So, this lesson was pretty much all about long reins.  I don't think I ever had a time where I really held a solid contact with Mariah.  

Only Vivie came, and she rode Cordell.  We rode in the indoor arena, and it was kinda nice that it was just the two of us because my trainer could focus on each of us more.  But I did miss the others...

Anyhow, after I mounted up, I walked Mariah around on a long rein and asked for some poll flexion.  She was pretty good about that.  My trainer asked me what I thought Mariah might need to work on, and I said relaxing / becoming more supple.  So then my trainer asked me what I would do if my trainer wasn't there.  This wasn't too hard for me to answer, I hadn't done any circles yet on Mariah, so I said I'd do that.

My trainer seemed to agree, and she said to do that, but on a long rein.  She then had me and Vivie come into the center of the arena to watch her demonstrate on the colt she was riding.

What she was showing was how to use our bodies in conjunction with these long reins to steer.  We could keep a mild, soft contact with the longer reins.  But we had to use our bodies in conjunction to guide the horse.  For example, as we picked up the inside rein, we also had to move our inside shoulder blade back and turn our pelvis.  We had to use our hands / reins with our bodies, our bodies had to be the reason the reins came into play.  For example, you could ask a horse to turn with the reins by turning their head, but it was when we turned our bodies that the horse would actually turned.  It's like using the reins was typing out what we wanted them to do and using our bodies was pressing 'enter' into the search engine to make it go through.  

It's kinda tricky to describe.  But anyhow, my trainer told me to go to the circle of poles and pick a pole to make a small circle over with long reins.  The goal was for Mariah to stand herself up, bend like she should, and step over the pole with her inside leg first.  

I was confused at first on what my trainer wanted, but we got it cleared up and then we began the exercise.  Mariah was good at this.  I'd almost say she had an easier time than me, because I was having to figure out how to use my body to steer her.  Half the battle is figuring out where and when to place your body to steer the horse.  But when you get it right, it feels really right.  The long reins force you to use your body.  

Whenever Mariah stepped over the pole like she should once or twice, then I would let her walk straight off the circle.  This was important because it rewarded her and because she would only stay straight for so many circles.  If we drilled, things would go downhill.

That went pretty well overall, and my trainer told me to pick up a rising trot on a long rein and go around the circle of poles.  Again, the goal being that she stood herself up, and that I was using my body to steer.

We did three rounds of this.  The first round was pretty short and went alright.  My trainer said it was alright if she fell in and missed the poles, what was not okay was if she pushed to the outside.  Which, for whatever reason, she had a tendency to do whenever we got on the part of the circle by the mounting block, and she'd make more of a corner there than keeping the bend like she should.

When she stood herself up as she should, we let her walk and come off the circle.  Well, actually, my trainer said something like "Come off the circle and let her walk" or something like that.  I sat and we just came down to the walk without me using the reins.  I knew I could use them if I had to, and I think that helped me mentally to relax down into the walk.  Mariah was completely fine with it.  My trainer was like, "Uh, I didn't actually mean to come to the walk."  So I guess she misspoke, or I misheard, but because I'd gotten the walk so nicely, it hadn't jacked with Mariah and my trainer was happy with it. 

We walked along for a bit, and then it was time to try it again, going the same direction.  I am around the mounting block and to the pole, and my trainer said the way I'd done that was clever.  I'm not sure how it was, but the reason I did it was it seemed like a good way to get on the circle for us.  So, that was good 👍

This time we worked more on not letting her go out on that one quadrant of the circle.  After some tries, I got her to come in more than she needed, but it was the way it should be, and then we went through the quadrant without her trying to drift, if I remember right.  So again we came to walk and off the circle, and again we had a lovely transition to walk.

Then my trainer upped the game even more.  For this last round of trotting, she said I was going to have reins even longer than what I'd had.

This round, I didn't get on the circle very well to begin with, which I think messed with us.  When I went to move off and pick up the trot on a long rein, Mariah and I had some miscommunication.  She got squiggly and I should've stopped, reset, something.  But I pushed on to the trot, and it was a faster trot than what we'd had previously.  My trainer didn't comment on it, but I know I could've done better.

Anyhow, that didn't set us up nicely for this and I think messed with both of us.  The main struggle we had was that quadrant she wanted to drift out on.  I would try to use that inside rein, but it wasn't doing much good.  I had to mess with my body to try to figure out how to get her where she should be, and it was a struggle.  We got on a circle where we going over two of the poles and missing the other two. But when Mariah conformed herself to my body, things got better, and my trainer had me take it out to the rest of the circle.  That wasn't easy to do, but we made it, if I remember right.  And then we called it a day on that.  

After coming to walk and going around for a bit, we halted and my trainer talked with Vivie and I a bit before the end of the lesson.  She said what we were learning to do was rolling the barrel of the horse from side to side.  And that was it for the lesson.

So overall, it was mainly working on using our bodies for steering, and it was a slower lesson focused on the detailed work.  But I like lessons like those, and it was fun with Mariah because she's so sensitive to weight aids and so nimble.  It's something I really want to get better at, because when you get it right, it's so handy and it feels so cool.  It also plays into jumping and pretty much anything you do on a horse.  Being independent of the reins is part of working a horse from back to front. 

My trainer also said after the lesson that, if you can hold a shape in your body, the horse will come to it.  It's about as close to a rule in horse training as you can get.  If you can hold a shape with your body, the horse will eventually get tired of bracing and conform to the shape of your body.  You've just got to hold it until they've reached that point.  And of course, with a well trained horse, they will automatically conform to your body.  

So, overall, a pretty interesting lesson on Mariah, and once again, a testimony as to how far she's come, that I can trot around on her with reins so long!  

Actual lesson 11/7/2023