Gia - session 595 - dressage with Suzin

 Gia and I started out with some stretching at the walk, and transitions through stretching into the trot.  She was a bit "up" today, probably due to the cooler weather, so Suzin had us get right to work with lots of changes of direction and leg yields and moving all over the ring.  

When Gia was more focused, we worked a lot on getting a true, correct shoulder-in.  Making sure she was at the correct angle, with the correct amount of bend, and stepping forward into the shoulder-in rather than backwards toward the rail.  Gia found the work a little difficult, and we had a lot of resistance, but we also had a lot of good moments.  

At some points, when she felt really good, I asked for canter.  I think the first canter was actually on accident, and there was resistance, so I pushed her through the resistance and we found a really nice canter that was correctly bent and soft.  I worked on the canter several times in each direction.  There were a few naughty moments, but most of them were not as intense as usual.  I was able to work on some lateral work at the canter to help her balance and soften rather than resist and fuss.  I was also able to get a little bit of stretching at the canter.

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