Gia - session 299 - transition work

 Gia was quite distracted when I first got on this morning.  She's definitely in a strong heat, and there were horses running around in the fields, and it was also a little windy.  I used a lot of circles and changes of direction to help her focus on me better.  Eventually, she relaxed a little and focused better, and I was able to get a decent stretch out of her.

We worked on walk/halt transitions next.  She was fairly good with the down transition, but sluggish with the up transition, so I had to use the whip to get her a little more prompt to my leg cue.  Then she started to get a little tense, and a little jiggy at the halt.  So, I had to go back and work on relaxation.  We had to go back and forth a bit until she could stay relaxed at the halt, but prompt to the walk.  I also worked on getting her a little softer during the transitions.

We repeated the same exercise with the trot.  Those transitions were pretty good.

Then we worked on the walk to canter transition.  That was more challenging than the others, but better than it has been in the past.  My goal is to get the canter with no trot steps in between.  If there is even a hint of trot, I bring her back to the walk and try again.  I tend to use a kissing sound when I ask for the canter, because she already knows that means canter, so it helps her to understand when I want canter from the walk.  

In between, we also did a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches.  That move keeps getting better and better too!

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