Gia - session 289 - jumping and straightness

 I warmed Gia up with some stretching and some work on keeping her straight in her body, at the walk and trot.  I used leg yields and bending whenever she was against one side or the other.  She was fairly equal in her tension, but maybe slightly more against my right hand than my left.  I also focused on keeping her ears more level so that her nose was not twisting one way or the other.  

Once we started jumping, I continued to focus on the straightness in Gia's body.  She went nicely over the first, small crossrail, but then drifted to the right before the next vertical.  We worked on maintaining the straightness between the two jumps, and she got a lot better!  She also kept a really good tempo today, and only got too quick a few times.

Gradually, I added some of the other jumps, continuing to focus on the straightness.  If she cantered off, then I would insist that she stay straight at the canter as well.  There were several jumps, with a variety of filler, but she never seemed to be bothered by any of it.  She glanced at the cones under one jump, but she still went over it.

Most of the time, when she cantered away from a jump, it was on the left lead, her favorite.  So, I finished our session with a little work on a circle to the right over a jump.  It took her a few tries, but she eventually did get the right lead after that jump.

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