Gia - session 654 - first flat ride back home

 I rode Gia today for the first time since she has been home from "Camp".  I let her start out with a walk around the ring on a loose rein. She was very interested in looking around at everything at first, but she quickly relaxed into a nice rhythm.  As soon as I asked her to pick up a trot, also on a loose rein, I felt her lift her hind end up a little too high.  I immediately put her on a small circle, at the same time, pushing her into a leg yield with my inside leg.  After a few revolutions, she settled down, so I let her out of the circle and back to the trot.  She tried that stunt about 2 or 3 more times, and each time I put her on the circle, and then went back to a loose rein when she relaxed.  Eventually, she decided it wasn't worth the effort.

After some nice trot work, where I asked her to speed up and slow down just by using my seat, I started to ask her for the canter.  I got a few naughty steps right away, so back to the circle we went.  After a few episodes like that, I was able to get a decent canter in both directions on a fairly loose rein.  I kept working on the canter with her.  She was having a hard time balancing on the turns, but I left her alone to figure it out.  She eventually did, and was able to keep a better canter in both directions, around the ring without any bucking!  I let her end on a nice freewalk, where she was stretching, very relaxed, into my hands.  

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