Gia - session 242 - dressage lesson

 I did not get a chance to lunge Gia before her lesson with Suzin this morning, but she was actually quite relaxed, and maybe a little lazy.  She had quite a good stretch at the walk in the beginning.

When we picked up to work on the trot, Suzin had us start to work on baby shoulder-in's and circles.  As soon as Gia would take even the smallest step towards shoulder-in, we would circle to give her a release.  She will gradually start to take on more shoulder-in as she gets stronger.

Suzin also had me work on being more still, in general.  It's a LOT harder to do than it sounds!  Once I was more still, I could better feel what Gia "wanted" to do.  Which, today, was to slow down and be a bit lazy.  Then I was able to make better corrections.  After working on getting her more in front of my leg, she had a much nicer, more relaxed and stretchier trot.

When we added the canter work, she stayed quite relaxed, and had some of her best transitions!  Both canters felt almost symmetrical.  She was quite responsive to my cue, and almost didn't have an attitude about it.  She was more balanced and stayed in the canter longer, even when I made corrections to her straightness.

The big take away from today's lesson - DO NOTHING!

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