2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#39 Back Again on Mariah

Well, this just might be my last lesson of the year, though I haven't confirmed that with my trainer yet.  But beings that the next Tuesday is the day right after Christmas, I'm thinking it might be.

Anyhow, I was assigned Mariah for this ride.  Everyone was there for this lesson.  James was on Cordell, Vivie on Nova (for the first time), and Friend on Rugar.  We rode in the outdoor arena.

When I got on, my trainer didn't say anything to me.  I walked Mariah around for a bit, did some circles, and then picked up a rising trot.  It was a pretty slow rising trot, and actually maybe more fit for a sitting trot now that I think about it.  We did some circles.

When my trainer did speak to me, she said that Mariah needed a slightly faster trot than that.  So she had me gradually speed her up until she had a stronger trot going.  It's really neat that you can just lightly put your leg on and Mariah not shoot off with you.  My trainer said we didn't want a trot any slower than this coming into a jump, otherwise Mariah might not feel she had enough to clear the jump.  She also told me to make sure she kept up that speed going through corners, because Mariah would slow down otherwise.

So, we did one or two more circles in each direction in that better trot, then came down to walk.  After walking for a bit, Mariah offered to stretch out, so I let her, before coming over and halting by my trainer and Friend.  My trainer asked me if I thought I needed to canter her, or if I was fine with her breaking into the canter when we jumped.  I didn't think we needed to canter.  My trainer said that was fine with smaller jumps like what we were going to be doing, but if we were doing bigger jumps, like 3 foot, where we would have to come in cantering, we'd want to canter before we jumped.

Friend and I stayed there for a bit while Vivie and James did their own thing.  My trainer told us we were going to be jumping the same course as last time.  She told us to come into each jump trotting on the first round, then if things went good on that round, we were to pick up the canter.

This time, Friend went first.  She and Rugar did really well.  Then it was me and Mariah's turn.

I was careful to not let myself get into that tense head space, like I had last time I jumped Mariah on a course in the outdoor arena. My trainer had said we needed to keep her honest, aka, keep her from speeding up too much on the way to the jump.   I was fine to keep her slow on the way to the jump, but when we were at the base and about to take off, I needed to let her do her job and stay out of her way.  

Our first round went good.  Mariah never tried to break into canter on the way to a jump and was easy to slow down when I needed to.  Of course, her jumps just felt bigger than Cordell's do.  And that made me want to give into the temptation for fall forward on her neck.

After that first, good round, we came to walk and then halted by my trainer while Friend and Rugar did their second round in canter.  They did such a good job that my trainer was like, "I think that's as good as it's gonna get for you today".  And so, that was their last round.  

My trainer said I could pick up a canter and come to the first jump, or I could try to get the canter over the first jump.  I chose to try to get the canter over the first jump, and sure enough, with the addition of a little leg, Mariah picked it up on the correct lead.

We came around to the log standard and the tire jump without too many issues, but I was grabbing for mane again, even though she wasn't jumping too largely.  My trainer was telling me to stay back, and I realized that grabbing for mane like I was was making me fall forward.

We didn't come to the trot (at least not for very long that I remember), but kept the canter and went to do a second round.  This second round, I decided to not grab for mane, and that helped keep me from falling forward, so things were better.  

I can't remember if it was on this round, or if we did a third round in canter (I don't think we did?  But it all blurs together in memory when you're doing several rounds of jumping), we came down to the trot accidently on the way to log standard jump and I had to circle to get it again.  We got the wrong lead on the first try, so we had to try again, before we could go to the jump.

Anyhow, I did better on that round staying back, but I could feel how my leg would snap back when she landed, which wasn't helping my falling forward.  We came to walk and then came over to my trainer to hear what she was saying.  (Mariah also stretched out some, which was lovely.)

Even though it wasn't a 'perfect' round, my trainer was happy with me because I'd improved on staying back, and because I was fixing things 'on the fly'.  Even if I got jumped out of my tack, I would sit back up and just keep on riding and get ready for the next jump.  She was happy with me for that, and I realized she was right.  I wasn't freaking out over the jumps or what Mariah was doing, I was staying in the moment and dealing with things as they came, and I didn't feel completely overwhelmed by it either.  

My trainer said that when a horse jumps, you have to fold in your two point, but the motion of the horse is supposed to do that, not you.  You are supposed to stay soft and absorb the motion.  That's why I was still having trouble staying back even if I didn't grab mane, because I was bracing against the stirrup instead of staying soft.  It's a 'feel' thing you have to learn.

My trainer also said that Mariah was jumping bigger than Rugar because of her smaller size.  Proportionally, she was jumping 3 foot.  I don't know if my trainer meant that the jumps were like three foot to her, as an actual three foot would be to Rugar, or if she meant that Mariah was jumping them as if they were three foot.  Either way, it makes the point that Mariah has to put in more effort.  And even though I'm not a big rider, I'm still pretty big for her to pack around.  

She said that a horse rounds up when they jump, and that can create a whip crack effect.  It's something that I'll have to learn to ride, I guess.  But I am happy with how both Mariah and I did in this lesson.  She is such a neat little jumping pony now! 

And that was the end of our lesson, we dismounted after my trainer was done talking.  Overall, it was a good lesson for everyone.

Actual lesson 12/19/2023