Gia - session 701 - flatwork

 Gia felt quite reactive and tight when I brought her into the arena today.  I decided to start with a nice stretch at the walk to loosen her up.  She wasn't responding as well to that, so I started throwing in some walk to halt transitions, and added bending, mostly in the left rein.  She had also felt stiff on the left, and hollow on the right.  Gradually, the transitions and bending work helped to loosen her up.  I started asking for trot, and it was still a bit tight, but I kept working on trot to halt, then bend to left, then trot again.  Gradually, I added bending in the corners, which was easy to the right, but still a little harder to the left.  I also worked on going across the diagonals, with concentration on bend in each corner.  The trot was a bit unsteady at first, she really wanted to surge ahead in some places, and quit in others.  As the bending got better, I worked on getting the trot more steady and consistent in tempo.  By the end, she was much looser and steadier overall.

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