Gia - session 267 - dressage lesson with Suzin

 It's been a few weeks since Gia and I have had a dressage lesson with Suzin, thanks to all the crappy weather.  We were finally able to get one in today though.

We started with a bit of stretching at the walk.  When I was ready to pick her up for a working walk, Suzin had me flex her in one direction, then, when she would release, I would shorten the reins.  Then I repeated the same thing on the other side.  I did that inch by inch until the reins were an appropriate length for a working walk.

At the working walk, I did a bit of work on flexing and then giving, until Gia was softer to the contact and not inverted.  Then I worked on asking for a better trot transition.  Before each transition, I flexed to the inside until she was softer and not inverted, then I tried to maintain that feel while asking her to move into the trot.  It took a few tries,  but she was getting it better, by the end.  

At the trot, I continued to ask her to flex when she wanted to invert.  I was also constantly thinking about having a very correct position (equal weight in my stirrups and seat bones, and hands together in front of me).  Whenever she was correct, I would give a little to see if she could keep it on her own.  She would make it about 3 steps before I would have to ask again.  Her deviations weren't too bad though, and it was fairly easy to correct her again.

Towards the end of our lesson, we did a little shoulder-fore, and a few canter transitions and lengthenings.  Gia was a bit dramatic about several of the canter transitions, and even let out a big buck at one point.  I just kept asking for what I wanted until I got it, and kept pushing her towards my outside hand while flexing to the inside.  The lengthenings she gave me were quite good today!

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