2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#20 Poll Flexion and Stretching for Mariah

So, this lesson we rode in the indoor arena and therefore I was pretty sure we weren't going to be doing any jumping.  Both James and Vivie were there, James rode Riggs and Vivie  rode Cordell.  

I was mounted before they were because I got a head start on grooming and tacking up.  I walked Mariah around for a bit and mainly tried to stay out of my trainer's way as she worked with another horse on the ground.  I also experimented some with weight aids to see how Mariah would do, but not much before my trainer gave me the first exercise.

She said that today we'd be doing some lateral work things, but to start off with she wanted me to start asking for more vertical poll flexion from Mariah.  I did this last week for a bit with her.

This time, my trainer wanted me to have a longer rein, like where I couldn't even feel Mariah's mouth, long enough that I might have to put my hands into some different feeling positions in order to get contact with her.  Then I was to ask for her to flex at the poll just as I'd done last week, and I might have to move my hands to keep the pressure on the reins equal.  

The goal was to 'oil the hinge' that was Mariah's poll, so that she would give easily to me, and to encourage her with the longer rein to stretch out.  When I asked her to flex, I was to move my hands upward, and when she gave to me, I was to shove them downward like I was pushing a wheelbarrow to encourage her to stretch out.  We were trying to make the stretch the reward, the place she could go to escape the boring monotony of me just asking her to flex and giving to her over and over.

So we walked around the arena for awhile doing this.  Mariah got pretty supple and I felt her back come up as she stretched out more.  It was so nice to finally be working on this with her without her throwing a hissy fit.  We got pretty good in the walk, and I think that's what changed my trainer's plans for the day.  We never did end up doing lateral work.

Instead, I was to pick up a trot (rising trot or sitting trot, whichever I thought would be easier) and start doing this at the trot.  I picked rising trot because sitting trot is still a challenge for me, and I didn't want to deal with regulating her pace on top of asking her to give to the bit.

I can't remember exactly when she told me this, but one thing my trainer told me I would find was that if I kept her straight through the corners and bent her like she should be, that might often be the time I'd find she'd give to the bit.  I had felt this before in her and in other horses, something about bending them the right way will trigger them to flex and stretch.  So she said I could use that to encourage her to flex, maybe even by bringing her in a little and then pushing her out the corner to encourage that.  I confess I didn't use that tool as much as I should've though.  

The first round was the one that wasn't the best.  Mariah was not as willing to give in trot as she was in walk.  It took some time before I coaxed her into it.  I think two things I could've done different were to ask a lot more and with a lot steady pressure.  I was too wishy washy about it at some points and how is a horse to supposed to know when you reward them unless you stay consistent? 

We took a walk break (we trotted around for quite a while) and then did some more trotting going the other direction (counter clockwise around the arena this time).  This second round went better, she gave more and stretched out more.  So I brought her to walk earlier and then we took a halted break by my trainer while Vivie and James used the rail for cantering.

Then after that break, my trainer told me to go do the same thing again in the trot, and if we could get her to stretch out nicely, then we would call it a day.  She told me that sitting trot might be better because I wouldn't have to worry about my hands so much.

See, this type of work will really show whether your hands move with you or not when posting.  If your hands go up when you go up and come down when you go down, you're not maintaining a consistent contact with the horse, which is not what you want for this type of work, where consistent contact is paramount.  The goal is for your hands to stay relatively in the same position even though you're moving up and down, and this is made possible by your elbows opening and closing.

My trainer said you can even make a really soft horse look lame if your hands move like that, but of course that doesn't apply to most horses.  

My trainer didn't say that I was moving my hands too much (she may have noticed some inconsistent contact on my part though) but she did suggest sitting trot might be easier / better because of that.  But she didn't say that I had to do sitting trot this round, and I decided to stick with rising trot and try to make sure my hands were staying the same position.

Another thing my trainer mentioned was that she could see that in walk, as I went around with a longer rein, that I didn't like it but I was doing it despite the fact that I wanted a shorter rein.  So she wanted me to have a longer rein when trotting as well and to try to keep it that way even though the trot just felt faster.

Because my trainer brought those things to my attention, I think it helped this round be the best of them all.  I also asked for flexion more often then I had been before, Mariah knew now what I was asking for, and I had a longer rein as my trainer wanted.  At first, Mariah whizzed around in the fastest trot she'd done all through the lesson (though it only felt fast, looking down at our shadow I realized it wasn't quite as fast as it felt), but I let her and kept the longer rein.  It paid off, because as she gave more and stretched more, her trot became slower and nicer.  I wasn't sitting the trot so I don't know if her back came up, but I imagine it did.

My trainer had me bring her to walk when she was in the middle of a nice stretch, then I walked her out for bit, during which she offered more stretching and so that was the end of the lesson.  It was so nice to be able to work on this with her, as I do enjoy this type of work, and my trainer said she needed that type of work for a day or two.

Mariah has come so far.  I can remember when her mouth was like rock and how you'd have to sit back against her to slow her down.  Now I wasn't even using that much pressure to ask her to give, and she was giving to me!  

Actual lesson 7/25/2023