Yes, I'm going to be riding Amara a lot, and no, I don't mind. 

This time, there was only Vivie and James for the lesson.  Vivie was on Mariah, and James was on Cordell.  You know who it is that I was riding.  We rode in the indoor arena, but before that, we did some groundwork.

Normally, I work during the hour that Vivie, James, and whoever else does groundwork with my trainer.  But today my trainer had me groom off and work Amara along with the others, which was really nice, and I think it made a difference in the ride later.

I figured out in the groundwork session that Amara tends to be really unsure.  She's always asking 'are you sure you want me to do this?' which lends itself to that sudden halting thing she does.  However, you can't just strike out at her for it, and be like, 'quit that', or she freaks out.  Instead, I had to not do that, but at the same time be firm and sure in my own requests.  Her reactiveness could make me handle her like a fragile piece of glass, which only makes her more unsure.  I needed to not be afraid to say, firmly, 'yes, this is what I want.' 

My trainer wanted me to watch her and think about how it would feel for me to ride a movement if I was on her back.  If she gave me a movement that I thought would be nice to ride, that'd be a good time to reward her.  Groundwork is all about preparation for riding.  Thus, I wanted to try to get that halting, reluctant-to-go-forward quirk out of her if I could.

I started off with circles, then did some crossing of the hindlegs, then some changes of direction.  After that, she was going around me in a fairly nice rhythm around the circle. Normally, my trainer said, this was a horse where she wouldn't let her go one circle without making her do something.  But, if she was maintaining a good pace and making a nice circle, that was fine.

She asked me a question about her, if I'd noticed something (I can't remember the exact question).  I told her that I noticed she would like to come in with her inside shoulder towards me.  My trainer agreed, and told me it was because her hindquarters were out-running her front end that she was doing that, if I remember right.  My solution to correct this had been to push her forward and away from me, which my trainer said was what I needed to do. 

After that, we went to doing some walk trot transitions.  My trainer wanted to see them get smooth, and for her to maintain her own pace on the circle.  Then she told me after that we'd work on having her go over a pole.

We worked for awhile on the transitions.  The transitions were good, but I don't feel she was maintaining a steady enough pace.  I probably should've worked on that more.  Her main thing was that she would slow or come to the walk when passing by a pole from one of the circle of poles.  I wonder if I was having her go too close to that pole and making her wonder if she was to step over it or not.  If so, that was my fault.

The ravens are trying to build a nest up in my trainer's arena, but the place they've chosen is not big enough for them.  Thus, the sticks (and they are pretty good sized sticks) have fallen down in a pile at the edge of the arena.  My trainer doesn't mind that they're building, in fact I almost feel she's encouraging it!  

Anyhow, after that, it was time to do some work with a pole. Now, I've done the exercise where you try to get a horse to step over the pole with it's outside or inside foot first while riding.  But, I've never attempted it on the ground.  

My trainer demonstrated it using Rugar, whom she was ground-working as well.  It was just by using a single pole instead of the whole circle.  My trainer stood a little ways from the end of the pole and would let the horse go around in a circle over the pole.  She told me I was to do some 'fact finding' circles to see whether Amara preferred stepping over the pole with her inside or outside leg.  If it was the outside, we'd work on getting her step over the pole with the inside, and vice versa if it was the inside.  Now, if Amara showed no marked preference, that wasn't really good, but it wasn't really bad either, it just meant she had no preferred bend and was fairly straight up and down in her body.

To get a horse to step over with the outside foot first, you put them in a sort of leg yield so their outside shoulder comes to the pole first and it is easier for them to use that outside leg.  They'd have to work harder to use the preferred inside leg.

To get them to step over with the inside leg first is harder for me at least.  It's still like a leg yield, but you create room for the inside shoulder to come in by raising your hand with the part of the rope connected to the knot under the horse's chin high.  And when I say high, I mean high.  Above my head high.  It invites the horse to step into that space with the inside front foot. 

So, my trainer left me to my own devices for awhile, as she was focused on helping Vivie with something.  It helped me to know that Amara had done this exercise before, so she would catch onto what I was asking and I wasn't having to teach her anything new.

Going to the left, or counter-clockwise, she really showed no tendency towards one foot or the other.  Going to the right, or clock-wise, she showed a subtle tendency towards using her outside foot first.  But it was subtle, I had to do several circles before I picked up on it for sure. 

So, not knowing whether to start with the outside or inside foot, I chose to do the outside foot both directions.  It's easier for me to do the outside foot, and I was more familiar with it.  Amara was good, she didn't resist me very much at all and it wasn't hard to get her to do it.  I tried to reward her when she did.  I got her to step over the pole with her outside foot three times each direction.

Then I switched to the inside foot.  This was a little trickier, but honestly, I didn't struggle too badly with it.  Neither did Amara.  Again, I got her to step over the pole three times with her inside foot each direction.

I finished up with that, and my trainer, at about the same time, finished up with Vivie.  She then asked me about what I'd observed.  I told her what I had observed, and she said I was right.  She also said that you could feel her tendency to want to step over with the outside foot going to the right when riding her.  

She had me ask her to step over with the inside foot going to the right one more time, and gave me some pointers on it.  She had me lift my hand higher up.  It sounds odd, but that's what it takes to get the correct bend.

We got it, and then went to tack up to ride.  By this time, Amara's halting, unsure tendency had been greatly reduced.  And it carried over into the ride, which was so nice.

Last time, Amara had shown that she might be starting to swivel her hindquarters away from the mounting block.  I don't like dealing with that, but this time I determined to face up to it if I had to, knowing that if I didn't I'd probably get yelled at by my trainer.   She will not have a horse acting like that.  

Sure enough, when I led her up to the mounting block, she stepped her hindquarters away from it.  But I was ready with my reins.  I tugged on them with one hand, and was ready to use the other hand with the slack of the reins, and was able to guide her back over to the right spot.  She tried to swivel away again, but not as badly, so if I remember right I just shifted the mounting block.  She stood still for me to mount, and that was it.  But I know I must be on my guard against it. 

I don't think I even walked one lap around the arena.  About as soon as I was in the saddle, my trainer told me to go onto the circle of poles.  The goal while going around the circle was to hopefully be able to let her have a longer rein.

So we went around the poles in both directions for a little while, and I was able to safely give her more rein.  Then my trainer told me that when I was ready, I could take her up into trot around the circle.  I was to expect a lot of bumping of the poles in the beginning as she tried to find her balance.  The goal was the same, to be able to give her a longer rein. 

Going around the poles in  trot to the right, or clockwise, wasn't too bad.  But you had to constantly be busy with her.  Always, you had to be ready to bring her in or out, to bend her as she tried to straighten.  It's an exercise I've done so many times, but with a green horse it presents a challenge.

Going to the left, or counter-clockwise, I felt we were doing pretty good, and we were.  I knew in the back of my head that I was probably using the inside rein too much and the outside one too little.  But I didn't realize that I was holding Amara up.  I mean, when you think of holding a horse up, you think of having to lean back against them, or them putting an uncomfortable amount of weight in your hand.  I had a steady, but fairly light contact with the inside rein, so I didn't think I was holding her up.

It wasn't until my trainer told me to push my inside hand out and away, and let that rein go looser that I realized I had been holding her up.  All of the sudden, Amara was having to find her balance again and knocking the poles. She did find it again, but it was so interesting.  I'd been holding her up without even knowing it. 

We took a break, and then it was time to do some cantering.  I was determined that this time I was  going to be really careful to not mess it up for Amara.  Remembering from last time, I made sure she was straight when I asked her for the canter. 

This was the first time I've rode her canter without any mishaps.  I think I did three transitions on her, two going one direction and one going the other.  I can't remember which direction I went first...

The transitions were fast, but not too bad.  Her canter was definitely fast, but I put my inside leg forward and one thought that I had as I was cantering was "I'm actually sitting the canter!" Really, I think putting my inside leg marginally forward is really helpful when it comes to sitting the canter.  It puts you in line with the horse's footfall pattern.

For the first transition, we didn't canter very long.  I can't remember exactly why, but we accidently came back down to the trot. I kept the trot and asked the canter again, which was our second transition.  We cantered longer for this one.

After that, we took a walk break and my trainer asked me if I wanted to canter her again.  I said I would, and so we did.  Again, we didn't canter for very long.  We actually started to come near to where Mariah was, and my trainer had me shut it down before she might've tried dive-bombing to Mariah again.  (Remember the lesson the week before?) 

After I brought her down, she tried again to head Mariah's way, and again I had to just firmly but nicely tell her that no, we weren't going that way.  Again, she didn't fight me too hard. 

I realized, not during the lesson but before it, that for some reason I'd had this concept in the back of my mind that because Amara is not an advanced horse, and doesn't know much, that therefore I don't have to ride like she is.  Like, I don't have to be so careful about some things.  But that's not true.  I actually have to be more careful.  She's a completely blank canvas.  Except for her sudden halting problem, she has no bad quirks that I have to deal with.  So I have to be careful that what I'm teaching her is good.  I need to mind my p's and q's, make sure I dot my I's and cross my T's.  It's because I didn't those first two rides that I got myself into those run-away situations.  

My trainer said that I'd made riding Amara look easy, but that I was busy up there making it look easy.  (Such a nice compliment from her.) That's true.  It's not easy to maintain a circle shape on a green horse that's learning how to balance.  

On the circle, I had to stay in my circle shape, and then she had to learn how to bend to balance underneath that.  My trainer said that those four poles on that circle have done more for her than any other training device, because it gives the horse a reason to change their balance.  That reason isn't the rider, so they can't fight you about it, and they adjust because knocking poles isn't fun.

So, it was a good lesson.  I'm going to be doing a lot of basic work with Amara, but I can't afford to treat it like it's not important or doesn't deserve my full attention.  

Actual lesson 4/25/2023