Gia - session 534 - dressage lesson with Suzin

 I started Gia out with some stretching at the walk today.  We walked all around the arena, changing bend, and then changing from free walk to medium walk until she was not resistant.  Then I started to ask for trot.  She was quite resistant at first, so I did a few transitions to halt, where she wanted to piaffe.  I kept transitioning between gaits until she finally could halt without fidgeting, and trot without resisting.  

Then we worked on bending and shoulder-in at the trot.  Her shoulder-in was fairly good today, especially to the right, which is usually her harder direction.  Suzin also had us do some leg yields, and work a little on some baby half-passes.  Those were quite hard, but once Gia understood what I was asking for, she actually gave it quite easily.  We also played with a little bit of turn-on-the-haunches, which was also difficult, but better once she understood the request.

Finally, we played a little with the canter, coming out of the shoulder-in at the trot.  She was quite resistant to that at first.  Each time, I positioned her and kept driving her with my leg until she softened.  She did buck a couple of times, but they weren't too bad, and they were not consistent.  I was able to get at least once good canter in each direction.