Gia - session 389 - lunging in the field

 I decided to start Gia back over jumps today, but I still wanted to keep things easy on her, so I took her out in the field on the lunge line to play around.  The idea was to let her jump over a little bit of everything just to remind her that the jumps were no big deal.  Instead, the session turned into a big lesson on obedience.

Each time I asked her to walk, she would try to trot.  I would correct her back to the halt, and then ask again, repeatedly, until she was able to walk on cue without picking up the trot.  Then I repeated the same request for the trot.  When I would ask for the trot, she wanted to take off and careen around, rather than trot off nicely.  I would bring her back to the halt, ask for the walk, then, when that was good, ask for the trot.  When I finally got a good obedient response to both the walk and trot cues, then I would put her over a jump.  

She was very full of herself, and very frustrated that I wouldn't just let her bolt and run and cajole about.  She tried a little bucking and rearing and bolting.  None of it was too intense, and she was easily corrected each time, but she definitely kept trying to push her agenda for most of the session.  I was only able to get her over a few jumps, and just the easiest ones.  As can sometimes be the case, today was definitely a day that was more about the flatwork than the jumping.

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