Gia - session 355 - transitions

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin today.  We started out stretching down at the walk, and we included poles in our warm up.  Every time Gia went over a pole, she wanted to bring her head up, so I had to work a little more to encourage her to reach down over the poles.

Then we did a little work on our walk to trot transitions, until she could do them without coming against my hand.  Once her trot was better, I included the poles at the trot as well, doing the same thing I had done at the trot.  As we warmed up, we included some halt transitions, as well as rein-back.  She was a bit resistant to both, especially the rein back.  I was really trying to do less correcting with my hands, and more with my leg, so it was a little harder for her as well.

Next we worked on trot to canter transitions.  She was much more prompt to the cue today!  However, she was quite unbalanced, rushing, and "careening" around the circle.  I ended up dropping my stirrups, to more effectively use my lower leg.  Like that, I was better able to keep my leg on and keep her going, while I worked with my hands to encourage her to be straighter and softer.  I did start to feel a few good moments in each direction by the end.