consistent, she relaxed a lot, and we got to do a lot of nice cantering!  The only jump she stopped at was my small ditch.  I gave her a minute to check it out, and then she walked over it.  We trotted and cantered it a few more times with no problems.

 Gia and I started out with a nice free walk and medium walk in our lesson with Suzin today.  When I picked her up to medium walk, she wanted to stiffen against my inside rein, so I did a lot of work pushing her off my inside leg, and making sure that her shoulders moved away, to the outside.  I repeated the same work at the trot, and worked all over the arena, on both sides of her body.  She was quite resistant at times, but when she softened, she felt great!   We did a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches, and she had to keep her neck soft there as well.  Finally, we did a little work on the canter - keeping the inside of her body soft, and moving into the outside rein.  I did have to be careful not to do too much, and to allow her to go straight when she softened.  We got several nice canter moments!

 Hayley rode Gia first at CDP today.  She was quite full of herself - lots of little bucks, a few big bucks, lots of tail wringing and general pissiness.  Hayley kept pushing her forward through it all, along with some tight circles, when Gia was especially naughty.  Eventually, Gia relented, and I hopped on.   We went through the same routine, but Gia had given up the fight by then.  I did find that when I was able to put both my hands forward, so as to create a light loop in the reins, she relaxed even more and went even more forward.  We will add that to this week's homework ...

 I was finally able to find a new trailer that my giant horse will fit in!  It's a 6 horse head-to-head, which means it has a lot more room for how long Gia is.  Loading and unloading on it is a bit different than the straight load 2 horse trailer, and the slant load 6 horse trailer that I have though.  The horse has to come up a steep ramp, then turn their body, then back into the allotted space.  I worked with all the horses on loading today, and Gia was actually fairly good.   She did not want to come up the ramp at first.  After a few moments, she relaxed and came up.  Once in, it only took a little maneuvering to get her to turn and back up.  She was not resistant at all, and seemed to understand the process.  Once she was in a stall, I let her hang out and munch alfalfa while I loaded someone else.  When it was her turn again, I brought her off the trailer and put her back on.  We repeated the process three times....

 We had drill team practice today, so Gia got to practice with all the kids on the walk/trot quadrille.  She was very well behaved, and very obedient.  She doesn't seem to mind the other horses too close to her at the back, front or either side!  

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with our usual stretching warm up.  When we were working on transitions, Suzin noticed that Gia was not yielding as softly as she should to the reins.  So, we focused a lot of our work on that today.  We did a lot of transitions and flexing and circles and shoulder-in.  We did a lot of work at the walk to help her get it, then at the trot.  I was able to get a nice canter circle to the right, and an ok canter circle to the left!

 Gia and I had a lesson at CDP with Charlie today.  I started her out with leg yields and circles at the walk and trot.  She was a little tense at first, but settled quickly.  We also did a little bit of haunches-in and canter work.  Most of it was good.  I worked on asking her to collect the canter on a large circle, and then go forward down a long side, and then collect again on a large circle.  That is a bit difficult for her, and she keeps wanting to quit, so I used a light tap with the whip to help keep her going.  She did throw in a couple of smallish bucks in response to the whip.  I kept at it until she quit over-reacting.  We also included a crossrail a few times in our work.  Making sure to come in with a peppy trot, and then collect the canter on a circle afterward.  She did all that fairly well.