Because of the rain we had received this weekend (which we are grateful for), the ground was too wet to ride in.   Thus, my lesson along with James consisted of groundwork.  

Three of the Show horses have stayed for the lesson program at my trainer's.  Maisy, Candy Sue, and Jim Bean, who is a 14.1 hh skewbald gelding.  My trainer gave Jim Bean to James to work with, grabbed another horse for herself, and told me that I could basically pick from any horse on the place.  Including client horses.  

Well,  I didn't feel like working with horses who weren't already established in groundwork, beings that I myself am not that established in it either.  I also didn't want to have to play the 'catching game' with Lily or Mariah or Twister.  

Thus, Riggs was my pick.  She would be easy to catch, she wouldn't glare daggers at me, and she knew groundwork.  

Sure enough, she let me catch her easily.  We didn't bother to groom the horses,  there really wasn't any point, so I just led Riggs out to the big outdoor arena. 

My trainer asked me something along the lines of "What do you want to do?" And I was just like, "Well, I don't know much about groundwork..."  So she told me to do some stuff with Riggs and feel her out.

Getting Riggs to move out on a circle wasn't hard.  I let her move out, did some circles, then asked her a couple of times to move her hindquarters, then go back on the circle.  Did some changes of direction too.  

Overall, Riggs was responding well, if not just a bit lazily.  When my trainer asked me what I thought of her, I told her that.  She kinda laughed, and said that most of Riggs's groundwork of late had been done with little kids.  Thus, Riggs was a bit slow and rusty.  

She told me one way to get a horse out of that, was to stand off by their side in line with their shoulder.  Then you'd ask them to move their forefeet to the side, and change direction that way.  But you'd be ready to really "drive them through it".  Another thing was to do some halt - walk transitions on the circle.

So I did this.  Sure enough, it perked Riggs up somewhat.  I had to remind myself to be concise and quick.  Not aggressive, but just making sure to follow up with my actions, making sure they came one after the other, with no pause in between them.

The next exercise she gave to me was to move Riggs's hindquarters like I'd done before, from the circle or from a standstill, and then either let her halt, or send her back on the circle, or make her back up.  I was to add the back-ups in sporadically, so that she wouldn't know when they were coming.  This would make her have to stay more balanced on her hindquarters and light on her forefeet.  

So I did some of this.  The backing up didn't work very well at some points.  One problem was that I was having her turn to face me enough.  But the other was that, with Shorty, I ask them to back up  by coming up to their side and pressing on their shoulder or pulling back on the lead rope.  My trainer does it by stepping towards them while 'bumping' the lead rope if needed.  

So, some of our back ups were better than others, but Riggs was beginning to get the point.  However, my trainer added something else. She said I needed to be doing the backing up when Riggs wasn't ready for it. And if she did show herself ready, then I could let her go back on the circle or halt.  I worked on this, and it did help.

Then, after that, my trainer told me to raise my hand up and out to indicate to Riggs that she was to pick up a trot.  Riggs wasn't mentally ready for this, physically she could have picked up a trot when I asked, but mentally she was still a little bit in lazy mode.  

My trainer had me step towards her and swing the end of the lead rope to her very firmly to wake her up.  Just a few of these transitions later, Riggs was picking up the trot when I asked for it just by raising my hand.

Then my trainer, right after Riggs came to walk down from trot, had me turn and walk away in the opposite direction from Riggs.  Riggs didn't weigh on the lead rope, she promptly followed me with little difficulty.  This was a good thing, it meant she was more off of her front feet.

I did this some more with Riggs on my own, and this was when she got really tuned up.  In fact, she became so sensitive that I was a little unprepared for it.  But it was a lovely feeling too. 

Meanwhile, my trainer had taken Jim Bean from James and was asking James, as Jim Bean went in a circle around her, where Jim Bean wasn't bending in his body.  It was kinda hard to tell.  

James guessed that it was hindquarters.  My trainer said that know, it wasn't, but it was a good guess.  She showed how the horse can really only bend through some of their vertebrae, how most of the bend comes from basically the middle of their back.  The place where Jim Bean wasn't bending was in the upper part of his neck. Oh, he'd have his nose pointed in towards my trainer, but the upper part of his head was inclined to the outside of the circle.

In order for the horse be bent properly, they have to bend their whole body.  From nose to tail, their body has to be bent to the inside.  And I think this is hard for Jim Bean to do right now.

Yucca, one of my trainer's colts, escaped from his pen.  He came wandering over, all friendly and cute.  My trainer actually didn't try to catch him, but let him go over to where all the grass and weeds were.  She was pretty sure he wouldn't wander off if he was grazing, and she was right.

My trainer asked me if I was happy with where Riggs was, and I said that I was.  She pointed out that Riggs was actually holding her head higher than when we'd first come out, showing that she was using her abs a bit more to hold herself up.  

And yeah, that was the lesson for this week.  Just basic, pretty easy groundwork. 

I really like and am interested in the groundwork that my trainer does.  Because, done well and right, it prepares a horse to be mounted and ridden.  The transition between the two can be smooth and almost seamless, with no bucking, bolting, panicking first rides, which is a lot easier on both horse and trainer. Plus, you can solve a lot of problems a horse has on the ground, without ever having to get on their back, which is a lot safer.  And you can get an idea of how the horse will act if you ask them for something in the saddle without having to be on their back if they erupt into a hissy fit.  

But, it's tedious to learn and do well.  Of course, those who have done hours and hours of this stuff, like Buck Brannamen, make it look easy.  And it works more effectively for them, because they're really good at it. In the beginning, groundwork doesn't do a whole lot for you, because you're just plain bad at it XD But if you'll take the time to learn it, I believe it's a very effective tool.  And it's a tool that one day, I want to know how to do at least as well as my trainer does now.

I also want to add in a little bit from my last lesson.  See, my trainer wanted me to film videos of her riding this client mare for her owners, I believe.  But first, she had to work through some things with this horse, and she explained some of what she was doing to me. 

This mare is four years old, a mustang that was probably bred for in captivity because I don't see any freeze brand markings on her.  She's as cute as a button, a gray dun with white stockings and a pert little snip on her nose, she came to my trainer to be started.

But a major problem this horse has is that she had training before coming to my trainer.  And that training taught her how to endure a stimulus.  In the past, if she could just not respond long enough, the pressure that was asking her to do something would go away.  

So literally, she can endure something for quite awhile and not do anything about it.  She won't try to find a way to relieve the pressure.  She'll just sit there until you give up, and her willpower to do so is quite strong.

My trainer does not like to have to pop her, or slap her with the split reins, or dig her spur into her.  But literally, this horse will do NOTHING if she doesn't startle her into action.  And it's sad, because this mare doesn't have to go through all of this, if she hadn't been taught to withstand pressure.  

Another problem is that this horse has learned the difference distinctly between groundwork and being ridden.  She doesn't make the connection between the two, to her, they're entirely separate activities.  Ordinarily, my trainer told me, if she was on another horse, at this time she'd be thinking "I need to get down off this horse and work at this from the ground."  But it won't do any good with this mare.  In fact, she might behave like an angel on the ground, only for my trainer to mount up again and her go back to the exact same thing.

But she is getting better.  Each time my trainer has to go through this with her, it takes less and less time for her to finally start looking for an answer and finding it. 

So yeah, that's some interesting information about this little mare.  It shows how, in not being willingly to push a horse at first, it requires that much more pushing later on.  Which is unpleasant for a horse and rider, and it's not necessary.  

Actual lesson 8/23/2022