2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#8 Bounce Jumps with Mellow Mariah

Well, this week's lesson was a fun and good one!  Everyone was there, Friend, Vivie, and James.  Friend was on Romeo, Vivie got Cordell, and James was riding Riggs.  I got Mariah, which kinda surprised me because I though it might be Lily. 

Normally, I don't join in the groundwork lesson that happens the hour before the riding lesson, and work instead.  But this round my trainer told me to groom off and groundwork Mariah along with the others.

Mariah was pretty mellow for her.  My trainer had told me that if I saw her pin her ears, I was to come after her with the rope and make her move her hindquarters until she changed her expression at least a little bit.  But to be honest, she would pin her ears, but it'd only be for a brief moment and then she'd change.  So I never really got after for that but twice. 

If we'd pressed more, or done more hard things, she might have gotten more resentful.  Before, my trainer said, we were happy if she even just did what we were asking, regardless of her expression.  But now we're raising the bar, and refining what we're asking from her.  She can get huffy and offended about that.

We did some trot-walk-trot transitions, and sometimes she didn't want to come down from the trot.  My trainer said she knew she was supposed to come down to the walk but was just kinda ignoring it.  So I was to bump the rope, kinda jerk on it, towards her hip to be like "Hey, come on, you know what you're supposed to do. " Sure enough, I didn't have to do too much of that and she picked up on it quick.

Overall, it was a pretty pleasant ground working session.  Then we went out of the arena and tacked up, and then came back into the indoor arena to ride again.  She wasn't too snappy when I was tacking up, but I did have to slap her twice.  My trainer said that it'll just take however long it takes for her to realize that we're not going to be mean while tacking her up, but at some points we just have to say, "Even if you don't believe me, you're not allowed to threaten me like that." 

I was worried that my stirrups weren't going to be the right length or uneven, but I left them alone, and I'm glad I did because guess what?  They were just about perfect.  The left stirrup was 12 holes up from the number twelve, and the right stirrup was on the 16th hole, when I counted holes later to see if I could remember for the next time I ride in that saddle.  (The stirrup leathers are two different leathers, their holes are not the same so it can be hard to get them even.) 

Anyhow, when I mounted, I just walked around for a bit enjoying the feel of being on a horse.  To be honest, I couldn't think of anything to really do that would help improve Mariah, because she was just so mellow and calm, and pretty responsive. 

My trainer told me to pick up a rising trot and to do the circles in each corner exercise.  Usually, we would be using the circles to slow her down, but we flipped the script this round.  My trainer wanted me to push her and make her go faster on the circles, then let her go at the speed she wanted on the straight-aways.  It's really telling that when left her own devices on a straight line, Mariah wouldn't speed up though she'd still keep a steady trot. 

Mariah wasn't too happy about being pushed through the circles.  But she didn't through too much of a hissy fit, and things went well.  We did that going both directions and then took a break in the center, if I remember right. 

I'd noticed that in the arena, along the north wall, there were poles stuck in the panels with cinder blocks on the other side, like it had been for the pair of bounce jumps I'd done with Nibbs last summer.  So I knew someone had been doing some jumping, but I didn't think I was going to be doing any jumping.  

However, my trainer said that we were, but before that she was going to have me do some sitting trot to rising trot transitions.  I could choose in what pattern I did this, but it had to be consistent so Mariah could understand and grasp it.