2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#33 A Crazy Good Feeling from Mariah

I missed last week's lesson because of sickness.  This lesson my trainer was going to put me on Rugar, but then realized that would leave James riding Mariah.  James is too big for riding a pony like Mariah, so we had to switch.  That's alright, I like Mariah and it'd been a little while since I was on her.

James, Vivie, and Friend were all there for the lesson.  James was on Rugar, Vivie on Cordell, Friend on Nova, and me on Mariah.  Nova is new to the lesson program.  She's meant to take the place of Riggs, who has officially left.  We rode in the indoor arena, so things were a little more crowded.

After I got on Mariah, I walked her around for a bit.  We did some poll flexion, for which she was very willing, but not much else.  Later on, my trainer told me to let her have a longer rein, all the way to where the laces ended on the reins.  

After that, Vivie, James, and I embarked on an exercise.  It was the exercise where you turn the horse to face the wall of the arena, so you're at a ninety degree angle to it.  This causes the horse to disengage their hindquarters, so it's a form of a one rein stop.  Then you will ask the horse to step to the side with their front end so they're parallel to the fence again.  The horse is not supposed to step forward as they do this, only step to the side, so you have to be ready to catch them to keep them from going forward.

With this exercise, we were able to stay out of each other's way for the most part, because everyone was always stopping, and not going very far before they stopped again.  Passing was easy when it needed to be done.

We started on this exercise going to the left, or counter-clockwise, around the arena.  Mariah, being the nifty little mare that she is, did pretty good at this exercise.  Moving the front feet is always the trickier part for both horse and rider, but Mariah did pretty good.  For the most part, I was able to keep her from going forward.

Friend had been working with Nova on something else, and was going to join us in the exercise. But I think she was slightly confused about what to do.  I just happened to be going past them, and my trainer picked me out as the demo student.  She said I was her assistant.  So I demonstrated, and that happened to be a good one, where Mariah really tried to shift her weight when moving the front feet, so my trainer told me to let her walk out for a bit.

So we walked out for a bit, and then started doing the exercise going the other way.  Before I started, my trainer told me that I needed to use more of my rein when asking Mariah to disengage her hindquarters and face the fence, as she wasn't bending deeply enough through her body.  She also said I could create a space with my inside leg for Mariah to step into, and that if I didn't understand just what that meant or what it would feel like, that if I tried it I would get it.

Well, I wasn't exactly sure, but I tried it, and sure enough I understood.  It's basically where you take some weight off that seat bone so the horse feels like it can move under it with it's body and hindquarters.  So that helped, and using a little more rein helped.

This direction, Mariah tried to push through the rein more when it came to moving the forefeet.  My trainer told me to back her up if she was that determined about it.  I corrected her for it, but as it went on, she began tugging on the rein more.  I realized that she was actually giving to the rein nicely during the exercise, but that I wasn't giving to her like she expected, and she was starting to get frustrated.  At least, that's what I assume was happening, my trainer was busy with the others.

Since she was doing the exercise well enough otherwise, I let her walk out for a bit.  Then I did some more rounds of the exercise, which she did fairly nicely, and again was giving to the bit.  So I let her walk about again.

This time, she actually let her head down in a full out stretch and raised her back up underneath me.  It felt so COOL.  I walked her in some sort of oval shape to avoid the others while my trainer was working with them, and after about four or five laps decided I'd better stop her to reward her and all before she decided she was done with stretching.

So I halted her and we took a break for a bit.  Friend and James got to a good stopping point with their horses, so they dismounted.  My trainer told Vivie to go gait Cordell around, and for me to walk Mariah on a long rein, then to ease up into the trot on a long rein.

So I went out on a long rein and picked up the trot.  After a bit, my trainer told me to start lengthening out my reins all the way to the buckle.  Okay, so, that felt weird to do on a horse like Mariah, who's tendency is to be both fast and crooked.  But I obeyed.

What was the amazing part was that Mariah kept her own tempo.  She never really sped up, and it was a pretty slow trot.  I did try to keep my posting slow to keep her slow, but really, she never pressed the boundaries of that.

The other amazing part was that she wasn't crooked or squiggly at all.  She was straight and upright beneath me.  My trainer said she could come in off the fence if she wanted, she could do what she wanted so long as she stayed upright and straight.  I still wanted to steer her and my outside (left) hand kept going out slightly to draw her back to the wall.  After several times of telling me to keep my hands together, my trainer finally told me to just touch / link my thumbs together.  That's what I did, and it kept me from doing that.

So, it was so weird, but it also felt so cool to be trotting around on a slow Mariah that was staying straight without my help.  I did use my legs some, but otherwise it was all her.  That was the point.  We wanted to show her she could stay slow, and most especially, straight without our being there to hold her hand.  

Then my trainer told me to come down to walk, to just relax down into walk without the help of the reins.  I botched this because I sat but didn't really relax down into the walk.  I wasn't convinced it would work, so it didn't.  So my trainer told me to pick up the reins and use them if I was going to use them.  As I started to pick up the reins, I guess it triggered something in my body / mind that allowed me to release / relax down into the saddle and Mariah came to walk without me really touching her mouth.  I do use my seat to slow down, not just the reins, but without having the reins I wasn't sure how to do it.  Something to keep in mind for next time.

We walked around for a bit, and then halted to end the lesson.  She halted so nicely, again, I didn't really touch her mouth and it was even better than coming down to the walk had been.  So, it ended on a very good note.

It's amazing how far this horse has come in two years.  She used to be so fast and crooked and mad all the time, with a mouth that wouldn't give, and she was so dodgy about jumps.  I'm glad I had started these journals before she came, so I could record her journey and my lessons on her, and see just how far she has come.  I have to admit, I've grown fond of this little black mare <3 

Actual lesson 10/31/2023