2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#13 Working Amara and Riding Mariah

Once again, I got to join in with the groundwork lesson.  It was interesting, because I worked Amara and Friend worked Mariah for the groundwork, but then we switched horses for the riding part of the lesson.  I rode Mariah and she rode Amara for the first time.  Not exactly sure why my trainer did this, but I didn't mind and I don't think Friend did either.

I warmed up Amara with some circles, yielding of the hindquarters, and changes of direction.  Not much to report there.  She was about the same as she was last week.  Her rhythm continues to improve.  

Then my trainer wanted me to do exercise where you have them go around in a circle over a pole and try to get them to step over the pole with one foot or the other first.  In this case, she wanted me to work on getting her to step over the pole with the inside front foot first two to three times in a row, in both walk and trot, and in both directions.  Before we were happy if she took one step over the pole with the inside foot, but now we want her to step over the pole with that foot first multiple times in a row.

My trainer was going to take her from me after we accomplished that and work with her on the back cinch again.  This exercise, which would teach her to roll her ribcage, would be good for her before doing that.

I attempted this at the walk first.  It was pretty easy to get her to step over with the inside front foot multiple times on both sides.  There wasn't a whole lot of issue there.

I'd never attempted this exercise in trot before, so I wasn't sure how it would go.  It wasn't easy.  It was tricky to keep her going and ask for bend at the same time, though it was definitely harder for her to do going counter-clockwise than it was clockwise.  I was able to get some steps going clockwise, if I remember right, but going counter-clockwise I could only get a step at a time.

I think part of the problem was that I wasn't keeping her going enough.  I should've been more insistent with her that she kept going forward in trot.  The other was that I didn't know just how much pressure I might be able to apply / be allowed to apply.  

So in the end, my trainer took her from me and taught her how to do it.  She was more firm with her, and pushed her to keep the trot and cross her hindlegs as needed too.  Amara kinda freaked out a little about it, but eventually got the idea.  Hopefully, if I get to do it next time, I'll be able to do a better job at it.

Anyhow, after that, it was time to ride.  Mariah pinned her ears and snapped at the hitching rail sometimes, but for the most part she was good.  Now, instead of being ridden in Denali's old bridle with the rainbow reins, she seems to like being ridden in Romeo's bridle better.  So that's what I rode her in this round.  

I had to guard against two things when riding her.  The first was getting tense, which would make her get fast, which would make me tenser, which would...  You know.  The other was my crookedness.  Mariah already struggles enough with crookedness.  Put her and my crookedness together and... yeah.  So I had to watch that as well.

We rode in the indoor arena.  Friend was on Amara, James was on Cordell, and Vivie was on Riggs.

When I first got on her, I just walked a lap or so around with her.  Trainer didn't give me anything right away and I honestly didn't know what exercise would be best to do.  It didn't last too long though.

My trainer told me to do rising trot - walk transitions, and to pick a pattern to do them in that Mariah could recognize.  I chose to trot on the long sides and walk on the short sides.

The trotting was fine.  Mariah kept a pretty slow trot for the most part.  Of course, if I'd wanted to speed her up, I easily could've, but otherwise she maintained a good past.

It was the walking I struggled more with.  When we'd come down to walk, I would be tense, ready to catch her if she sprung into trot.  Of course she would, because I was tense...  It didn't get as bad as it could've, and I was careful to not hang on her mouth.  We did do some sides where I was relaxed and we had a good walk.  My trainer didn't say too much to me about it, but she did warn me not to get caught in that trap of asking her to walk, releasing to her, only to have her spring into trot again.  Instead, I was to ask her to walk, do a big half halt if I needed to, and then relax as much as possible.

I knew it was just nerves getting to me.  Mariah's not that way anymore, not about to speed off at any second.  I was afraid that we would end up like that, stuck in that trap, which was what made us start to edge towards the trap.  But fortunately we didn't get caught, and for the second half of the ride, my nerves went away for the most part.

After a break, Vivie and I went for a canter around the arena.  Mariah's canter is so nice now!  She just picked up the canter nicely, on the right lead, when I asked for it, instead of throwing herself into it as she used to and whizzing off.  She kept a nice, slow canter for the most part.  I sat it fairly easily and just enjoyed a nice canter of two to three laps around the arena in both directions.

Then we took another break while Friend and James went do some things.  Friend initially was going to canter Amara, but Amara started being drawn toward her friends again.  My trainer was like, 'we've been waiting to have this discussion, and we're going to have it now'.  

She had Friend bring Amara into a circle around us.  It was a circle that made her work hard, in a fast trot.  Amara didn't like this and kicked out at Friend a time or two, but nothing major.  It took a lot of circles, but Amara started to think that maybe being by her friends wasn't so fun after all.  My trainer told Friend to let Amara leave the circle whenever she was thinking about it.

At first, Amara would think about leaving the circle, and Friend would give her the chance, but Amara would change her mind.  If she didn't, she got turned right back on the circle and given a kick forward.

Once she actually did leave the circle and her friends, my trainer had Friend trot down to the other end of the arena and let her walk there.  This treatment was repeated a time or two more, until Amara started to get the idea that, as my trainer put it, 'there's more oxygen down here at the other end of the arena than down by my friends'.  Then we tested her by letting her walk by them three times, and she didn't try to go towards them.  It didn't take her long to learn.

After that, Vivie and I went to canter again.  This time, Vivie was to come in from the fence and canter over two of the poles on the circle of poles, then go back out to the rail again.  I was to add circles into my canter of Mariah, and my goal was to get her straight in her body.  So that she wasn't leaning too much to the inside or falling out to the outside.

I think I could've done a better job of this if I'd know exactly what it felt like to have her straight in the circle.  My trainer didn't say much to me, except near the end on the last circle.  Then she told me to put more weight on my outside seat bone, and  I did feel the difference when I did that.  I think that's something I need to be doing anyway, but especially right then.

Mariah did tend to go faster than what she had the last time we cantered, but we made it through alright.

There were some other things that happened during the lesson that I'm going to put here because I can't remember when they happened during the lesson.

I went to pass Vivie along the outside, since she was to the inside.  I can't remember what happened, but it looked like I was fixing to get in a jam, so I came down to walk before that could happen.  My trainer said that next time, I needed to yell out that 'outside!' so that the other rider would know I was to their outside.  But, she also specified, she liked what I'd done much better lol. 

Another thing my trainer said to me was that she liked the way I was following Mariah's mouth with my hands.  I knew that with Mariah, I could have more contact than I could with Amara, and my trainer liked how I was having it.  I think Mariah did as well.

I tried to make sure Mariah was not crooked and bent right when going through corners, which my trainer also liked.  She said that I was using some of the things that I used on Amara, but I'm not sure exactly what things she was referring to? I definitely know I was using my inside leg.

And yeah, that was it.  It was a good lesson, basic enough, but good.

Actual lesson 5/9/2023