2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#20 Jumping Rugar

So, this time I got to ride Rugar again!  I used a brown half pad that my trainer had use last time I'd ridden him, but she'd put it on then, so I hadn't tacked up with it before.  It took some fiddling around, and then also I realized that the saddle probably was just a little too far back.  So it took me a lot longer than I would've liked to get tacked up and out there.  Thus, my lesson was a little shorter than usual, but still a good one.

Vivie and James were both there.  Vivie rode Mariah and James rode Riggs.  We were in the big outdoor arena.

When I first mounted, my trainer didn't give me anything to do right away, so I walked Rugar along the fence and did some walk-halt transitions.  I could tell my trainer had been riding him / he was getting better at this.  He wasn't bracing against me so much and his contact was nicer.

My trainer told me to close my fingers.  I had a pretty good contact with him, but my fingers were more open then they should've been.  Soft contact, my trainer said, comes from your elbows and shoulders moving with the horse's mouth, not open fingers.  Which I know, but I still have this habit that I need to break.

Then my trainer told me to pick up a rising trot and do something that had a change of direction coming up often, like a figure 8 or a serpentine.  I chose the serpentine and started posting to his bouncy rising trot.  It feels so much bigger than what I'm used to.  

After I'd been doing the serpentine for a little while, my trainer told me to close my fingers more on the reins, as well as to do something else that I can't remember.  Maybe move my elbows less.  Anyhow, this brought me into a firmer contact with Rugar.  My trainer wanted me to hold that and ask for him to give to it, but first she told me that the rein was looped up and caught in the D ring of the bit, so I'd have to fix that first.  I halted him and flipped the rein back to its position.

My trainer also told me that keeping my hands more together would help him come to the contact because it formed a fence for him.  (I think she also said that he doesn't like that when it comes to lateral work, though it's good for him.)  Also, if his head was crooked, he wouldn't come to the contact either, so if I needed to shorten one rein temporarily, (the left one was what she said) to get him to put his head on straight, then that was okay.  

So now I was doing rising trot serpentines, but with the objective that Rugar come to the contact.  What I mean by that is that he stops going around so hollow and braced against the rein.  Something he's struggled with for a long time.

I don't feel I did as good at this as I could've, partly because my mind was also occupied with doing the serpentines.  But I did feel some times he gave to me and I tried to reward him for it.  Near the end, when we'd been trotting for awhile, he gave nicely to me and held it for longer, so I let him come to walk in that frame and stretch out more.  He raised his back underneath me, which always feels so amazing and lets you know you did something right.

Then it was time for some jumping.  Vivie was jumping the telephone logs, and my trainer told me that when she was done I could do it.  She wanted Rugar to stay the level same to, from, and over the jump.  Once he was doing that, we'd move onto something else, but she wanted him to be calm and consistent first over the telephone poles.

Rugar did real good at this.  All three times I went over the poles he was quiet, didn't rush, didn't even break into canter.  Just acted like it was no big deal, as he should.  So we didn't spend too long on that.

My trainer told me that I'd better dismount and shorten up my stirrups a little before we did anymore jumping.  She was right, I could feel it.  So I dismounted, shortened up the stirrups, and mounted up again.  It was much better, though I did get one stirrup a little too short and had to let it out one hole from the saddle.

After that we took a break while Vivie and Mariah did some more jumping.  She did good.  Then it was our turn to do more jumping.

This time my trainer had me do the bending line from the telephone poles to the log standards going to the right.  I first did this bending line on Rugar.  My trainer reminded me that if I came into the jumps on an already bending line, things would be easier.  If I needed to after the second jump, I could make a tight circle.

This round, which I think we did about three times, was better than when I first did it with him.  For one thing, he wasn't so eager to shoot off into canter, and for another I was ready for it if he did.  His big canter didn't take me by surprise.  Plus, I was familiar with the line I needed to take, so I didn't stress so much about that.  Overall, it was a good time.

We took another short break, during which Vivie jumped some more, then it was our turn again.  This time my trainer wanted us to take the bending line going left, from the log standard to telephone poles, like I'd done last time with Cordell.  Only this time there were no tires put up on the telephone poles, thankfully.

We made three or four attempts at this, I think.  The first two, I didn't give him a good line.  I was afraid of missing the telephone poles and overcompensated too much by staying to the inside.  The first time we came up the log standard jump, he stopped on me because he was surprised.  I didn't fall off and had enough presence of mind to urge him over it.  But that tells you that I didn't pick a good line.

The second time he did go over the log standard jump.  I can't remember if it was that time or another that we about missed the telephone logs or not.

Regardless, there was a time where I'd come so much to the inside that we were going to miss the poles, but then I tried to get him back to them, but then wasn't sure if I should... Long story short, Rugar was like, 'well, I don't know what exactly you're doing, but since we're currently pointed at the very corner edge of the telephone poles, I'll jump them for you' and he did.  So we ended up coming through that all right, my trainer wasn't too mad.  

She told me I needed to take a line more to the outside for the log standard jump.  Sure enough, I took a line that was less to the inside and that was our best one.  We jumped the log standard, then, because I'd got him a good line, he tried to make the canter stride work and we jumped the telephone logs.  My trainer had us end on that.

She said that he's the type of horse that will try to find what you want him to do and do it for you.  He will do it for you.  The reason became my trainer's was because for a long time he was asked to do two contradictory things:  having his nose so close to his chest he had trouble seeing in front of him, and at the same time jump.  A horse just can't do that for very long, and he got to the point where he was just saying 'no, I'm not going to do either'.  

Then, when my trainer started asking him to change his balance, he would fight her to the death about it, because before when humans asked things of him, it meant he was became unbalanced and he was determined that you weren't going to do that to him.  I saw some of these fights.  He would work himself up into a terrible lather and it would take forever before he'd finally give my trainer what she was asking for.  Now, finally, he's realizing that a human can ask something of him that he can do, and so now he's starting to try to find what we're asking for again.

So, after that round of jumping, we halted for a little bit, then I walked him over to another place, got a nice halt where he gave to me some like he should, and dismounted.  So, a shorter lesson, but a good one and I enjoyed riding Rugar again.

Actual lesson 6/27/2023