Gia - session 429 - free lunging

 Since I was away for a week on vacation, Gia also got a bit of a break.  I decided that for our first day back, we would keep it nice and easy.  I also didn't want to hop on a very fresh horse in very cold and windy conditions like we had today.  So, I opted to free lunge her, and make today a bit of a game for her.

I started out just asking her to trot 3 laps in each direction of the round pen about three times.  When she had done three laps one way, I would step back, encouraging her to step towards me, to then turn and go the other way.  She was very relaxed, and even a little lazy (maybe I would have been fine in the saddle).

Since the trot work was going well, I decided to see how the canter work would be.  She was a tiny bit grumpy when I would ask for the canter, but otherwise she was pretty good.  She kept up the canter, on her own, for about 6-8 strides to the right, and about 20 strides to the left.  When I put her back to the right, I asked her to keep the canter for 20 strides.  I really only had to remind her to keep going once. And as soon as I said "whoa", she came right back to a halt and faced me.  She was being very obedient!  So, I decided to play a little game with her and change up the number of strides that I asked her to keep the canter for.  She didn't need much reminding to keep the canter, regardless of the number of strides I had set in my head for her.  And she was always VERY obedient about stopping when I asked.  We did that a few more times, and then I called it a day for her.  Hopefully, the under saddle work will go just as well!

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