2022 Riding Journey

#41 Riding in the Indoor with Romeo

I got to ride Romeo for the second time, and also in the indoor arena, which I haven't ridden in in weeks, perhaps even months.  The reason was that the wind was going to get nasty over the course of our lesson, so the indoor arena's west and north walls helped cover us from that.

Almost as soon as I'd mounted, I missed the spaciousness of the outdoor.  You definitely have to pay a lot more attention and plan where you're going.  Vivie and James were in the lesson with me.  Vivie was on Mariah and James on Riggs. 

When I mounted Romeo, Vivie was already doing my favorite exercise, which is circles in each corner, and I can't remember if my trainer told me to do the same, but I started doing them as well.  I tried to make sure that Romeo had a fairly active walk.  We're still working on his fitness.

My trainer just let me keep on doing these, until it was time for trot work.  My trainer told me to just start with a slow sitting trot and keep doing the circles.  The reason she was having me do sitting trot was so that I could use my seat as much as possible, and she wanted me to use my reins as little as possible.  Romeo is working on listening to weight / seat aids.

To be honest, I felt like I only had to use the reins a very small amount, just enough to stay lined up with the rest of my body.  Romeo did good with this, as far as I could tell. 

We did this for quite some time.  I had to work at my sitting trot and find the feel for it.  Sometimes, I would feel like a sack of potatoes bouncing up and down, other times, it seemed like I was glued to the saddle and moving perfectly in tune with him.  I had to fight the urge to tense up.  My trainer gave her standard advice which I've heard before, but still need to work on implementing:  lift your foot up so that it's light in the stirrup (this makes it so you can't press against the stirrup), and roll with your hips from side to side with the horse.

Anyhow, we took a break after that.  Then, it was time for canter work.  My trainer had both Vivie and I canter together going the same direction.  Of course, Mariah is speedier than Romeo, so my trainer said that Vivie was the one who was going to do the passing.  This was something she wanted for Romeo, so he can be reintroduced to what it's like in an arena with other horses.  

So, we started off going clockwise, or to the right, around the arena.  But before that, my trainer told me that yes, Romeo did need to go into the corners.  But I had to be careful, because you'd get him in the corners, and then when you'd come out of them to go down the straight-away, you'd be so close to the fence you could run your knees into it.  So Trainer warned me to be leery of that and 'guard my knees'.  

I wondered if I was going to have to, and even half planned on, rising into a half seat like I did last time when I cantered Romeo.  But surprisingly, I didn't have to.  His canter felt better to me.  Oh sure, it was still terribly bouncy, but I was able to sit it enough that I didn't have to rise into half seat.  Maybe I should've, just for practice, but I didn't need to. 

Ironically enough, Vivie only passed me one time going this direction.  She was struggling with keeping Mariah cantering, oddly enough, because Mariah wanted to stay next to Romeo, not pass him.  We went quite a few laps around, but there was only one time she passed me.

After that, we took another halted break, I think more for Romeo's sake.  Poor guy will be heaving for breath sometimes, cause he's so unfit.  

While we were taking our break, James was doing sitting trot on Riggs around the circle of poles.  (My trainer teaches people to sit the trot first, and then once they have that down, then they can start to learn how to post.)  To be honest, it looked to me that he was sitting the trot better than I had been lol.  

My trainer had the appy mare out to do groundwork with.  (Don't know if I've mentioned this mare before, but she's a spotted appy, one of those that is white all over with black spots.)  My trainer was using the flag with her.  And after she was done, she pointed out that when she'd been flipping that flag at the appy mare, Riggs hadn't batted an eye despite my trainer being somewhat close to the circle she was on.

Riggs knew that the flag wasn't meant for her, and she wasn't concerned by it.  She kept doing her job and paying attention to James. 

In contrast, my trainer can be in different places, say, in an arena that's absolutely huge.  She can be working with a horse with the flag at one end the arena, and be scaring another horse all the way down at the other end of the arena.  So, if my trainer is in a different place besides her home, she has to be careful about using the flag, lest she scare someone else's horse into bucking its rider off.  Just an interesting thing to note. 

After that, we went on with our cantering, only going counter-clockwise this time.  Several things happened which made it not as nice of a start as the last time.

I went right off, picked up a trot, and then picked up a canter.  But for some reason that I don't know, Vivie didn't pick up a canter for some while.  This meant I had to watch out for her, which complicated things. 

In addition, going to the left is both my and Romeo's bad side.  He fought me more on this side about going straight and all that.  So it wasn't all that fun there for awhile, but I stuck with it and eventually we were cantering around the arena, though it didn't feel as nice as last time.

As I was cantering around and sitting Romeo's bouncy canter, my trainer said to James, "See how Abby's sitting Romeo's canter?"  She pointed out that I was sitting it pretty well, so that's good.  She also said that if I was bouncing up and down the saddle any more, then I would be adding force onto his legs in a way that wouldn't be good.

See, if someone's bouncing on a horse, it not only feels terrible for both rider and horse, but it adds more wear and tear on a horse's legs, especially the tendons and ligaments.  That's part of the reason it's important that we move as in sync with a horse as possible, it lessens the wear and tear on their bodies. 

This time, Vivie never ended up passing me before we came down to walk.  We just went around and around the arena.  So, in total, Vivie only passed me on time lol.

And that was pretty much it for the lesson, as far as I can remember.  Very basic, but nice after having such an intense one on Riggs last time. 

Actual lesson 11/29/2022