2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#5 I Got to Pick...

So, for this lesson, my trainer said I could pick whatever horse I wanted to ride.  Any horse except Romeo, that is, because Vivie was riding him.  But James didn't come for the lesson, so any other horse was free.

If Vivie hadn't been riding Romeo, I probably would've picked him.  He's honestly so adorable, and the horse that reminds me the most of what it felt like to ride Shorty. 

At first, I was going to ride Mariah, and was so close to catching her.  I stood there beside her and debated for a bit, because I realized that I hadn't ridden Cordell in awhile...  On the other hand, I really wanted to start getting back my 'feel' for riding Mariah and work on some things from last time.  It was an intense debate, lol.  I literally started slipping the noseband of the halter on her before I changed my mind and went to catch Cordell instead.

It's been months since I've sat on him, if I remember right.  Because of his gentle, willing personality, he's used for people who are still figuring out the kinks of riding.  So I just haven't ridden him for awhile.  But today was perfect chance to get to enjoy his lovely personality, which I may not have again for awhile.

Cordell's temperament is truly a gem.  It's not just a calm, easily worked with personality that a fair amount of horses have.  It's truly a "I like being with you, human," type of thing.  Almost dog-like, about as affectionate as I've seen a horse be.  It more than makes up for his quirky confirmation and how awkward it can feel at times when riding him.  Everyone likes him at the least, and adores / loves him at the most.

I had a hassle of a time tacking him up the wind.  I like using the saddle pad underneath the inflatable pad we use for both him and Mariah.  But the wind does not make putting that on easy, and then after I finally did get it on, the girth I'd chosen was just a couple inches too short.  (It's been so long since I rode him I wasn't sure what girth to choose.)  Needless to say, I was flustered when I finally came into the arena, but I tried to not let it linger.

I mounted up, being reminded just how tall he was.  I think he's at least 15.2 or taller, while Mariah is only 14 something tall, and Riggs might be between 15 - 15.2.  

I mounted and started going along the rail.  To be honest, I didn't do much other than enjoy the feeling that I was finally in the saddle.  But of course, that didn't last long.

My trainer told me to do some halts on him, and then told me to halt him while she was watching.  We did a fairly nice halt, which she said was good.  But she wanted me to keep doing them until Cordell came back with my body a little more and wasn't leaning on the rein as much.  That would make the running walk we were going to be doing easier.  After we got to that point, my trainer told me I could go to the running walk without having to wait to be told to by her.  

This didn't take too long; Cordell was already halting nicely.  So I took him to up to running walk with a tinge of trepidation, I think.  I've never particularly cared for running walk and definitely prefer trot.  It doesn't help that it's been forever since I've done running walk, so I wasn't sure how I was going to sit it.  Also, I was worried (probably more than I should've been) that I would have trouble keeping a good tempo.  

Vivie was doing canter on Romeo, and I was going counter-clockwise around the arena while she was going clockwise.  We came up on each other, and my trainer  was telling Vivie to come in to pass me.  But my brain told me that meant Vivie was supposed to stay out and I was supposed to come in?  I don't know what happened, but we nearly ran into each other because of it because we both came in.  Ugh, that was totally my fault.

Anyhow, after that I went on with my running walk.  Now the thing I've always seemed to experience with Cordell is that you want to lean forward and put your legs back.  It's always been that way; and I finally found out why.