2022 Riding Journey

#40 22 Amazing Jumps on Riggs

I actually got to choose who I rode for this lesson, as neither Vivie or James came for a lesson.  So my trainer told me I could pick anyone who was broke.

See, I'd assumed that it would either be Riggs or Romeo that I would ride.  It would be Riggs if my trainer wanted me to work on jumping, and if not, then it would be Romeo.  So I already had Riggs in mind, and there were several other factors that made her appealing to me.  Not least among them that she wouldn't run away when I tried to catch her, and she is nice, and I would probably get a chance to keep working on my jumping position.  Oh, and I don't know how many more chances I might have to ride her, as she's been here a year now, and so she might be headed back home soon. 

So I caught Riggs, groomed her off, and tacked her up, then went to the outdoor arena to mount.  My trainer was working with one of the three weanlings she has for halter-breaking in the indoor arena, and so she couldn't follow me right away.  

So I mounted up and began a warm up.  Which was mainly walk with circles and some halts thrown in. My favorite exercise, if you can't tell.

Anyhow, my trainer was soon out.  I did one more circle as she asked if I'd trotted yet.  I said I hadn't, and she told me to go ahead and do that.  She also said that I could start doing my own warm up if she wasn't out there, that I didn't have to wait for her, which I already knew and was doing lol.  I guess my warm up didn't look like much of one to her.

Anyhow, after completing that circle,  I went on to a rising trot with circles in each corner as well.  Now, I knew it'd have to a good rising trot, but remember, I've been riding Mariah for however long.  

But my trainer wasn't going to let either me or Riggs get away with a pokey rising trot.  She told me to ask for a faster rising trot, which I did, but Riggs didn't respond very well.  At which point she told me to get after here about it, which I did and that promptly woke Riggs up.  

Then Trainer had me come down to the walk and come over to her.  She told me that we had to make sure that we didn't let Riggs become dulled.  She is sweet and nice, but we can't let that trick us into allowing her to dawdle along.  When she does go back to her owner, she needs to be alert and ready to go.  There are plenty of little kids in the lesson program who will help dull her down, so I've got to make sure she's sharp.

After that, we went back to rising trot and the circles.  After we'd done that both directions, Trainer told me to have a canter around each direction with her. 

First, we went to canter going clockwise around the arena.  I asked her from a circle, but she got the wrong lead.  So I brought her back to trot and asked for her to canter again.  Again she got the wrong lead, but I wasn't sure about it.  

My trainer told me she had the wrong lead and to bring her back down and circle, then ask for canter.  When asking for canter, she told me to get after her and kick her.  This helped wake both of us up.  Also, we got the right lead this time.  I wonder if Riggs being slow to go to the canter was part of what was causing her to get the wrong lead. 

So we cantered around, with me sitting her canter in my usual bumbling way.  Riggs has a nice, steady type of canter.  Just before I brought her down to walk I decided to stand in my stirrups and practice that a little.  It wasn't as hard as it'd been on Romeo last time, it actually felt fairly easy.  

Going counter-clockwise, we didn't have any problems getting the lead that was needed, and went on to canter around.  I also practiced standing in my stirrups going this way as well.

Then we came down to walk, and after that, our warm up was complete.  We headed right into the jumping.

The jump set up was the same as it was last time I jumped Riggs.  So I'll be referring to this diagram down below...