2022 Riding Journey

#34 A Relaxed Mariah

We were back on Mariah this round, only this time we rode in the indoor arena. 

(Oh, just wanted to mention something.  Last lesson, James cantered for the first time out in the big arena on Riggs by himself!  It was neat that he was able to do that, as that's a biggish step for a beginner.  It's crazy that I've been lessoning consistently with him for about a year now.  He began taking lessons about the time that Mariah came.  Usually, I see people for a few months, and then they switch lesson days or something and I don't see them hardly ever again.)

Both Vivie and John came for lessons.  Vivie was on Maisy again, and John on Cordell.

I mounted up on Mariah fairly easily and just started off by walking her around the arena, if I remember right.  I think we did about two laps, one each direction, before my trainer had me go into trot. 

Now, this whole lesson, we worked on lengthening and shortening Mariah's stride within the gait.  So, for that reason, things might be a little blurry in my memory. 

In trot, my trainer had us go from a slower trot to a faster, or longer stepping, trot.  Remember how last time I mentioned how attuned Mariah has become to my weight aids?  Well, that was proven even more in this lesson.

By just posting slower (and sometimes using circles) she would maintain a slower trot that was just about slow enough to sit. And if I posted larger / faster then she would pick up her pace.  But when I'd post slower again, she'd come back to me.  

I've also figured out that if I post in a certain way, a really controlled way, then it helps her to come back to me.  

One thing that I had problems with throughout the lesson was getting deep enough into the two corners at the the lower south end of the arena.  I cut them off a lot, and twice, my trainer had me come back through them to deeper into them.  This is something I should have been, and will be, more vigilant about.

At one point, I was making one my circles, and Mariah had this lovely slow trot going.  My trainer said, "Okay, bring her to walk..."  So I brought her to walk.  Pretty much all her transitions to walk were so soft, I just sat down and kinda melted into her and she just came down to walk and it was amazing...

Then my trainer said, "So we can put her back into trot again."  So we put her back into trot again to see what her reaction to that would be.

See, Mariah's doing pretty good about keeping a steady gait and slowing down when asked.  But the 'up' transitions, aka, walk to trot, and trot to canter, make her grumpy, plus she shoots off into them.  So now we need to work on that.

So that was the next exercise we were put to.  I'd get a nice slow trot, bring her to walk, and then ask for trot again.  The goal was for her to transition smoothly, with minimum ear pinning.

My trainer also wanted me to watch her ears for this.  She had asked me "How grumpy is she?  Is she pinning her ears a lot?"  And I hadn't really been able to tell her because I wasn't watching her ears.  I was focused on whatever I was needing to do at the moment.  So she told me to be looking ahead, like usual, but keeping her ears in view as I did so.

At first, Mariah was a bit grumpy.  But the more we did them, the smoother her transitions got and she would flip her ears back to me, but more like she was paying attention to me, not griping at me.

Then, we took these transitions to the next level. Now it was trot to canter transitions, with the same premise of Mariah not being grumpy and keeping things smooth.  My trainer made it clear that she didn't want us cantering for long, and for me to have a place picked out where I would bring her to trot again before I even asked for canter.

Mariah was more grumpy about these canter transitions, but like the trot transitions, the more we did them the less huffy she got about it and the smoother they were.  Also, her canter was slower and easier to sit.  For some reason, unlike last time, I was really able to stick to it and keep my seat in the saddle.

I believe it was after that we took a break after that. Then my trainer asked me, "Do you want to jump her, or keep doing flatwork?"  Flatwork meaning keep working on these types of transitions.

Honestly, either one was going to be about the same level of difficulty for me.  So I was like, "Well, they're both about the same to me." My trainer laughed and said something along the lines of "Abby's like, 'I've been traumatized, I don't know what the right answer is'"  XD 

So she picked out flatwork for the both of us.  She wanted us to start out in trot, and choose the places where I was going to be doing slower trot and faster trot.  So, for example, slow trot on the short sides of the arena and faster trot on the longer sides.  And then, if that went well, we'd take it up into canter.

Now this was kinda challenging for me.  Because it would be so easy to tense up when asking her to slow down.  But one thing I found that helped, was if I told myself 'Lilth' or 'leth' or rather, a sound I make when I'm tired and just flop down on something.

This worked to keep me relaxed.  In fact, I struggled with keeping her slow without her breaking to walk.  It was hard to find the right medium between the two.

We were fairly successful with those.  Then, once again, we took them up a level, to the canter.  But my trainer only wanted me to let her do the faster canter for a few strides before bringing her back to a slower canter.

Once again, Mariah had a lovely, slow canter.  It was so nice.  Kinda made it hard for me to ask her for a faster one.  The main way I did this was I just pushed a little more with my seat.  She'd speed up, though not very much, and then I'd bring her back to the slower canter again.

I don't feel that these were as good, or as distinct as the trot transitions were.  But my trainer seemed to think it was alright, and I didn't tense up, so it was a win. 

We did both the trot transitions, followed by the canter transitions, both directions around the arena.  We had a walk break between changing directions. 

Thus, after we'd finished with the last canter transitions, I bought Mariah down to walk, and then we went over to where Vivie and my trainer were standing.  My trainer said that was enough for this lesson, that it'd be good if we just ended on that.  I agreed, and dismounted right there.

It was a good lesson.  I'm happy with the fact that, thought I was tempted, I didn't tense up a lot and I didn't hang on Mariah's mouth.  Because of that, and the fact that both Mariah and I are better than we used to be, the transitions were successful and accomplished with minimum grumpiness ;)  Mariah remained calm and her gaits lovely throughout the lesson.  My trainer, if I remember right, said again that she'll become like Bia someday.  

I don't know about that, but she is improving!

Actual lesson 9/27/2022