2022 Riding Journey

#26 First Bounce Jump!

This lesson, I got to ride Nibbs again.  Honestly, he's only been here a few weeks but like, I can already tell I'm going to miss him when he has to leave.  

I had my lesson with James and Vivie in the indoor arena.  James rode Cordell again, and Vivie was on Riggs.  I haven't seen Vivie in awhile and it was good to see her.  I think she took a break for a little bit. 

I was the last one to mount.  Nibbs almost made it standing still when I went to mount, but he moved just a couple of steps forward.  My trainer was like "He almost made it."  Then she told me what exercise to start with.

She had me go on a circle in the middle of the arena, although not on the circle of poles, because the circle of poles has not been set up for several weeks now.  In fact, my trainer used the poles to mark off the muddiest corner of the arena so we'd know where it was and not try to go through it.  (It'd rained this last week.)  

She wanted me to start asking for Nibbs to reach for the contact and also give to the bit. She said that, while we haven't been doing that at the beginning of the ride, Nibbs is ready for it now.  

We did pretty good with this.  Some tips my trainer gave me was to use my inside leg and not let him slow down on the circle, as well as lengthening my reins a bit so that when Nibbs gave to the bit I had more room to reward him for it.  Nibbs knows how to do this, he just has to be reminded.   We actually did this pretty well going clockwise and counter clockwise, despite having to work on my 'bad' side.

Once Nibbsy was giving to the bit, and doing pretty good, my trainer told me to pick up a rising trot going along the outside of the arena.  I knew my trainer wanted us to have a good working trot going, no slowing down, and while she didn't say it, I think she also wanted to continue work on getting Nibbs to reach to the bit.

So, we trotted around the arena, in both directions, for several laps.  Once or twice, my trainer commented that she liked the trot we had going.  

Then my trainer told me to pick a place to circle and start doing the same thing we'd been doing at the walk to ask him to give the bit.  I didn't pick the best place to circle, about cut poor James off, and the circle was smaller than the one we'd made at the walk... But we made it through.

My trainer made it clear that the way to ask Nibbs to give to the bit was to use my inside rein and inside leg.  She focused on my inside leg especially, apparently I wasn't using it enough, and she kept telling me, "More inside rein, lift it up."  I was using the inside rein indirectly, and she wanted me to keep a steady contact on it as I did. 

I also figured out that just because Nibbs might be bend really well to the inside did not mean that he had given to the bit.  It just meant he was, well, bent to the inside. 

Finally, Nibbs did give, and I let the inside rein go as a reward.  But it only lasted for a bit, and then I had to keep on asking him until he gave again.  When he gave and started holding it, instead of just popping right back up, my trainer was well pleased and had me bring him to walk as a reward.  

One of the problems I have with this type of work is I'm not sure just how much rein and leg I have to use to get a response.  Shorty, beings that we did this sort of work all the time, knew what I wanted and would give easily to me, almost too easily.  But Nibbs is different, and I don't want to overdo the amount of aids that I need, but how far do I go to get a response? 

My trainer reassured me that the possibility of me using too much rein and leg was low, and that if I did, the damage wouldn't be bad.  

After that we took a halted break.  Vivie had been working on rising trot with Riggs.  And James was beginning to learn lateral work, and how to move the hind feet and front feet.