2022 Riding Journey

#33 Back to Mariah

It's been over two months since I've ridden Mariah.  My last ride on her, according to this journal, was in early June.  Also, Mariah has been at my trainer's place for a year.  It was in August that she first came back from the Show, and she's been here ever since.

I read back over the first lesson I had on her.  She's really come a long, long way since then.  The improvement was obvious in this lesson.

I was kinda surprised that I was assigned her instead of Maisy.  I thought Vivie might be riding her, but nope, Vivie was the one who got to ride Maisy.  And it was John who rode Riggs.  (Cordell was actually part of a parade the weekend before, so I believe that might be part of the reason he got the morning off.  The blue glitter paint they'd put on the front of his hooves was still stuck on them XD)

I wondered if Mariah would be any different.  I haven't seen her used for lessons in more than two months, but of course she could have been being used and I not know it. 

She was completely relaxed as I groomed her.  I think she pinned her ears and turned her head to me when I went to pick out her hooves, but nothing more than that.  (When reading back over the first time I rode her, I was surprised to read that she had sidestepped her bum into me like she used to do sometimes.  She's so well mannered now.  She stands tied like she's supposed to and never does anything like that now.) When I left to get the tack, she had her right hind leg cocked.

When I went to tack her up, I watched her for any reactions.  Sure enough, she pinned her ears and turned her head to glare at me as I put the saddle pad and then the squishy pad on her.  But you know, she still had that hind leg cocked.  Even as I put the saddle on her, she still kept that hind leg cocked.  It was like, she was glaring at me and pinning her ears, but it was more out of habit than her actually being upset.

She kept that hindleg cocked.  After I'd hooked up the girth, I had to ask her to stand up straight so that when I tightened the girth, the saddle wouldn't end up crooked on her back.  

She also stood perfectly still when I lined her up to and mounted from the mounting block out in the arena.  Again, remember when she'd be Miss. Squiggle about that?  

When I mounted, she was so calm and relaxed.  I just started walking her around on a loose rein without much contact.  Then I experimented with halting her.  

She did do some of that running through the bit thing.  I was immediately like, no, we're not doing this.  I made her give to my hand and back up if she did that when I asked for a halt. 

I also experimented with halting from my body and not just from the reins.  I really haven't had a chance to practice this.

I know there's a way where you're able to arrest all motion with your seat.  Of course, it works better in sensitive horses like Mariah than it does in horses like Maisy. 

See, one way I've heard using this aid is to put your weight down like a lightening bolt, and by using the front part of your seat, you can 'block' the horse's flow of motion.  Another way is to lean back, which is what my trainer always tells us to do when stopping a horse.  But these two always seemed to be in confliction to me, because to try to do both of them seems to only result in me arching my back forward.

But that day, I felt something different.  Instead of trying to let or put my seat down to block the motion while leaning back, I...  Well I picture it something like imagining there's a brick wall in front of my body and my body is not allowed to move through that brick wall.  It's hard to explain...

But I do know it worked.  When I first tried it, Mariah halted without the amount of rein I'd been using beforehand to ask her to.  

I think we also did some circles, but I'm not sure.

After that, my trainer told me to go ahead and just trot her around.  Of course, when I asked for trot, Mariah shot off as per usual.  Her trot was also so much faster than Maisy's or Nibbs, it's honestly unnerving at times. 

But I noticed an interesting thing as I sped around.  Mariah was REALLY attuned to my weight.  Like, if I leaned forward in way that blocked her, she'd really slow down, almost to walk if I remember right.  And if my leg shot out in front of me and I was farther back, she sped up.  

The fact that Mariah slowed down for anything is a big improvement.  But truly, it was neat to feel how attuned a horse can be to you.  I was a little unstable sometimes, so that made our trotting jerky at points.  Whatever I did, I constantly told myself to not hang on her mouth.  I refused to fall into that trap. 

I think we trotted about two laps in each direction around that big outdoor arena.  

Then it was time to do some cantering.  This was probably the trickiest part of the ride, because I couldn't seem to sit her canter very well. 

My trainer explained what I was doing to me.  She was riding Sage, so she could demonstrate.  She said that instead of just sitting down and moving my seat with the horse, or getting up into two point off the horse's back, I was doing something in between.  I was trying to sit, but at the same time hold myself above the motion.  And this was causing me thump up and down on Mariah's back.  She won't buck me off for it, like Sage would, but she would gallop faster to try to get way from it.

It was at this stage that I also had some problems with not hanging, but just letting her go.

But eventually, at the very end, there was one point where I just seemed to finally get it.  Suddenly, I was flowing more with her and we were cantering along nicely.  I was like, 'Yes, finally,' and stopped the cantering right there before it could get worse again. 

It's like sitting trot, in a way.  In order to be rid of the bouncing, you've got to relax into the motion.  But if you do that, it feels even worse and so you want to tense up again. One thing that helps is bending your knees so you're not pushing against the stirrups and are forced to sit deeper in the saddle.

And that was the lesson.  It was a very basic lesson, a reintroduction to Mariah, as my trainer knew that I hadn't been riding her for awhile.  So to just go and start jumping wouldn't be the best lol.

She told me, at one point in the ride, that she was pleased to see that I wasn't 'grabbing' onto Mariah.  That was something I was trying hard to avoid, so I'm glad that I was mostly successful.  I think I'm going to be riding Mariah consistently from now on, perhaps interspersed with Maisy.

Actual lesson 9/20/2022