Gia - sessions 1043 and 1044 - flat and jumping

 I'm a little behind on my blog posts so I will try to catch up a couple at a time. 

Last week on Wednesday Gia and I worked on our flat work. We did a little bit at the walk, trot, and canter. First I worked on getting her to go forward. Then I added in a bit of straightness. I would alternate asking for a little bit of forward then a little bit of straightness, then a little bit of forward, then a little bit of straightness. It helped her that I did not try to ask for both at the same time. she seems to get confused when I do. We also worked on transitions moving up into each gate. She is getting better about responding, especially since she is being less resistant to my aids to go forward. Finally, I started to add a little bit of collection to the work. Only a little bit, and at the very end. I try not to collect her by using my hands, but rather by leaning backward and engaging my back muscles. And I want to keep using my leg and forward aids to keep her impulsion. She did pretty good with all of that!


On Friday we did a lot of the same work but added some jumping. we went out into the field and warmed up with the same flat work. I would also go up into my stirrups a little bit whenever I was having trouble finding her straightness. Working on finding the equal pressure in each stirrup without having any pressure in the seat, can make it easier to figure out where the horse needs help with straightness.  Once all that was better, we popped over a few jumps. After all, once the flat work is good, the jumps are just icing on the cake!

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