Gia - session 907 - dressage lesson at CDP

 Gia was slightly better about kicking out at her shipping boots today.  She only briefly kicked out at them halfheartedly, but immediately stopped when I corrected her.  However, her trailer adventures went on longer today than last time.  Each time she approached the trailer, she got about half way up the ramp and then stopped.  I would ask her to go further, and she would back up, so we would start working in circles.  We started with 3 rotations to the left, then the second time it was 4 rotations to the right, and each time we alternated direction and increased the number of rotations.  I also asked her to back up whenever she got too much in my space.  After each "set" of rotations, we would approach the trailer again.  If she backed off when I asked for more, then we went back to the rotations.  I believe we got up to about 12 rotations before she finally decided that it was a lot more work to be outside the trailer than it was to be inside the trailer.  Once she got on, I gave her a treat, which she ate begrudgingly.

At CDP, she was quieter than usual (I think the trailering "work" wore her out a little).  We started with leg yields, haunches-in, collecting and lengthening at the walk and trot.  Charlie had me working on making my leg more effective by following it up with the whip, as needed.  When we moved on to the canter, we worked on much the same, especially the haunches-in tracking left, and especially getting her to listen to my leg better.  Our canter work was better in the end, but it did come with a few bucks.

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