Gia - session 245 - dressage, and turn on haunches

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  We started out with a very good stretch down at the walk.  

At the trot, I didn't even bother asking for a stretch at first, and I didn't worry about the up transition at first either.  I focused on getting her straight, with a little inside bend, and a little reach into my hands in both directions.  After only a few minutes, Gia was offering a very nice stretch at the trot, probably the best one she's ever given me!  

After a little more trot work, we played around with the canter.  She was very relaxed about the canter today, no anticipation or anxiety.  We mainly focused on trying to get the up transition without her inverting.  I had to concentrate on getting her to stretch into my hands, and then get the timing right to ask for the transition at the same time.  It was definitely difficult for both of us, but I think we got a couple of moments that were pretty good.  They weren't perfect, but they were definitely better, and that's the main thing.  

Suzin also had us a do a little work on quarter turns on the haunches.  They were probably more like large walk pirouettes, but the idea was just to get her to move her shoulders around her haunches.  She picked up on the idea pretty quickly.  Once we were back in the canter, I asked her to move her shoulders around.  It was tricky at first, but she quickly understood what I was asking for, and even gave me a few nice moments!  I was even able to get a little bit of stretch at the canter as well!  Not bad for her first time!

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