Gia - session 408 - dressage lesson with Suzin

 Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin today.  Gia was unusually difficult to catch this morning.  She typically will come right up to me or Danielle when we call her, but this morning was different.  She decided to be a little naughty, and when reprimanded, decided to play "keep away".  Her attitude could have been due to the cooler weather, and/or, a change to her pasture situation.  Needless to say, I expected today's ride to be a bit difficult.

I started out with a bit of lunging in the rope halter.  She was actually fairly quiet and obedient, so after only a few minutes, I decided she was ok to ride.

I was pleasantly surprised by our ride today, and even Suzin said that she looked fantastic and "Yummy!"  I mainly worked on keeping her soft in the bridle during everything I asked her to do - walk/halt transitions, walk/trot transitions, halt/trot transitions, changing bend, etc. I focused a lot on keeping my feet flat in the irons, and pushing my hands down to her withers when she was correct.  We did a few steps of shoulder-in, but we didn't work too hard on that today.  This was probably the best ride I've had on her in a while, so maybe she should be hard to catch every day ... ☺.


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