Gia - session 591 - lesson with Suzin

 Gia and I worked with Suzin today.  We basically tried to do all our transitions between walk, trot and canter in a stretchy frame.  The walk and trot transitions started out very good!  When I felt she was ready, and willingly stretching at the trot, I asked for the canter to the right (that seemed like her better direction today).  She immediately picked it up with no fussing, and immediately tried to stretch into it.  She kept her canter for quite a while and really had a good stretch and good balance!  When I asked her the same thing to the left, it was quite a different story.  She immediately started bucking, so I sat up and did a very hard half halt while sending her forward with my leg.  After that, anytime I heard her tail swish, I tried to get ahead of the buck with the hard half halt.  I was fairly successful with that most of the time.  When she would finally let go of her tension and stretch into the canter, I would relax.  By the end, we were able to pick up the canter in both directions with no naughtiness!

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