2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#14 Jumping Mariah!

So, this round I got to both groundwork and ride Mariah.  Both of these things were done in the big outdoor arena, as the outdoor was dryer than the indoor.

All of the horses were crusty with mud, and I did spend awhile cleaning Mariah off.  Only James was there for the groundwork lesson, and he got to work with Riggs.  Vivie came later and rode Cordell.

My trainer told me to work on having Mariah yield her hindquarters until she was doing it well and without grumping with me about it.  Then she'd have me bring her over the pile of telephone poles.  She also showed me that sometimes I should go around till I was almost behind Mariah in order to get her to bend as she should.

Mariah was actually in a pretty good mood, almost too good of a mood because she was a little slow about responding to my aids.  I worked with her on that without too much trouble.  She didn't hardly grump at me at all.

Then my trainer had me bring her over to the telephone poles.  These poles only come up to about a foot or lesson.  So Mariah had to step high over them, but she could just step over them without jumping.

My trainer wanted me to walk her over it several times in each direction and observe her withers to see if they were leaning out or straight up and down.  The goal was for them to be straight up and down.  I was also to see, if I could, which foot she was stepping over with first.  If she was stepping over with her inside foot mainly, that was a sign that she was straight up and down.  I had a hard time telling what exactly a straight up and down wither looks like.  My trainer had to point it out to me.

See, in going over these poles, if Mariah is not balanced, she will have trouble with it.  She'll slow down or hesitate in front of the poles, and my job was to say no, keep on going.  She would soon learn that she'd better adjust her balance to make this easier on herself.

After doing that in walk, my trainer told me to do it in trot and then pretty much left me to my own devices for awhile.  In trot, Mariah's slant to the outside was more obvious, because she would be leaning on the halter.  I also had to let her have a bigger circle in trot, so she had to go over the railroad ties as part of the circle too.

She did pretty well with this.  I had to make sure she kept on going and kept up up the trot but it wasn't too hard.  I rewarded her several times when I thought she'd done well.

My trainer then came back from helping James and thought to try this exercise in canter.  Now, if Mariah was going to canter on a circle, she was going to need a long rope, long enough that I wouldn't have much of a tail end to swing at her.  So my trainer wanted me to use the flag.  I've never  used a flag before, so I wasn't sure about this.

My trainer told me to raise it high and come down with it behind her hindquarters.  You hold it like a tennis racket.  I know it can be an effective tool, I've just never had the chance (nor the want) to use it.

It started out good.  I did get her cantering, but I was moving my feet too much.  I was letting her have too big of a circle, and part of the reason was because she was really leaning against that lead rope.  Thus, the circle wasn't hard enough for her to want to adjust her balance.  She also broke out of trot and though I flapped the flag, it wasn't enough for her.  Also, when she finally did go over something straight, I wasn't quick enough to reward her.

So, my trainer did take her from me and showed me how it was done.  It was very obvious Mariah was leaning to the outside.  Next time, if I do that, I have to remember to plant my feet and really use my body against her to stay put.  I think that was the main thing that I was missing.

Anyhow, Mariah did give three good jumps, two going one direction and one going the other, if I remember right.  We called it good for groundwork there and went to take up.  Mariah gave me her usual dagger glares and snaps, but other than that was alright.