Gia - sessions 1055-1058 - Something different ...

 Danielle and I went to a clinic last Thursday 4/3, that was recommended to me by a friend, and I've been raving about it ever since!  The clinician's name was Pippa Callanan, and you can click on the link to learn more about her.  She blends natural horsemanship with classical French dressage.  I LOVED it!  I found her saying things, even verbatim, to what I tell my students.  There is so much to tell from this clinic, but as I will be incorporating things from it as I go, I will just tell you stuff as I incorporate it.  (Although some stuff I'm already doing anyway 😊).

So on Tuesday, April 8th, Gia and I had a lesson with Suzin for the first time in quite a while, since before both our surgeries.  One thing I saw from the clinic was that I was pretty much doing the same things that she was, especially when I stuck with my natural horsemanship stuff and my classical dressage stuff, and a lot of that classical dressage stuff was originally taught to me by Suzin, my first dressage instructor.  One thing that I hadn't been doing though, was taking the pieces a lot more slowly.  Pippa did a LOT of work on the ground and at the walk, and got a LOT done!  So, I had a talk with myself (and told Suzin as well), that I would be taking things much slower, and that if all we did was walk, that would be perfectly fine.  

And we did, and it was.  In fact, it was awesome!  

First I relaxed at the walk and just allowed my seat to follow her movement ... REALLY follow her movement.  I've always felt the left and right sway of the walk, but not ever really felt the tiny little rise and fall that goes with it.  I closed my eyes, and really let my seat all the way down, and somehow I was finally able to feel it.  It feels like your seat is on an Elliptical machine, but it's very subtle.  At the same time, I also just allowed my hands to find a connection, and allowed my arms to follow where ever her head went - left, right, up, down, all over.  Not affecting her yet, just following.  Then Suzin had me ask for the halt by tucking my tail bone under like I'm trying to "hook" it on something on the saddle, and just hold it there until she halted, and as soon as she did, relax immediately.  Then Suzin had me close my fingers on one rein (I chose the heavier one), until Gia yielded.  Until she yielded, I was to keep my fingers closed, make them tighter if necessary (but DON'T PULL the reins), and just follow where ever her head goes, like before.  As soon as she softens, I immediately release and relax.  We repeated the rein yielding several times until she started to soften more quickly.  If she held out and didn't move at all, then I could add a little wiggling of my fingers to encourage movement, but NEVER pulling!  When that was easier, then we started to add that to the walk and halt transitions.  I would ask her to yield, and then as soon as she yielded I had to time it so that I also asked for the transition, up or down.  It took a little bit for her to get it, but after several repetitions, she was willingly and easily making walk and halt transitions with MUCH less resistance!

Wednesday 4/9, Friday 4/11, Saturday 4/12 - All three days pretty much looked the same as Tuesday to start out.  We worked on walk and halt transitions along with yielding to the hand.  Gia was getting this a lot easier each day, so I started to add walk and trot transitions doing the same thing.  It starts out a little hard at first with the trot.  She does have to cough each time we start the trot, so I do let the reins go for her to do that.  Once her coughs are out, then I pick the reins back up, and we go for it again.  Despite hitting some resistance at the trot, she has been very willing to work through it!  I believe it was even Friday where we got a bit of a fancy trot at one point!  And it has taken much less effort to get a much more energetic trot in general!