All The Kings' Horses

 As I continue to heal, I continue to work with Gia on the lunge line over jumps, and on long lines on her flat work. Monday 9/22 - I took Gia out in the field and warmed her up on the lunge line, focusing specifically on her obedience to going forward, and not pulling on the line when she did so.  If she pulled on me, then she had to stop, and then go forward again.  She remembered things fairly quickly, so we moved on to practicing the same things over a few jumps.  She was doing quite well, so by the end, I had her try a combination over the skinny barrels to the very skinny water trough.  She did it beautifully! Tuesday 9/23 - I worked with Gia on the long lines in the arena.  The vet was out for fall vaccines and checkups, so I didn't have as much time with her as usual.  We were still able to get in some transitions and flexions at the walk and trot.  She was nicely obedient and soft! Wednesday 9/24 - We went back out in the field on the lun...

 This week was more of me healing my tailbone and not riding, and more lunging and long lining for Gia.   Monday 9/15:  I lunged her in the field, starting with a light warm up at the trot.  Whenever I asked her to go forward, she was not allowed to pull on the line.  If she did, she had to stop or slow down until she wasn't pulling anymore, and then go again.  We did lots of transitions like that until she could go forward nicely in each direction without pulling or leaning.  Then she had to do the same thing over jumps, and she had to go forward when she landed from the jump.  She wasn't allowed to land and quit, or land and drag her toes.  Once she would go forward without pulling, she was able to jump much more freely too! Tuesday 9/16: I started Gia on the long lines in the arena at a fairly loose trot to get her warmed up and get her muscles moving and blood flowing.  Then I brought her back to the halt, and worked with her in...

 Sorry guys, I know I am sooooo far behind!  I have had a LOT going on in my personal life, in addition to the usual craziness that I always have going on, but I am starting to catch up!  (I think)  I'm going to try a weekly synapsis to get you all caught up on what Gia has been doing though. 😁 Going back to the week of 8/12-8/16 - I had three dressage rides that week and one jump ride.  Even on the jump day, I was working with her at all gaits (yay!).  I was doing a lot of work on suppleness - flexing left and right at the poll, as well as making sure she kept the poll lifted when necessary.  Sometimes she would get a little behind, so I worked on making sure she went forward, and we did a lot of transitions between, as well as within, all the gaits.  I was even able to work a little on the stretchy trot that week, which we haven't done in a while! For the week of 8/18-8/20 - This was a short week for me and Gia, since I took a brief break (YES...

 I'm going to wrap up another week all at once: Monday August 4th: I worked with Gia lightly on some dressage.  This was her first day back since her injury.  She only had a week off, which isn't enough time for muscle to start to atrophy, but I wouldn't want to come back hard after a week off, so I don't make my horses come back hard either.  We worked at the halt, walk and a light trot.  I mainly had her focus on flexions at those gaits, lifting her poll, and transitions.  It was a nice reminder of the basics. Tuesday August 5th: We had a lesson with Suzin, where we still kept things fairly light, comparatively speaking. 😊 We mainly worked at the walk and trot.  Suzin had us working on our steadiness at both gaits.  It is very painstaking work, at least on my part (and probably on Gia's).  There are a million things that can fall apart, and they all tend to do so at the same time, but I have to keep them all together at the same time in or...

 So obviously, I am way behind.  I have had way too much going on in way too many directions lately, but I have finally found a minute to catch up on Gia's blog.  So, you get two weeks all in one! Tuesday July 22 We worked on dressage at the halt, walk and trot.  I asked her to do a bit of flexions to loosen her up.  Then we moved into transitions between all the gaits, while also keeping up with the flexions.  Finally, we worked on several different basic dressage figures, focusing on straightness and bending.   Wednesday July 23 I warmed Gia up with transitions, flexions and lifting the poll at the walk and trot.  Then we started to play over a few jumps in the arena.  The highest we got was up to about 2'3", with some interesting fillers.  She doesn't seem to mind what I have been putting under the jumps to fill in the space - barrels, flowers, jump blocks, etc.  I worked with her on being very straight towards the jumps, as...

 Monday July 14th I worked with Gia on flatwork.  We worked a lot on halt and walk transitions.  We also worked on flexions at the halt and walk.  It was quite hot and humid, so we didn't do too much more. Tuesday July 15th We had a lesson with Suzin.  We again worked a lot on halt, walk and trot transitions, as well as the nuances of straightness at the walk and trot.  We also did a bit of work at free walk and medium walk. Wednesday July 16th We did a little jumping in the arena, up to about 2 feet.  We worked on transitions, as well as balance and softening.  She did fantastic! Friday July 18th Another flat day.  More transitions between halt, walk and trot.  Also more work on straightness and flexions. Sorry for the repetition and brevity.  I'm crazy behind with a TON of paperwork, so that explains the shortness of my blog tonight.  I'm not terribly sorry for the repetition though.  If you have read my blog from the be...

 Monday July 7th - I worked with Gia on light flat work doing walk/halt transitions and focusing on straightness. Tuesday July 8th - This was a little more in depth.  Gia and I did flatwork, but we worked at the halt, walk, trot and some canter as well.  I started out with transitions, and focusing on her obedience to the aids, both up and down.  When those were good, at each gait, I started to ask her to be straighter.  I also started to add more suppling work - asking for bend and counter bend, but only slightly.  Her canter work was difficult for her, but she was honestly trying, and there were no thoughts of bucking, only her thinking about what I was asking her to do, and her trying to figure it out! Wednesday July 9th - I had to make an emergency run to the vet for my sugar glider Jimmy.  He's doing ok now, but he had gotten his foot trapped in one of his pouches overnight.  He fought all night to free himself, but only ended up twisting him...