2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#9 New Horse Amara

It's been nearly two weeks since I had this lesson, so the details may be a little fuzzy in some areas, but  I definitely want to record what I remember of it.  

So, for awhile there's been this dark seal brown horse at my trainer's.  I know she'd been in the Show a couple or so years ago.  I don't know if it was during or after the show, but she got her hind legs badly tangled up in wire and cut herself up pretty bad.  Since then, she's stayed in the lesson horse pen, and but for the few times i've seen my trainer interact with her, nothing has been done with her.  I knew she seemed to be a sweet horse. 

Well, when I got there for this lesson, my trainer told me to go fold up feed sacks and then to catch Twister, Riggs, and Amara.  Now when I heard the name Amara, I was like "Amara?  Who's she?" 

My trainer said something like "She's that potato looking horse peeking out from behind Twister there" and I turn to look, and what do you know, it's that seal brown mare I didn't know the name of.  

My trainer then told me that she'd been riding Amara of late, and that Amara had been taking it all in stride, so she decided to stick me on her and see what I thought about it.  Up to now, Amara's only had about 3 months total of riding on her, so she's still green.  But my trainer is starting her on the way to being part of the lesson program.  (I think this may have been prompted by the fact that Twister is likely to be sold and leaving soon.) 

My trainer made it sound like I was the first person to try out riding her for the program, though I'm not sure about that. I do know that I wasn't too worried about it.  I knew Amara was sweet, seemed to have a good temperament, and probably wasn't going to try to buck me off if my trainer was putting me on her.  I was also just happy to know her name, as it'd bothered me that I hadn't. 

So there's the background on Amara.  James, Vivie, Kay, and Friend were all there, so it was a full lesson.  James was on Riggs, Vivie on Mariah, Kay on Cordell, and Friend on Twister.  We all rode in the outdoor arena.

(Just thought I'd mention here that Lily has left, at least temporarily.  She's gone to give jumper lessons at another barn of a good friend of my trainer's.  I think it'll be a good fit for her.  Kinda wish I'd know that'd be my last ride on her for awhile though.) 

I could tell Amara was sweet, but she was also unsure about things, more so than my trainer's other more trained horses like Mariah or Twister.  I didn't know exactly how I was supposed to ride her other than the fact that she was green. 

When I first got on, she seemed a little jerky to me.  She was really easy to stop, too easy, with just my seat.  At first, I thought that meant that she was just really sensitive and so I was the one tht had be careful with my seat.  My trainer told me later that was a remnant from when my trainer broke her in some years back.  My trainer has learned from that and knows how to break in a horse without causing them to do that now, but Amara still has the remnant of that to work through.

I also wasn't sure just how much contact I could take up with her.  So I didn't take up much at all in the beginning.  Now I know that she can handle contact, but not on too short of a rein or a lot of it. 

My trainer told me at the beginning of the ride to stay on the lower half of the arena, down where the mounting block is and where you would leave to go to the hitching rail, so that I was close to her and could ask any questions I had or if I needed help with something.  I never ended up going to the top half the arena, we stayed at the lower half the entire lesson.

First, I walked her around to get the feel of her.  That jerky eagerness to halt made it harder to relax into her walk.  I kept my seat up as best I could, but even then there was still a struggle.