Gia - session 608 - dressage with Suzin

 Gia and I worked with Suzin today on her dressage.  She started out with a really good stretch, and good transitions back and forth between medium walk and free walk.  We did a little bit of working trot, and then we came back and worked on turn-on-the-haunches at the walk.  We found that it was easier for me to feel the movement if I did it on the rail.  I had to get her neck bent about 45 degrees to the inside, but keep her body straight on the rail.  Then I had to move Gia like we wanted to do a shoulder-in, then haunches-in, then back to shoulder-in, until she got it.  I was able to get a few good steps in each direction.

After that, we worked on lengthening and collecting the trot.  Her transitions to lengthening the trot were very good, and very prompt.  However, her transitions back to collected trot were a little mushy.  I worked on getting those a bit tidier.  She started to anticipate, thinking we were going to canter, and then got pissy about me tapping her with the whip and started bucking.  I had to do a little bit of desensitization to the whip.  I would tap her gently but rhythmically.  Whenever I started, she would start swishing her tail (her precursor to the buck).  I just kept up the gentle taps until she quieted her tail, and then immediately stopped tapping and praised her.  It took a few tries, but she eventually got the idea and quit overreacting.