Gia - session 1083 jump in field

 I took Gia out in the field today for a jump school.  She immediately felt a bit tight and tense.  Her poll was up, so I started by asking her to flex left and right with her poll up.  This is fairly new for her, so she was a bit confused with the request for a little bit.  I had to continue encouraging her with a bit more motion in the bit to help her get the idea.  She was able to figure it out a few times, possibly just by chance, but I'll take it.  Each time she got it, I relaxed and let her go wherever she wanted for a few seconds.

When I started to ask her for a trot, she really started to get pissy - dropping her head, tossing her body around, acting like she was going to buck, not wanting to go forward, etc.  I nicely asked her to lift her poll and go forward, but as soon as she resisted, I lifted more sharply and kicked her more sharply.  It definitely caught her off guard, but it also kept her from being able to throw herself around as bad.  She went forward, but then she got too quick, so we came back to a walk, softened, then asked again.  Repeat the same scenario.  It only took about 3 or 4 times before she decided that wasn't much fun, and it was much better to just behave herself and trot on like a nice lady.

Once she was going more consistently at the trot, I started pointing her at the jumps.  She did very well with all of those!  As soon as we would land, I would get her organized, which really didn't take much, since she landed pretty well, and then we would find another jump.  We only did about 6 or 7 jumps, and then we finished on that.  She was pretty good once she made up her mind to just go forward :)

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