Gia - session 255 - flat work in the field

 The arena was a bit frozen this morning (I hate winter, btw), so I opted to take Gia out in the field for a walk.  I did want to lunge her, assuming she would be a little more excited to go in the field, but the ground was too hard for that, so I went without.

It's been a while since we went out in the field because we've had too much rain, but Gia remembered how to stand and let me open the gate, for the most part.  She did try to back up a little, but with gentle reminders, she stood quieter.

Once out in the field, we did a lot of circles, and leg yields, and changes of direction at the walk.  As the ground softened up, I added trot as well.  She was definitely distracted (even though it's the field that she lives in), but the circles and leg yields helped to keep her busy and focused on her job.  

She got a little excited when she saw Dylan coming out to the field to ask me something.  She thought about bolting towards him, but a quick circle fixed that.  She also tended to get more unbalanced when heading downhill, so we had to do a lot of circles if the hill was steeper.

When she was doing well enough, I decided to try a little canter.  I don't think we had cantered in the field previously.  Once she was straight and balanced and obedient on a circle, and once we were heading up a hill rather than down a hill, I asked for the canter.  The first transition to the left illicited a little buck, so I circled her to bring her back and tried again.  It only took a couple of transitions before I got a decent canter to the left.  It took a lot longer to get a decent transition to the right.  For most of them she was tense and trying to buck or bolt, and also ended up getting the wrong lead several times in her hurry.  She finally got one that was decent, so I let her end on that and walk back to the barn.