2022 Riding Journey

#23 Basic Lesson on Twister

So, for this lesson I got to ride Twister, which I kinda wasn't expecting.  Nibbs was tied up there, and I was thinking it would be him.  But that's alright.

So who rode Nibbs instead?  Well, two girls showed up.  We were never introduced, and I never quite caught their names, although even if I had I'd make up other ones for them for privacy reasons.  One of them was wearing a dark pink helmet and the other a dark green one.  So, I'll call one Pink and the other Green, okay?

Pink got to ride Riggs, and Green rode Nibbs. Neither Pink nor Green had ridden Riggs or Nibbs before, so they were new horses to them.  

The two were very obviously extroverted.  They chit-chatted with my instructor while I was just over to the side, listening while I tacked up Twister.  They were fun, sweet girls and I definitely wouldn't mind riding with them again.  

Just as we were finishing tacking up, it started spitting rain.  Before, we had been going to head out to the outdoor arena, but now it looked like it could turn more serious.  (Where we live, storms comes up suddenly, dump a ton of rain on you in a few minutes, and leave.  This happened one time when I was riding Cordell, before my trainer had an indoor riding arena, so we had to take shelter in the tack shed.) 

I had just finished bridling Twister, and Pink & Green were just about to bridle their horses.  My trainer had them untie the horses and we headed into the indoor arena to take shelter under it.  

There, I checked my stirrups and girth on Twister while they finished bridling.   Trainer told me I could go ahead and mount from the ground if I wanted.  It quit spitting, but the threatening clouds never went away during the lesson, and so we stayed in the indoor arena. 

Twister was just short enough and my stirrup leather just long enough that I could barely reach it from the ground.  After three or four hops, I propelled myself up there.  He was good and stood perfectly still.  

I'm so used to riding smaller horses that Twister feels big.  See, Mariah, Nibbs, and Shorty are only a little more than 14 hh, I don't think any of them even reaches 15 hh.  

Anyhow, I gathered up my reins and put Twister in a walk.  Green had already mounted Nibbs, but Pink had to go get another girth for Riggs, the string girth was too big to be safe. 

My trainer didn't give me anything to do right away.  I tried to make sure Twister had a good walk, and started doing the circle in corner exercise. I focused on making sure that he was bent right.  

My trainer didn't seem to see any problems with this.  When she did speak to me, she said to pick up a rising trot and do the circle in each corner exercise.  

Now, if you'll remember, the last time I did this with Twister I really struggled.  But this time, while we still had problems, it was better.

There were two things my trainer wanted him to have:  a good trot and a good bend.  If he had a good trot, it'd help him have a good bend.  If he had a good bend, it'd help him have a good trot.

I had to use my inside leg a lot to make him bend.  At one point, my trainer said, "There, do you feel that?"  when he finally did bend.  She mentioned she wanted him to be 'pushed' into that outside rein. So basically, some work on inside leg to outside rein.  I also had to be careful that I wasn't blocking him from bending with one of my reins.  

A good chunk of the lesson was this exercise.  Both Pink and Green did this exercise as well.  And yeah, it was good. 

After that, my trainer asked if we were all comfortable cantering at the same time.  The three of us were, and so that was what went on next.