I think this is my best lesson of the year so far :)

As you probably know already, I rode Mariah for it.  It's been a couple of weeks since I was last on her.  

My trainer didn't immediately give me anything to do when I got on, so I decided to try doing that halting with the steady pressure exercise.  I could feel she was wanting to push through the bit when I got on her, so it seemed to be a good exercise.  

But I only got about two halts in before my trainer told me what to do next.  (I don't think my trainer knew what I was doing, as she turned to me after helping James and just saw me walking.)  

Trainer said we were doing 'baby' amounts of leg yield with her to correct her straightness problems.  And when she said baby, she meant baby.  

So, as we go along the outside of the arena, Mariah likes to pop out her shoulder to the inside and turn her head to the outside.  This is something that she's struggled with, and I don't help things with my own inherent crookedness.  Shorty also does the same thing, and I've been working on correcting that with him, so I already knew what we were doing.  

My trainer told me to use my inside rein indirectly to bend her back, and also to use my inside leg to push her back into straightness.  Basically the same thing I've been doing with Shorty, except that to ask for flexion to the inside I've been squeezing on the inside rein instead.  

When I felt her start to do that for the first time, I did as my trainer said and she listened.  Like, it was literally so soft, especially for her.  My trainer immediately saw that I understood the concept, so she had me go around the arena working on that.  She also said that if I noticed any areas where Mariah bulged out consistently, to go ahead and focus on those areas as well.

Primarily, I noticed she liked to do it in the corners most of the time.  She doesn't like to bend through them.  She also likes to do it near the generator, which powers the arena lights at night, but once she figured out that she couldn't get away with that, she stopped doing it. 

After a couple of laps with this, my trainer told me to do the same thing in trot.  When I did, Mariah was a little more ticked off about it, she'd bunch up and swish her tail at me sometimes.  Despite that, I still got some nice bend out of her.  It's amazing how straight and less wiggly she feels now.  

At one point, my trainer had me try out sitting trot.  Now, when Trainer says she wants you to do sitting trot, she doesn't mean just sitting the trot.  She means she wants the horse slow enough that when you're sitting the trot, it's fairly comfortable.  Not bouncing up around on a trot that's more suited for posting.  

With a little bit of tweaking, we got the trot we wanted with little protest from Mariah.  I tried my best to sit it well, although I'm afraid I might still have looked like a bouncing sack of potatoes.  I don't do sitting trot much.  

After that, we went back to rising trot and continued doing the same thing.  

When she told me to come to walk, as we did, she told me to keep holding the pressure on the reins.  It rebelled against what I'd been taught, and I nearly didn't, but caught myself.  I held it until she'd halted and backed up.  What we were looking for was for her to give to the bit.

See, my trainer explained, Mariah knows how to slow down now and will listen when you ask her to.  But when she does, she tends to lean against / push on the bit.  So, now we're working on getting her to give to it more, and thus, I may have to do more of that 'holding' when we come down to walk, halt, etc.  until she gets the idea. 

After that we took a mini break, but not for long.  James asked a question, I think, I can't remember what it was but it came about that my trainer wanted me to demonstrate what I had been doing to him.

She had me go on a circle, and whenever I felt Mariah bulge inward with her shoulder, to correct her with my rein and inside leg so James could see it.  I did so, and then my trainer told me to walk straight on, correcting her if she got crooked.

As I did, my trainer said that wasn't the best example for James to see, because I'd only had to use tiny, light aids to correct Mariah and so you couldn't really see them.

After that I walked several laps around on Mariah on a looser rein while my trainer continued to talk with James.  I don't mind, and I think it's better for both of us if we walk for our breaks.  

Then Trainer told me to have a canter around the arena on her.  She said that when I was cantering, if it wasn't too much to think about, to keep doing the same leg-yielding thing as I did in the trot and walk.  

The canter transition the first time wasn't very good.  I felt that she wanted to canter but I didn't quite let her...  I assumed we were still doing the 'lift up above the saddle' half seat thing when asking for the canter transition.  

But the canter was pretty good.  In the corners, again, she'd try to bulge out / cut through them.  When I went to correct her, she'd bunch up and through a bit of a hissy fit, she didn't like it.  

I wasn't used to this, and it upset my balance several times, but it wasn't too bad.  We came back down to the walk, changed sides, and then went to canter the other way.

This side we didn't canter as long because I lost my outside stirrup when I corrected her crookedness and started having her hissy fit.  I got along alright without it for half an arena lap before I brought her down to the walk.  

(I think I also remember loosing my stirrup and gaining it back at one point, but I don't think it was that time?  I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly.)

Anyhow, we walked around for awhile after that, and then my trainer asked me, "Do you want to jump her?"  

To which I replied, "I guess so."  

She was like, "Where's the enthusiasm?"  XD  

She set up the jump to the typical 6-8 inch vertical.  I chose to go the long way first, so that if she was wiggly I would have more time to correct her.  Trainer told me that if she was crooked, to stop her and straighten her out, as we've been doing before. 

But guys, she felt so different!  As soon as I pointed her at that jump, she knew what she was supposed do and just went for it.  I started in walk, but she switched to trot and of course I let her.  It was a good jump but my trainer said the only thing she wished I'd change would be that I'd had some mane so that my hands went with her.  

From then on I made sure I had mane in my hand every time we jumped, and it was never mentioned again.  

From then on I took the jump in trot, and she was so changed.  There was never one time she tried to wiggle out on me, and while she always landed in canter, she willingly came down to trot for me after each time.

One thing I had to change was not bracing against her.  I mean, when you point her at that jump and you just feel her taking you to it, which often involves speeding up, and you know she's going to jump big, it makes me a little like "Ah!"  I don't try to stop her but I do brace.

My trainer told me several times to loosen up and relax, and when I did, things flowed a lot smoother.  I made sure to keep my heels down and all that, but overall it felt amazing.  

We then changed directions and went the shorter direction.  Again, she did amazing on this side too, it was so wonderful and fun.  

Then my trainer said, "I'm going to go ahead and raise it.  Unless you don't want me to raise it, if not, speak up."  

I said, "Let's try it."  

Now, see, my trainer was using two cinderblocks for the jump.  So raising them made it go from like, 6-8 inches to above 1ft but not quite 2ft.  I knew, Mariah being who she was and with how tall it was, that she was going to completely jump it.  

The first time I nearly banged my chin on her neck when I landed, my trainer told me to hold myself 'up' more next time.  Once I did that, there was no trouble.  It felt a little like we flowed together over the jump.    

It felt amazing.  Each jump was so full of power!  And she was so confident about it!  It was perfect.

We jumped 4 times in total over that.  Afterwards I walked Mariah out.  James asked my trainer, after having watched me jump, if there was anything you did to make a horse jump.

My trainer said that no, not really.  You just made sure not to get in their way, which is harder than it sounds.  Since I've been riding with my trainer for awhile, you will almost never see me pull back on the reins to a jump, unless it's to correct a wiggly Mariah.  But so long as you give a horse a situation that's fair, and they understand the job, they'll do it.  

At the end of the ride, my trainer told me I could experiment with a little bit of flexion if I wanted to.  I did, but not for very long, because she flexed nicely when she halted, so that was that.    

And yeah, that was my lesson for that week, I really enjoyed it!  

Actual lesson 4/26/2022