Gia - session 315 - dressage

I started Gia with a bit of in-hand work at the beginning of our lesson with Suzin today.  I was mainly asking for her to bend to the inside, and then halt and rein-back.  She did it quite well to the left, but it was much harder to the right.  She wasn't very accepting of the outside rein, tracking right.  I was able to get her to bend if I put her on a small circle, but getting her to bend while walking along the rail was a different story.  We did get a nice moment by the end though.

Under saddle, we went right into the working trot, and circles and changes of direction and bend.  We also did a little bit of shoulder-in, and started to play with half pass.  We came down the long side, did a 10m circle in the corner, then right into shoulder-in down the long side, then a half 10m circle at B, then a few steps of half pass back towards the rail.  She got a couple of steps when we were tracking right, but struggled with it tracking left.  She kept wanting to swing her haunches out rather than move them over.  I ended up having to alternate between leg yield and half pass down quarter line.  She did manage to get a few steps that way.  After that, I allowed her to stretch down at the trot as a reward.  She really enjoyed that!

Next, we worked on walk to canter to walk transitions.  She struggled with staying soft before, during and after the transitions.  I had to change my focus to just making sure that I got the transition, and then worry about getting her soft.  Once she understood what I wanted, and was more prompt to the transitions, she was also more responsive about being softer.

We finished our ride with some stretching at the trot and walk.  Well deserved!