2022 Riding Journey

#9 Riding Riggs

Well, I get to add another horse to my roster because I got to ride Riggs.  

I had half-wondered if I would get to ride her at some point, because she seems like such a nice horse and my trainer has done that in the past.  But the main reason why I got to ride her this round was Mariah had a gash on her side.  Fortunately it looks like it will heal, but for now my trainer is giving her some time off.

Thus, Riggs has stepped into the lesson program for a little while to help out and gain more experience.  My trainer didn't say that but that's what I'm assuming.  

I'm sorry for the reason that I got to ride Riggs, but it was nice to groom and tack up a horse without getting glared / snapped at, that doesn't wiggle excessively when riding, and does not require a special pad. 

I rode in my lesson with John, I don't know if you guys remember him but he's a nice older man.  He rode Twister in a western saddle.  

The bridle my trainer wanted me to use had split reins.  But thankfully, some other rider had not been able to cope with the split reins (me thinks it was a little kid), and so my trainer had tied a knot in them.  My trainer said that if I wanted to keep the knot in the reins, we'd tie the end to the D ring on my saddle to keep them from flapping. 

Earlier, my trainer had insinuated that I'd be jumping Riggs, and I was not about to jump with split  reins if I could help it.  So I kept the knot. 

Trainer told me, as I was leading her into the indoor arena, that if I kicked Riggs real hard, she wouldn't go forward, she'd jump.  She wouldn't buck you off, but she wouldn't go forward.  So if I was told to kick her, it would have to be a 'gentle' kick XD.

I mounted Riggs from the ground, as my trainer told me I could.  I don't know if that was because Riggs wasn't good about the mounting block, or because my trainer wanted me to be able to get on as soon as possible.  

Either way, Riggs gave me no trouble.  My trainer told me to start by going around the circle of poles.  She said Riggs wasn't wiggly like Mariah, but like Mariah you did have to be looking ahead and planning where you were going.  

I found this to be true.  It was nice to do a simple exercise and use that to get to know her a little.  We had no problems doing the circle at the walk, although my trainer did tell me, going counter-clockwise, that I was pulling back on the inside rein a little bit and that I needed to raise it up.

Later on, she said that when Riggs leaned forward into the bit, I needed to close my hands until she stopped that.  When she came to my trainer, she walked around with her had down by her knees all the time, and we need to discourage her from going back to that bad habit.  

After walking a couple of those circles in both directions, my trainer had me go into rising trot on the circle.  She said that Riggs didn't have a good tempo often because she's still green (which surprised me, I'd pictured her as more mature and about 7 or 8 years old). 

Riggs trot wasn't as speedy as Mariah's, but as my trainer said, she had a harder time keeping a consistent tempo.  She tripped over the poles several times.  I was really careful to keep the right diagonal.

After awhile of trotting around, my trainer mentioned that her tempo had evened out now, and that when I changed directions to go the other way, to try to keep that tempo the same / keep it smooth.  

I kinda botched this because I got confused about my diagonal when changing the direction.  Ugh, sorry Riggs.  But she was good and we made it through.

Going this new direction (counter-clockwise) we had a harder time staying on the circle, we were drifting to the outside a lot.  This has happened also with Shorty, because of my natural crookedness I tend to put too much weight on my inside seat bone and thus push the horse off the circle.  To counter, I like to hang on the inside rein and twist my body, thus further exaggerating the problem.