Gia - session 312 - flatwork - transitions and lengthenings

 Now that Gia is five, I want to try to fit in an additional workout for her each week (1 workout for each year the horse is old).  So, I added a workout in on Saturday this week after I finished teaching all my lessons.

Since we jumped on Friday, I made Saturday's workout a flat ride.  We started out with a bit of stretching and then moved into the working trot work.  After warming up, I focused on transitions.  We worked on down transitions to the halt along the rail, as well as in the middle of the ring as we traveled in a serpentine across the width of the arena.  She struggled with staying straight, so using the rail helped with that.  Each time we halted, I would ask her to flex to the inside before asking for the up transition.  I felt she needed to alternate her flexions, so working across the width of the arena, on a serpentine, helped with that.  I asked for the flexion for the direction we were changing to.  Once we had halted and softened, I asked for a prompt up transition to the trot.  Sometimes she hesitated, so I added whip, right behind my leg.  Sometimes she burst into canter, so I adjusted my cue the next time.  Sometimes she stiffened and inverted, but that got better as she got softer in the flexions.

Once we had several decent up and down transitions, I rewarded her by asking for a lengthening.  Her lengthenings feel AMAZING!  I have never experienced lenthenings on another horse like the ones she gives me, and so easily and willingly.  Sometimes, I would add a tap with my whips on her croup, but most of the time, she moved right off my seat and legs.  And then, she comes right back in the corner when I ask too!  Sometimes we would overdo it and end up in canter though.  Her lengthenings to the left were pretty good on their own.  However, she wasn't quite as straight in her lengthenings to the right, she kept counterbending, and sometimes picked up a wrong lead canter.  I worked a little more on her halt/trot transitions and flexing right.  After that, we had a really good lengthening to the right!

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