All The Kings' Horses

 After having several weeks of no lessons, Gia and I were back at it with Suzin today.  We warmed up with several transitions between walk to trot and trot to canter.  During the transitions, I worked on getting her to yield to my inside hand, and leg yield to the outside, and go forward.  She was very resistant in the beginning, but definitely improved as we went along. Suzin also had me work on really refining my half halt cues at all gaits - I had to feel my position correctly in the saddle, then increase Gia's tempo using only my seat bones, then stretch up with my spine, but down and back with my shoulders, then tighten my abs, then maybe add a slight squeeze with one or two fingers.  As soon as Gia yielded, I had to soften, and then start all over again.  Gia picked up on things very quickly, and I was able to get a much softer shape to her body!

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was a little nervous about a few things, but was generally not too bad.  I had been avoiding the muddy area for a while, since she was a bit too anxious about other stuff, but today we ventured back there again.  She stopped at first, but then I encouraged her on, and she went nervously.  Once she got over it, I gave her a treat.  We went back and forth over it a few times, and she got a treat each time.  She was pretty good with it by the end.

 I worked with Gia lunging over jumps in the round pen on Monday.  She was very business-like, and didn't offer a lot of drama when I asked her to move out at the trot or canter.  I had her trot three ground poles in each direction, with good rhythm and balance, and then had her do the same at the canter.  I gradually raised the poles until they were up to the 4th rail of the round pen.  She was really using her body quite well!

  It's me, Hi...I'm the problem, it's me (by Danielle Bryant, from two days ago) For a few years now, I have been contemplating the idea of doing an in house clinic solely around Gia. I wondered if I would have enough material or interest to warrant doing such a clinic. Turns out, I had plenty of both!  10 people joined me for 3.5 hours of talking, demonstrating, and working with Gia. Gia tends to garner interest and intrigue. She can also be a polarizing creature! I grouped the clinic members into three groups: those who loved Gia, those who were interested in learning more about her, and my favorite group - those who are terrified of her. Each group had to come up with 3 things that they wanted to learn, see or do with Gia. Surprisingly, there were not a lot of overlaps so we had lots of material to work with. While the clinic was focused mainly around Gia, there was a lot of basic horsemanship involved. Gia tends to expect things done a certain way and if it is not don...

 I schooled Gia on her flatwork in the arena today.  After a nice stretch at the walk, we worked on walk to trot transitions.  She was a little resistant at first, but then softened as we went along.  We worked on suppling work at the trot as well - changes of bend and direction, leg yields, etc.  Then we worked a lot on her trot to canter transitions, as well as maintaining her balance, tempo and straightness during the canter.  She was quite resistant to a lot of that work, but I was able to get her to soften as we went along, and we did have a lot of nice moments!

 I schooled Gia in the field with the jumps today.  I mainly focused on my position being correct, then making corrections with her - slowing down, straightening with leg yields, bending, transitions, etc.  When she felt good, I pointed her at a jump.  We had a LOT of good jumps today!  I can even say I had FUN on her today!

 I took Gia for a hack on the trail today.  She was a little looky and nervous about a few things, but didn't really stop at anything in particular.  She did have a lot of moments on the trail where she was able to relax!