Gia - session 694 - dressage

 I worked with Gia on her flatwork today.  She started out feeling very stuck in her body.  I worked on helping her loosen up, mostly by asking her to move her shoulder to the outside, and soften on the inside.  It took a lot of repetition at the walk before she felt a bit looser.  I also did halt transitions, and she had to soften there as well.  Moving on to the trot, I did the same thing with her, and it again took many repetitions before she felt looser.  She had an especially difficult time moving her shoulder to the right, softening her neck on the left, and putting her haunches to the left.  She was starting to do much better with transitions and changes of bend, so I asked for some canter work.  She ran into the same difficulties at the canter, and did launch a few bucks.  I would immediately bring her back, and then push her forward again to the exercise.  She eventually gave me a lot of nice canter to the right, but her canter to the left only got a little better.

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