Gia - session 288 - dressage lesson with Suzin

 Gia and I had a lovely dressage lesson with Suzin today.  After warming up with stretching, bending, circles, and leg yields at the walk and trot, we started more lateral work.  The shoulder-in was fairly easy today, so we focused on haunches-in, and also added a little turn-on-the-haunches.  Those were definitely challenging for Gia.  I had to remind her to keep the correct bend often, using the leg yield to help her out.  She did manage to give me several decent steps in each direction.  

Suzin also had us start with halt to rein back to trot transitions today.  The halt was fairly good, but I did have to remind Gia to stay soft.  In the rein back, I have to close my hands, so she won't go forward, but then close my legs, which tells her to move her feet.  At the same time, Suzin helped Gia to understand what was being asked by tapping her on the chest until she backed up a few steps.  As soon as she did, I would open my hands, apply my leg and seat bones and ask for trot.  She was, obviously, uncertain at first, but towards the end, she was starting to understand better.  She may have started to rein back on her own, without Suzin's help, a time or two, but it was hard to tell.  She definitely understood the forward cue though, and was making some nice up transitions!

We also started work on walk to canter transitions today.  That was also challenging for Gia, but I love the way she always tries her heart out for me!  I used leg yield to help her get her haunches in better when I asked for that, and once she felt correct, I would ask for the canter cue.  She definitely struggled with this, and gave me delayed transitions, or running transitions, or incorrect leads.  However, I did get one REALLY good one today, so it's a start!

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