Well, I get to add another horse to my roster because I got to ride Riggs.  

I had half-wondered if I would get to ride her at some point, because she seems like such a nice horse and my trainer has done that in the past.  But the main reason why I got to ride her this round was Mariah had a gash on her side.  Fortunately it looks like it will heal, but for now my trainer is giving her some time off.

Thus, Riggs has stepped into the lesson program for a little while to help out and gain more experience.  My trainer didn't say that but that's what I'm assuming.  

I'm sorry for the reason that I got to ride Riggs, but it was nice to groom and tack up a horse without getting glared / snapped at, that doesn't wiggle excessively when riding, and does not require a special pad. 

I rode in my lesson with John, I don't know if you guys remember him but he's a nice older man.  He rode Twister in a western saddle.  

The bridle my trainer wanted me to use had split reins.  But thankfully, some other rider had not been able to cope with the split reins (me thinks it was a little kid), and so my trainer had tied a knot in them.  My trainer said that if I wanted to keep the knot in the reins, we'd tie the end to the D ring on my saddle to keep them from flapping. 

Earlier, my trainer had insinuated that I'd be jumping Riggs, and I was not about to jump with split  reins if I could help it.  So I kept the knot. 

Trainer told me, as I was leading her into the indoor arena, that if I kicked Riggs real hard, she wouldn't go forward, she'd jump.  She wouldn't buck you off, but she wouldn't go forward.  So if I was told to kick her, it would have to be a 'gentle' kick XD.

I mounted Riggs from the ground, as my trainer told me I could.  I don't know if that was because Riggs wasn't good about the mounting block, or because my trainer wanted me to be able to get on as soon as possible.  

Either way, Riggs gave me no trouble.  My trainer told me to start by going around the circle of poles.  She said Riggs wasn't wiggly like Mariah, but like Mariah you did have to be looking ahead and planning where you were going.  

I found this to be true.  It was nice to do a simple exercise and use that to get to know her a little.  We had no problems doing the circle at the walk, although my trainer did tell me, going counter-clockwise, that I was pulling back on the inside rein a little bit and that I needed to raise it up.

Later on, she said that when Riggs leaned forward into the bit, I needed to close my hands until she stopped that.  When she came to my trainer, she walked around with her had down by her knees all the time, and we need to discourage her from going back to that bad habit.  

After walking a couple of those circles in both directions, my trainer had me go into rising trot on the circle.  She said that Riggs didn't have a good tempo often because she's still green (which surprised me, I'd pictured her as more mature and about 7 or 8 years old). 

Riggs trot wasn't as speedy as Mariah's, but as my trainer said, she had a harder time keeping a consistent tempo.  She tripped over the poles several times.  I was really careful to keep the right diagonal.

After awhile of trotting around, my trainer mentioned that her tempo had evened out now, and that when I changed directions to go the other way, to try to keep that tempo the same / keep it smooth.  

I kinda botched this because I got confused about my diagonal when changing the direction.  Ugh, sorry Riggs.  But she was good and we made it through.

Going this new direction (counter-clockwise) we had a harder time staying on the circle, we were drifting to the outside a lot.  This has happened also with Shorty, because of my natural crookedness I tend to put too much weight on my inside seat bone and thus push the horse off the circle.  To counter, I like to hang on the inside rein and twist my body, thus further exaggerating the problem.

So we fought with that for awhile.  Or rather, I did.  Riggs patiently tolerated my experimenting.  Ugh, it felt so odd and wrong to not resort to my natural instincts!

In the end we were better, though I had to still keep my eye on it intently.  It was all too easy to resort back to pulling on that inside rein and load that inside seat bone way more than needed.

Then my trainer told me to come off the circle while still trotting.  I'd just gotten to the fence when my trainer told me "In the corner by the hay bales go into canter".  

I was a little surprised at this and said, "Me?"  As though to clarify.  But John couldn't have cantered even if he wanted too XD 

Fortunately the corner wasn't that one that was coming up but the next one after it down the long side.  So I had plenty of time to prepare. 

I made sure we were well in the corner, my trainer was pretty sure she'd pick it up when I asked.  And sure enough, she did.  Her canter was more bouncy than Mariah's but not in a bad way.  I also didn't have to worry about regulating like I did Mariah's, and also she didn't throw a hissy fit when I asked for it XD

An odd thing happened when we came around the northeast corner.  Suddenly I found us spirting away from the arena wall, her being bent towards the outside but going towards the inside.  It was weird, and it messed us up.

So we ended up switching leads a couple times and got on the wrong one.  My trainer had us come back to trot, and wanted me to ask for canter in the northeast corner.  But the same thing happened again.  The reason was that I was riding her too deep into the corner, but I didn't fix it in time and so we didn't get the canter because Riggs skittled to the inside.

The second time was in the corner by the hay bales again, and this time I didn't ride her so deep, so we got the canter on the right lead.  Soon after that my trainer had us come to walk and take a walking break. 

After the break, she told me to go cantering in the other direction.  On this side, I also had to learn to not ride so close to the fence.   Because if I did, Riggs would get nervous about the fence, and do that skittle-to-the-inside thing.  

It took a little while for me to realize this and act accordingly, thus we made a lap or two more than we did going the other direction.  Riggs's canter is a bit tiring, because it's bouncy.  It's not bad bouncy, like Bia's was.  Bia's was just plain jarring and terrible.  But it's bouncy like a ball, as my trainer said. 

After that, we came to the middle of the arena and took a halted break.  My trainer, after helping John with some things, set up the little jump in the middle of the arena for me and Riggs.  This jump is only a pole set on two cinder blocks, maybe only 6-8 inches high, so nothing scary. 

My trainer told me what jumping Riggs would be like.  She said it would be better for me to come to walk if needed and get Riggs over the jump, then let Riggs run out of the jump.  She also wasn't going to be near as wiggly as Mariah, but the goal was to get her straight to the jump.

Before we headed off on that adventure, my trainer came over to us and demonstrated how low down Riggs's head was when she first came.  I mean, it was pretty far down.  For Mariah, that'd be good, but for Riggs it wasn't.  She couldn't hardly move forward because her head was in the way.    

The first  jump attempts, going counter-clockwise, weren't the prettiest.  The first two times I got into two point too late, my trainer wanted me to get into two point before we even made the turn to the jump, so Riggs didn't have to worry about what I was doing up there. 

Now, Riggs did throw in some wiggling and crookedness, but nowhere near as bad as Mariah.  After Mariah, it was like, "Psssh, this is a piece of cake."  Mainly because Riggs went where I told her and didn't fight me on it XD

I felt like I was making the turn to the jump too early, but my trainer wanted me to make it even earlier.  I never figured out if she was right about that or not.

 Eventually, we got a nice couple of jumps, and so we took a walk break.  

During this walk break, if I remember right, John was trying out trotting on Twister without the lead line.  It was his first time doing so.  My trainer didn't want him to steer, she just wanted him to kick Twister into a trot.

Unfortunately, Twister had the bright idea to come run of Riggs's bum.  I was trying to get out of their way, and I blame myself for not having paid better attention beforehand.  But before I knew it, Riggs had turned her bum to Twister and kicked out at him.  

I was not unseated, but Twister took off across the arena with poor John.  Thankfully, John was determined to stay on, he sat up and pulled Twister to a stop.  Considering his level of experience, I was impressed.  And also very glad he was riding in a western saddle.

My trainer wasn't mad at me for that, just told me to watch out for John a bit better.  I'm so used to riding horses that don't kick out at other horses, well for the most part anyway, that when that happened I wasn't even sure what was happening.

Anyhow, John recovered after that, and he did go back to trotting.  I tried my very best to stay out of his way, and there wasn't another incident like that again.  Nor will there be, if I can help it.  

Anyhow, after that we went back to jumping, this time using the outdoor part of the arena and going clockwise.  Riggs and I did so much better this way.  

Like, our turn to the jump was better, and for the most part, Riggs just trotted her way straight to it.  We'd pop over it, and then were on our way again.  It was like, so nice.

My trainer didn't see much of it, as she was helping John with dismounting, but near the end she did see how nice Riggs was, and was like, "I love it!"  

Because Riggs was doing so well going that direction, my trainer had me change directions to do a few more jumps from our 'bad side' if you will. 

On this side, it wasn't as nice but it was still way better than our first attempts.  Again, Riggs was pretty much straight to the jump, although I again struggled with steering after the jump this way.  But we made it through nicely.  

We took another walk break, and then my trainer gave me a choice:  I could end the ride there with Riggs, or I could take a shot at cantering her to the jump.  Riggs, as far as I can remember, hadn't even broken into canter after the jump the whole time.  Another way in which she differs from Mariah XD

I decided that I might as well be brave and take a shot at cantering her.  My trainer said that she'd first recommend me coming into the jump with a spanking big trot, then hopefully Riggs would jump, land in canter, and we could just keep that canter.

The first two attempts didn't really work.  To be honest, it's all a bit blurred because it was going so fast.

I remember one jump where Riggs cantered a stride before the jump, I'm not sure but I think she knocked it down that time, or maybe it was another time.  I also had problems with steering after the jump, again.  My trainer told me to be turning even as we went over the jump.

One time we got the canter, but I think Riggs switch leads so we were on the wrong one.  I had to bring her trot and circle her to get the right lead before going to the jump.  

Another time, we'd knocked down the jump, so my trainer came in the arena to put it back up.  We had the canter by then, so my trainer had me make circles to keep it while she put the jump back up.  She told me they had to be big circles, because Riggs was green.  

I was afraid we were going to loose the canter on the circle, but we made it through and came to the jump in canter.  Maybe it was that jump or the next that my trainer had us quit on, but I do know our last jump was our best.  We came to it canter, we came out of it in canter, and Riggs was straight.  

My trainer was pleased with both of us, and I'm happy I chose to do that.  While I can't remember it as clearly as I'd like, because it was so fast, I do remember that I didn't feel completely overwhelmed.  Yes, it was quicker than what I'd like, but I never felt out of control or my brain completely freeze up on me.  So that was a major victory for me. 

Trainer had me walk her out after that, and told me that if I wanted to experiment with moving the front feet and hind feet, that Riggs was a good horse to do that with.

I did want to experiment with that, as throughout the ride I'd felt how well Riggs could move her body, particularly her front feet.  So I did some of the face-the-wall exercise.

I think Riggs is the easiest horse I've found to do that on so far.  Moving her front feet was so easy!  I've always struggled with that part of the exercise, but it was so perfect on her *chef's kiss*

I did find that if I wasn't careful, she'd start backing up on me.  It wasn't her fault, I can tell she was / is being ridden by my trainer.  If I leaned to far forward, it'd block her in front and so she'd assume I was asking her to go back.  This is the proper way to ask for a horse to back up, but I'm not used to a horse knowing that so well!  She also halted nicely, and with that I ended the ride.  

Overall, I had a great time on Riggs and hope I get to ride her again.  My trainer also adores her, and wishes she could buy her.  She's as sweet as the strawberry color of her coat.  

Actual lesson 3/7/2022

Update:  By the way, the work I did in exchange for riding Riggs was cleaning out and organizing the tack room of my trainer's trailer, as she was going to a clinic this weekend.  Plus I helped her unload some panels.  And feed sacks.  Always the feed sacks.