This is my fourth time riding Amara, and I'm already seeing a change in her in just the month that I've ridden her.  

Again, I got to groundwork her before the ride.  But I didn't work her the entire session.  My trainer and I 'tag-teamed' it, as my trainer had two things she wanted to work on with her.

I warmed her up first.  I could already tell she'd improved from last month.  In the beginning of the groundwork, her rhythm was better, not so jerky and halting.  She still showed some of that characteristic unsureness, but we worked through that.

I did some circles, some yielding of the hindquarters, and changes of direction.  My trainer told me to keep doing the changes of direction, except more often, not letting more than a half circle go by in between them.  

I had been stepping towards her hindquarters to make sure she yielded them before doing the change of direction, which my trainer said was good, but now she wanted me to only take one or two steps before asking for the change.  That way she would take me seriously when I asked her to move her hindquarters, knowing that if she didn't, the change would be that much harder for her when I asked for it.

Sure enough, I did this and she picked up on it fairly quickly.  At the end, after yielding her hindquarters, I had her pause a moment before asking for the change to make sure she was listening to me and not anticipating.

Then, per my trainer's instruction, we moved to another part of the arena and did trot-walk transitions.  The goal was for them to be smooth, and for the most part they were.  She was better about this than the last time I worked her.  She sped up and slowed down whenever I asked her, instead of being too quick or too slow to react to my aids as she'd sometimes been last time.

After that, my trainer took her from me to work with her.  Amara is fine with one girth, like on an english saddle, but with a second cinch on a western saddle she isn't.  She tends to run backward into the pressure it creates, and that of course only makes things worse.  My trainer has been chipping away at this.

The saddle was put on her, and Amara knew that it was saddle with a back cinch on it.  She did try to squiggle around some, but stayed put when my trainer put her back in her place.  My trainer showed me something that she does when she is nervous.  Her eye will blink quickly, and it's as if that carries down her face in a twitch just above her lip. 

My trainer would pause during this whole saddling and cinching process to let her process things.  Just giving her time to work through it in her mind.  She said this is something that she should've done when breaking her in.

One time, when we waited for her to relax a little, it looked like she was nodding off, but then jerking herself awake repeatedly.  My trainer said she was working through something in her head, and that we would let her. 

When my trainer asked her to walk forward, she went forward, which was good for her, my trainer said.  Not once did she try running backwards, though she did try stepping to the side.  But my trainer had her between herself and the fence, so she couldn't do that.

After that, my trainer handed her off to me and had me work her until she was going as she had before the saddle had been put on her.  This didn't take too much.  I went through the same sequence of exercises, though I didn't try trotting her that I remember.

Then my trainer took her back again and worked with her on cantering on the circle.  She has trouble with it, she'll loose her balance.  She can more easily pick it up on the right lead than on the left lead, as a past injury to one of her hindlegs mentally hinders her from picking up that left lead.  

My trainer worked with her, and by the end of it, she was quite forward.  She picked up the right lead on her own when asked, but for the left lead she had to have the support of the fence or the corner to pick it up.

And that was it for the groundwork session.  To be honest, I didn't learn a whole lot from it, I just worked from what I know.  One thing I learned was to be patient with a horse who might need to work through something mentally.  To just give them a moment to process things can save a lot of work later on.  

We tacked up for the ride after that.  Only Vivie and James came for the lesson (they did the groundwork lesson with me too.) Vivie had Riggs and James had Cordell.

Amara, when you bring her up to the mounting block, will swing her hindquarters to the side.  But I don't think this is just a mounting block issue, because she'll also do it when you halt her somewhere else.  Not sure exactly why she'll do that, but she sometimes does.

I led her up to the mounting block and was able to put her in about the right position.  Then I could move the mounting block up alongside a bit, and she stayed put for me to mount.  So yeah, I don't think it's necessarily a mounting block issue, but I think it could get that way if we aren't careful.

Amara's walk was so different from when I first started riding her.  Instead of that terrible jerkiness, it was like Mariah's fast walk, or Lily's.  In fact, she would even burst into trot at some points without my asking.  I found myself bracing against the stirrups and getting tense at some points, and had to remind myself not to do that.

My trainer told me to walk around and do circles.  Not just in the corners, but in other places as well.  If she broke into trot, I was to use a smaller circle to help bring her back down to walk.  Also, as the goal has been in the past, I was to try to lengthen out the reins as much as I could, even if it felt a little crazy to do so at the moment.  Hopefully the circles would help soothe and calm down that fast walk without us actually having to check her.

My trainer told me that I was the one holding her to the walk.  That was like, a compliment to me in a way because I was holding her to the walk...  But I wasn't hanging on the reins to do it.  Still, my trainer didn't really want me doing that because Amara needs to learn to regulate her own pace, needs to learn self regulation.  

I did a lot of circles in both directions.  She was pretty good about it.  When I changed directions, she was a little squiggly and I corrected her without really thinking about it.  My trainer was fine with how I did it, except for one thing, she wanted me to left the rein up a little when I used it so Amara actually took a half step.  She told me this would keep her from becoming squiggly like Mariah.  

Also, on the circles, she told me again to make sure that I wasn't hanging on that inside rein.  I was to use it when I needed it and then release it.  That way she could learn how to hold the bend herself.  We want her to still be able to do things even if the reins aren't there telling her to.  

I feel like I could've done better at this, but I'm not sure.  Anyhow, we took this exercise up into the trot and did the same thing.  I had to be careful to not run into anyone.  But we made it alright, and she was good about it.  My trainer said she could trot as fast as she wanted, and if she broke to canter, then I was to just bring her back down.  I don't remember if she said to use a circle or not.  

Amara didn't try it, though her trot was fairly fast.  Again, this went good.  There's really not much to say about it.  I was always working at something with her, but it wasn't too hard, she was better about it.  Also, my trainer wanted me to lengthen my reins whenever I could, if I remember right.

It's just these basic exercises that she needs a lot of.  She needs them done well and consistently.  Really, the change in just this last month is obvious with her.

We took a break, and then it was time to do some cantering.  But my trainer decided to have us only canter to the left (which I just now realized is the side that she has a harder time picking up the canter on).  My trainer wanted me to see if I could keep the canter a little longer. 

I got a good trot going, then sat and asked for the canter while gripping a bit of mane.  Sure enough, she lurched up into the canter.  I honestly can't say anything about the quality of her canter because all the times I've cantered her it's just been fast.  I've been able to sit it, especially if I stick my inside leg just a bit forward to complement.  It's just a really fast canter right now.  I think she's kinda scared when she does it.  

I'm not sure that we made it a full lap around of cantering, but we did go a good ways before my trainer told me to bring her to down to the trot when she was ready.  I could feel her starting to be drawn towards the other horses and get crooked, so I brought her back down to walk before it spiraled while pushing her away from the other horses. 

This time, when I asked her to move away from them, she put up a little resistance but then yielded.  It almost surprised me.  

And that was pretty much it for the ride.  There were some walk breaks in between all that, and during some of them she stretched out and I felt her back come up for the first time!  It's always such a cool feeling to get from a horse.  It didn't last long, but it's still pretty cool.

After my lesson, I did do some work for my trainer, but she wanted me to take videos of three different horses as she worked with them.  It was pretty neat because I got to just stand and watch a lot of stuff that she did, both when I was filming and when I wasn't. 

The first one was a young, just broken bay gelding of good breeding.  My trainer didn't even put a bridle on him but rode him in a halter.  This is typical of horses started at my trainer's.  If the groundwork has been done right, the halter feels the same to them when you use it when riding as it did when you used it on the ground.  It's just that they can't see the human.  

My trainer was working with him on getting his front feet unstuck.  You could see how when she'd ask him to step his front foot to the side, just how stuck he was.  It felt wrong to him to use that foot to move to the inside.

Trainer said that he's a horse that isn't good about balancing underneath a rider yet and he's gets pretty concerned about that.  So she has to just work with him through that, giving him time to learn how to balance underneath her.

That was the main thing she worked on with him.  She was quiet but persistent in using bumps on the rope and taps with her leg & spur to encourage him to to step to the side.  When he did, she'd reward him for it by letting him walk out.  If she'd been rougher, they might have ended up in a fight, but she wasn't and he wasn't in the mood to pick one.  He did cow kick up at her spur sometimes, but it wasn't real powerful, more like a 'hey, stop that'.  As the ride went on, you could see that he got better at it and at knowing what she wanted.

Another thing she mentioned was that she believed this horse had been lunged in chambon with side reins.  She thinks this because this gelding has a tendency to curl up behind the vertical.

My trainer is not 100% opposed to a chambon or side reins, but she doesn't think they're necessary.  If you're a good rider training a young horse well, they will learn to give to the bit without a chambon and side reins.  Besides that, she explained, chambons are machines.  Meaning, if the horse gives to the bit in the wrong way, the chambon still 'rewards' that because they get away from the pressure of the bit.  The chambon will also reward them if they do it correctly, but the chambon can't tell the difference.  A rider can.

You could see how the horse would want to curl up, but for the most part he stayed relaxed and kept his nose out in front for this ride.

The next horse was an even younger bay gelding (who looked pretty similar to the other bay gelding) who hasn't even been ridden yet.  My trainer thinks he has something wacky going on his neck just behind his pole, and showed me just how little he was able to turn it from side to side.  He needs to be seen by a chiropractor, but she's done the best she can while training him.  

My trainer worked with him for awhile, I can't remember exactly on what...  She had to get onto him about some things, but it didn't take too long before he was going good.  She wanted to try standing in the stirrup on the side of the saddle, or perhaps even sitting in the saddle on him, but she couldn't do that because she usually brings their head around when she does that, and he couldn't do that with his wacky neck thing.  

Instead, she decided to see if she could bring him up next to the fence and mount him from there.  She went up on top of the fence.  He didn't like it very much at first, but she coaxed him up next to her and he got used to it.  

Then she started by patting the saddle and pressing down on it.  At first, he moved away, but she put him back in place.

After that, she started swinging her leg over him, and putting it on the other side, or rubbing his bum with the tip of her boot.  He was fine with this, so she started putting more weight on the saddle with her leg, and even slipping onto the saddle a little.

Finally, the moment came.  She gently slipped herself down into the saddle and let her full weight rest on him.  He didn't move, in fact he kinda froze, but he didn't act terribly scared.  The whole session, he'd never been very frightened.  

I won't lie, it was pretty cool to see a horse sat on for the first time.

My trainer didn't sit there long, just long enough for him to feel her full weight, before slipping out of the saddle and taking him away from the fence.  I expected her to let him go as a reward right there and then, but she worked him a little bit first.  The reason was that when you first sat on them, they tended to freeze up a bit, and when you went to work them next time they'd be sticky if you just ended the session right there.  So now she works them a little bit to 'unstick' them before being done.

My trainer said that before she started training, she used to think it was pretty awesome and amazing and astonishing to see a horse be broken in without any bucking or bolting or anything crazy.  But now that she's actually a trainer, and has done it, her attitude is more 'Oh yeah.  That's just the way it's supposed to go.'  It's the norm, not the exception, for her. 

And I know she's right.  But still, it was awesome to see! 

After that, I help film the first ride on that little cute blue roan paint filly.  My trainer worked with her for awhile to get her energy out.  She was definitely feeling full of it at some points.  But finally my trainer felt she was ready.

She stood in the stirrup on both sides first, which the filly was good about.  And then she slowly swung her leg over and sat down on her.  The filly was kinda 'stuck' there for a moment, like 'what do I do about this?' but she wasn't naughty at all, or scared.  

It didn't take her long to figure out what my trainer wanted.  Again, my trainer just used a halter to guide her.  She turned her some, and let her walk out when she wanted to.   It was a very quiet first ride, just as it should be.

And yeah, that's all I think I'm going to put down here.  Honestly, my trainer related so much information that it would take forever to record it, and to my chagrin, I realize that I've forgotten a lot of it.  But still, it was a pretty neat experience to watch her work with the baby horses.  She said that is what she does most days with them.  It's nothing spectacular, but it works.  It is effective without being overtly forceful or frightening to them.  And that is beautiful to see.

Actual lesson 5/2/2023