2022 Riding Journey

#22 More Jumping Nibbs

I'm getting the impression that, at least while Nibbs is here, I'm going to be doing more jumping.  Part of the reason being that Nibbs has lots of experience jumping, and can help me with my own jumping.  

So yes, I did ride Nibbs again.  I think he's looking a little better than when he first came here.  (In the lesson, my trainer mentioned that his weight fluctuates like crazy.  Only two days before I rode him, she was worried he looked too skinny, but now he's fine.) 

This was the first time that I got to ride him the outdoor arena.  There was no one else in my lesson, for one reason or another nobody else had showed up.  So, it was just my trainer on Twister and me on Nibbs.  

I was out in the arena before my trainer was.  So, for my warm up, I started with some halts from a good walk.  My plan was, after a few of these, to start working on getting him to give / go to the bit.  

I had my reins fairly short, and I didn't give excessively with them.  Before long, he was on the bit and 'meeting with my hands' if you will.  It was quite nice, better than even last week.  My trainer, who'd come out by this time, told me to give him a longer rein.  When I did, he stretched down quite nicely into it. 

The next exercise was trotting serpentines.  Of course, we were to have a good, fast trot going at all times, to encourage him to reach forward to the bit.  And secondly, going through the turns, if I felt him leaning to any one side (she mentioned he did it particularly bad to the right) then I was to place my body to that side to block him. 

Going around the first time, I felt a little like a rank beginner.  Several factors contributed to this, which I'll not list here.  But I just locked up a little.  

After on not-so-nice turn to the right, my trainer had me make a circle.  Nibbs was leaning out to the left, and she had me put my weight down on that side.  The difference was instantaneous, I could feel it.  Nibbs aligned himself, and I  think I could actually feel more of him come into my inside leg.  

On that note, my trainer had me stop trotting, and take a break.  Which honestly, is a little weird because we hadn't done much work yet?  But I took it anyway.  Maybe she somehow knew that I needed a little time to get unstuck.  

While taking that break, I watched my trainer work with Twister.  Basically, they were just going around in a one rein stop until Twister willingly stepped to the inside instead of being so bent on stepping to the other side.  With Twister, this can take awhile.  But when he did make the switch, it was subtle, and yet I could see it.  As soon as he did, my trainer released the rein to him.  

She said that there were some things she wanted to clear up with Twister this summer.  And that was part of the reason that Nibbs and Romeo are here.  They're going to take part of, if not all, of Twister's lesson load, so he can be free to work with my trainer.  Twister's going to boot camp XD

So, it was confirmed that Romeo is in fact going to be a lesson horse.  My guess is, that'll start once he's shed some more pounds.  He is starting to 'melt' as my trainer put it XD

Anyhow, after that we went back to trotting the serpentine.  I did much better this time.  Our turns were better.  My trainer had said that if I felt him anticipating going one direction or the other, to turn the opposite one if I needed to.  

We also kept up a fairly nice trot, I think.  At the end, my trainer started having us do a loop so that we were only turning to the left, because he was falling to the left.  I believe I may always struggle with turning to the left on whatever horse I ride.  

See, it's hard to maintain a proper bend in the turn, and when you start to turn, the horse tends to really cut into it.  Not sure what I'm doing to cause it, and of course I know some of that often has to do with the horse.