All The Kings' Horses

 I took Gia to CDP for a dressage lesson today.  She was a little tense and spooky at ... grass...sigh. We tried a few circles near the spooky area, but she still refused to go forward, so I allowed her to stop and relax in front of it, then pushed her forward.  After a few times of that, she was much better. Meanwhile, in the dressage arena, we worked on the same stuff - medium walk, working trot, collecting, lengthening, leg yields, haunches-in, shoulder-in, transitions, and canter.  Everything went pretty well today, even the canter work!

 I took Gia out to the field to jump today.  We started with hills at the walk - stretching uphill and collecting downhill.  She was pretty quick, but also pretty obedient.  Then I added trot work, also with the hills, but also a little collecting and lengthening and bending and haunches-in around the field.  She was fairly obedient and relaxed.  I really focused on keeping both reins connected, but quiet, and using leg to make the majority of corrections.  To help my body find the right position, and stay relaxed, I used the grab strap on the saddle as well.  I asked for a little canter, and she was REALLY good - no bucking, responsive, relaxed!  We cantered to several jumps.  My main focus was on steadying her canter so that she could find the right spot to the jump.  We were able to get several nice ones!

 Gia and I had drill team practice today, offsite.  We started with our walk/trot quadrille test.  Gia was super relaxed and very obedient throughout the whole test.  It was actually the best that our group has done all year! Next up was the First Level test that I am doing with Amanda.  It was better than last time, but she was still a bit electric in the canter work.  She was fantastic for the walk and trot work, and very obedient.  However, by the third time we ran through the test, she had actually calmed right down, and we were able to get all our canter work in!

 I worked with Gia free-lunging over jumps in my round pen today.  I started with a ground pole, then a small vertical, then a taller vertical, then an oxer.  She did all of those quite nicely.  However, when I added a towel over the middle of the jump, she stopped hard and refused to go forward.  I had to really get after her to get her over it the first time.  Once she did, she got a treat (she had also gotten treats for the previous, easier, jumps).  I sent her back and forth over it several times.  It did get easier each time, but she never really seemed confident over it.

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She never hesitated, and never stopped or refused to go forward.  She was looking around at stuff, but she was also very relaxed the whole time!

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started with a nice, relaxing, swinging free walk.  We worked on free walk to medium walk transitions - getting her to soften as she came up, and keeping her engaged behind.  In her walk to trot transitions, she wanted to come a little against my hand, or just get quick in the walk.  I helped her soften, and then found the right moment to ask for the trot.  We did a lot of walk/trot transitions, bending, leg yields, and shoulder-ins, all in an effort to get her straighter, and all the while, I tried to lengthen her neck whenever I got a good reaction from her.  We mixed in some canter transitions as well.  Most of them were pretty good, even soft!  We did have a couple of moments where she was switching her lead on the back legs, which feels a bit like a small buck.  When I was able to get her straighter, she went right back to being nice and soft in her transitions!

 I took Gia to CDP for a dressage lesson today.  We worked in the dressage arena, which she hasn't been in in a while.  She was a little distracted almost the whole time, but not bad.  Charlie had us working on a variety of different exercises - transitions, collect, lengthen, leg yield, haunches-in.  It all depended on how Gia reacted, as to what we would do.  We really mixed it up, and only did a little canter, but the canter we did do was pretty good.  She had a little trouble with the right lead today, so I had to do a little more haunches-in, tracking right, for her to get it.  Afterwards, she saw Cameron for some bodywork, and he found that she was a little restricted in her right shoulder, right elbow and the right base of her neck.  All of that could explain the difficulty with the right lead.  Hopefully, after her chiropractic adjustments, and acupuncture, she feels a lot better!