Back to Work, Miss. Gia!

So, Gia is spending 30 days with her New Friend, Sandy! She will be getting some fine tuning done as well as exposure to all sorts of fun things.

Here's S on Gia the first week... and then I popped (climbed) up on her and got to see how she was doing.




One of the things I am thinking about doing with Miss Gia is the Sheriff's Posse Drill Team. S took her there last night and I went to check it out. I'm certain Gia is up to it... I just don't know about myself!

Long time -- No Post

So, the weather has been wet and cold with some brief nice stuff. Gia has not been doing much except for getting lunged.

After her last trim she was too sore to ride so she missed out on that! Boo... I may have to shoe her fronts or decide if I want to just put boots on her.

Here's some of my latest shots of her -- we have had some nice warm weather and she's shedding like crazy!

Mermaid Mane

The weather was so darn nice today I had to do a quick ride -- but first, the messy dirty braids had to come out. The resulting mermaid hair was so cute! I'll re-do them before the next round of rain.




Gia Tried to make a break for it when I started taking too long!




I also washed her very, very dirty tail... hey, it isn't dark brown!!


The ride was good... she's a smidge timid going out alone, but she was good. Hopefully tomorrow (Monday) we will ride with C and S -- so today was a quicky.

Gia Update

So, with the Holiday and all the rain and cold we pretty much laid low.
Gia spends time "protecting" Cupcake from Skip - haha!

Then the weather got really weird! Warm and Sunny! This morning it was 29 at 6am and by noon it was 80. Weird!


So I pulled the remainder of the vetwrap off of Gia's mane - they were dirty and all coming out and unraveling. I had done it once before and re-wraped, but this time I just let her dreds hang.


Of course, after a ride and a grooming she has to roll... figures.


We did go for a quick ride up the road to try out the new breast collar. Seemed to work fine. The bridle and bit set up still disturbs me. Probably more than it bothers Gia, but I still want to work on it.

The Mane Plan

So, my friend, C, came over today for some braiding & wrapping to keep our manes long and clean(ish) during the winter. (Will winter come??)
She brought her boys, Braydon and Boston. Braydon is a 3 year old colt she's had since he was a weanling and Boston is a gelding around 10 or 11- she just got him.

Here's C doing Boston's mane ... while Braydon is being such a good and patient boy!


Here's Gia in progress ... and finished. With, as my husband put it, condoms on her.
*sigh*

Then Boston went into the arena to run about while C, Brayson, Gia and I went for a trail ride.
Gia was the spookiest she's been yet, but that could be because a "real" boy with with us. Of course, when I say she was spooky... I mean she was still one of the most well behaved horses, but was just giving big eyes to downed trees and strange horses - that's all. We came back up the main road and even though the weekend traffic was fast and rude, Gia was a champ! Brayson was a real gentleman, too.

It was almost 80 today and just stunning... what an awesome ride!

Quick Update

Gia is still putting on weight and looks great. (except for the battle scars from Cowboy - but those will fade) I have been blanketing her on cold nights and it has helped -- I noticed a difference after just three nights of blanketing!

She insists on getting into the burrs... I think the grass is growing up under them so we do a lot of combing these days *sigh*

We've gone on a couple more trail rides with great success. I finally got the bridle to fit so I don't have to fuss over it the whole ride - yea! The saddle is working fine, but I do need to take the time and get the breast collar fitted so I won't fret about slipping when we go up the steep hills around here. I'm also considering a crupper - I wonder if she'd deal?

What I need to do now is get myself on a regime of lounging her to build up some more muscle and stamina. (I could use some of that too!)

Trail Ride from Home!

Gia and I rode up to the arena today - it's only about 2/3 miles round trip . She was a bit pokey out of the gate and up the first hill, but she warmed up and was super!

We rode with C on Cowboy -- and had Skip the dog along to make exciting things jump out of bushes. Gia took it all in stride!

I used a D-ring french snaffle and she was much less responsive than she was with the shank/snaffle bit C let me use on Sunday. I may try a few different ones.

The Bob Marshall Treeless was great ... Gia didn't blow up on me so I didn't have to stop and tighten. She seemed very comfortable in it, too. That Skito pad C gave me is great. Thanks C, and sorry it didn't work for you (kinda).

And the best news of all was I got on and off without causing myself any bodily injury. (yea)