2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#12 Riding Amara and Taking Videos

This is my fourth time riding Amara, and I'm already seeing a change in her in just the month that I've ridden her.  

Again, I got to groundwork her before the ride.  But I didn't work her the entire session.  My trainer and I 'tag-teamed' it, as my trainer had two things she wanted to work on with her.

I warmed her up first.  I could already tell she'd improved from last month.  In the beginning of the groundwork, her rhythm was better, not so jerky and halting.  She still showed some of that characteristic unsureness, but we worked through that.

I did some circles, some yielding of the hindquarters, and changes of direction.  My trainer told me to keep doing the changes of direction, except more often, not letting more than a half circle go by in between them.  

I had been stepping towards her hindquarters to make sure she yielded them before doing the change of direction, which my trainer said was good, but now she wanted me to only take one or two steps before asking for the change.  That way she would take me seriously when I asked her to move her hindquarters, knowing that if she didn't, the change would be that much harder for her when I asked for it.

Sure enough, I did this and she picked up on it fairly quickly.  At the end, after yielding her hindquarters, I had her pause a moment before asking for the change to make sure she was listening to me and not anticipating.

Then, per my trainer's instruction, we moved to another part of the arena and did trot-walk transitions.  The goal was for them to be smooth, and for the most part they were.  She was better about this than the last time I worked her.  She sped up and slowed down whenever I asked her, instead of being too quick or too slow to react to my aids as she'd sometimes been last time.

After that, my trainer took her from me to work with her.  Amara is fine with one girth, like on an english saddle, but with a second cinch on a western saddle she isn't.  She tends to run backward into the pressure it creates, and that of course only makes things worse.  My trainer has been chipping away at this.

The saddle was put on her, and Amara knew that it was saddle with a back cinch on it.  She did try to squiggle around some, but stayed put when my trainer put her back in her place.  My trainer showed me something that she does when she is nervous.  Her eye will blink quickly, and it's as if that carries down her face in a twitch just above her lip. 

My trainer would pause during this whole saddling and cinching process to let her process things.  Just giving her time to work through it in her mind.  She said this is something that she should've done when breaking her in.

One time, when we waited for her to relax a little, it looked like she was nodding off, but then jerking herself awake repeatedly.  My trainer said she was working through something in her head, and that we would let her. 

When my trainer asked her to walk forward, she went forward, which was good for her, my trainer said.  Not once did she try running backwards, though she did try stepping to the side.  But my trainer had her between herself and the fence, so she couldn't do that.

After that, my trainer handed her off to me and had me work her until she was going as she had before the saddle had been put on her.  This didn't take too much.  I went through the same sequence of exercises, though I didn't try trotting her that I remember.

Then my trainer took her back again and worked with her on cantering on the circle.  She has trouble with it, she'll loose her balance.  She can more easily pick it up on the right lead than on the left lead, as a past injury to one of her hindlegs mentally hinders her from picking up that left lead.  

My trainer worked with her, and by the end of it, she was quite forward.  She picked up the right lead on her own when asked, but for the left lead she had to have the support of the fence or the corner to pick it up.