Gia - session 840 - dressage lesson with Suzin

 Gia and I had a dressage lesson with Suzin today.  Gia was a bit tight through her neck and body, so we started by working to get her to stretch down into my hands, but also to stretch so deeply that her neck comes up out of her withers more.  It was pretty easy for her to do this at the walk, but to keep it, and keep it steady, when she came up to medium walk was a little harder.  It was also difficult for her to get it through the transitions to trot.  In each transition, I worked her through it, using a lot of "inside leg to outside hand" to encourage her to release and stretch from the withers more.  She eventually started to get it at the trot and through the transitions better.  Then we took it to the canter transition, and the canter itself.  She easily cantered, fairly well, when tracking right, and easily stretched while cantering as well.  Tracking left, it took a bit more "finagling" to get her to stretch at the canter and through the canter transition.  I ended up having to lift my outside hand a bit higher to keep from losing the connection.  By the end, she gave me a canter to the left that was almost as good as the canter to the right.  As a reward, I allowed her to do some "stretchy trot".  She wanted to get a bit quick and unbalanced, so I used a lot of small half halts to help maintain the rhythm and balance.  Her stretch was getting better there by the end, as well.