Gia - session 395 - flatwork

 I worked with Gia in the arena today on her flatwork.  She had yesterday off, so I decided to ease back into the work today.  I warmed her up with some stretching and straightness at the walk.  At the trot, we also worked on straightness, as well as some transitions when she didn't quite feel right between my hand and leg.  Once she did feel good, I added some halt transitions, as well as a little rein back.  She was good at the halt, but a bit resistant to the rein back.

I had planned to work on her canter on the lunge line in the Pessoa, but she felt pretty balanced at the trot today, and I felt something that I can't quite explain that led me to believe that the canter might not be too bad under saddle.  

I started with the canter to the right.  I waited until I had the trot going well, and her nicely between my hand and leg, and balanced.  Then I asked for the canter.  We did a LOT of transitions back and forth between canter and trot.  Anytime she got unbalanced, whether it was when I asked for the canter transition, or once we were in the canter, I would bring her back, get the trot organized and between my hand and leg again, and then ask again.  I did get several moments where she was a little pissy, but I think it's partly because she was unbalanced, and partly because she is weak behind right now.  I just brought her back and tried again.  We didn't get a lot of canter itself, but we did do a lot of transitions, and those will make her stronger anyway.  I did the same thing to the canter left as well.  Both directions felt about the same.  I did get a couple of big bucks, but I was able to shut them down pretty quickly without them escalating.  Hopefully, the attitude will improve once she gets stronger behind!

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