2022 Riding Journey

#31 More of Jumping Maisy

Yes, I got to ride sweet Maisy again.  This was actually a rather long lesson with a lot in it.  

My trainer rode Sage, Vivie was on Cordell again, and James on Riggs.  We rode in the outdoor arena.  As I was headed out there, my trainer said that we might jump her over something that Maisy would actually consider worthy of jumping.  That didn't end up happening, but she did mention it.

I was ahead of my trainer and James, but Vivie came after me.  My trainer told me to go ahead and start warming her up in a way that would help me with jumping later. 

I chose to do circles and halts to try to get her to back off of my hand.  It helped a little, but not as much as I had hoped.

After that, my trainer told me to start doing walk to trot transitions.  She wanted me to do them until I got a good, smooth one, and then let her trot out as a reward.  See, the littler kids can't handle Maisy's big striding trot, so to let her stride out is something rewarding for her. 

The transitions also helped her to back off my hand by doing them quick.  It took more transitions that it should've, but we got a good one and so I let her trot out.

My trainer told me to trot her out without contact on the reins.  And if she tried to lean against the reins, to kick her forward.  This is what I should have been doing in the first place.  I'd been fighting against her leaning with my hands, when I should have been pushing her forward.  Basically, my trainer wanted me to have a good, working trot with Maisy holding herself up. 

Once we got that going for us, we took a break.  And then, if I remember right (it's been a week since I had this lesson as of writing this), we didn't do any canter but went straight to jumping. 

All we jumped was that two jump line, the one with the telephone poles and the mini 'oxer'.  My trainer never raised the oxer, and so we never actually jumped anything big.  My trainer wanted me to come off of a left turn to the jump at a trot for several rounds and just have her go straight and steady to the jump.  Then, if that went well, we might try to get her to canter through it. 

I think we went through it about five times this way.  My trainer was busy helping James with Riggs, so she didn't see a whole lot of it but that was alright. 

For the most part, Maisy kept up a good trot and stepped over them without difficulty.  My problem was more keeping her on a straight line in between the jumps.  I don't know if it was me, or her, or both of us but she kept trying to go to the right in between the jumps.  Nowhere near as bad as Mariah, but I always felt I had to keep my left hand up to keep her over.  

Anyhow, that went well.  So then, my trainer wanted to try cantering her through it.  She told me I could do it in whatever way I thought best.  I could get a canter on a circle and then come to the line of jumps.  I could try asking her for canter right before the first jump.  Or I could do what I chose to do, which was to jump the first one in trot and right away ask for canter  in between.

I can't say why I chose to use this method, I didn't really have any particular reason for it.  I didn't think about whether it'd be easier.  Probably should've put more thought into it, but my trainer didn't comment about it, so I guess it was alright. 

Now, when I first attempted this, I came off the left like I had before.  Our first attempt was a success in that we got the canter in between the jumps.  But the way the jump line was arranged, it was at an angle across the arena and the oxer was closer to the fence on that side than the telephone poles were to the other side.  So, after jumping the oxer, it was harder to steer afterwards and miss the fence in canter.

My trainer said I could come from the other direction so that I would jump the oxer first, and thus have more room after jumping the second jump in the line.  So from then on, we jumped the oxer first, then the telephone poles, although we still were making the turn to come to the jumps from the left.

For the most part, it was good.  Yes, it did feel a little wild.  There were some times (this'd also happened when trotting through the jumps) where I wondered if I was beginning to edge towards falling off, but I never got the point where I really began to wonder if I was going to fall off.  (My trainer told me later there were some points she wondered the same thing, but she'd look and see that I was 'right in the middle' of Maisy.  That in itself is a compliment, that I was able to stay square and upright enough while jumping a green horse.) 

The main problem Maisy had was trying to figure out how to get the striding right between the jumps.  In the beginning, she tried to rush through it.  But obviously that wasn't the answer, so she was searching for a different one.  

She took some pretty wacky jumps as she tried to figure this out, often hitting herself on the telephone poles because of it, although never too hard.  It was a little frustrating to me, that she kept doing that.  I partly believed it was because she was still doing that bit of squiggling in between the jumps, and the curved line was making it harder for her.

Anyhow, after that we took a walk break.  It was basically the end of the lesson, and my trainer asked me if I wanted to end it there, or jump her a little more.  I chose to jump her a little more and see if I couldn't get a jump where she didn't knock the telephone poles, perhaps by keeping her straighter to them.  

My trainer was a little more hands on this round (up to this point, I hadn't received much 'hands on' teaching, as she'd just kinda left me and Maisy to our devices.)  If I remember right, we did three jumps this round.

The first one was much like the others had been, if I remember right.  We'd get the canter after the first jump, there wasn't much problem about that.  There was the bit of struggle to keep her straight to the telephone poles, and she wacked them again. 

The second jump might've been a good one, and our last one from my impression in my memories.  I think the line was fairly good.  But she caught herself on the telephone poles and stumbled.  Obviously, we couldn't end on that one, so my trainer told me to go again.

This last jump was our best one.  We got the canter after the oxer, and I think we had a good line.  Of course, Maisy was still having problems with the striding despite that, and the jump she took was one of the weirdest feeling jumps I've ridden.  It felt like (though I don't know if this is the case), instead of lifting her forefeet and then her hindfeet, she jumped with all of them at the same time?  I don't know, but it felt weird.  Maybe it was a regular jump, and I was just so used to irregular jumps at that point that a regular one felt weird XD

But despite this, she didn't knock the telephone poles.  And both my trainer and I immediately decided to let that be the last jump. 

I keep forgetting that Maisy is green and young, partly because she doesn't feel like it to me.  She actually feels like Shorty did in many ways, so I'm used to riding her 'type'.  Thus, I was a bit surprised to think / feel / hear that she had to struggle through finding the striding to a jump, but that is something that she has to work through because she is green.  

Overall, it was a good ride.

Actual lesson 9/13/2022