Gia - session 184 - More flatwork homework

 My ride on Gia today was a little better than my last flat ride on her.  We mainly worked on getting her to move off my legs on circles in each direction.

She was a lot more relaxed about the process today.  A lot of the time, that is how training horses will go.  They may get frustrated when you first introduce something new, but as long as you remain clear, consistent and patient, they will eventually get it and relax about it.  What is different is how each horse expresses their frustration, and with Gia, it seems to be bucking ... 😐.

She was pretty good when I asked her to move off my leg at the walk on circles and on leg yields down each long side.  At the trot, she was more responsive and less anxious about it, but she did break into a canter each time I asked her to move off my left leg when tracking left.  It was a very balanced canter, and she wasn't trying to buck, so I just kept her head up (just in case she thought about bucking), and kept asking her to move off that leg.  Since she was still cantering, I continued and asked her to move off my right leg while tracking left (counterbending), and she actually did it quite well without fussing!

Tracking right, she was more resistant to moving off my leg, but she wasn't fussy and she didn't try to pick up the canter.  Once we had done enough at the trot, I did ask her to canter to the right.  It was definitely more difficult for her.  She was definitely fussier, and she tried to buck a few times.  I was able to keep her head up (advice from Charlie yesterday), so she wasn't actually able to buck, but she was definitely more imbalanced that way.  Once I got a few correct responses to her moving off my right leg tracking right at the canter, I let her end on that.

We did finish with a little bit of stretching down at the walk, and Danielle gave her a bath to cool off when we were done.

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