Gia - session 886 - dressage lesson with Suzin

 After having several weeks of no lessons, Gia and I were back at it with Suzin today.  We warmed up with several transitions between walk to trot and trot to canter.  During the transitions, I worked on getting her to yield to my inside hand, and leg yield to the outside, and go forward.  She was very resistant in the beginning, but definitely improved as we went along.

Suzin also had me work on really refining my half halt cues at all gaits - I had to feel my position correctly in the saddle, then increase Gia's tempo using only my seat bones, then stretch up with my spine, but down and back with my shoulders, then tighten my abs, then maybe add a slight squeeze with one or two fingers.  As soon as Gia yielded, I had to soften, and then start all over again.  Gia picked up on things very quickly, and I was able to get a much softer shape to her body!

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