So, I again had to miss the lesson from the week before because of weather.  And I honestly thought I was going to miss it again, but for the first two hours was pretty decent and we snuck in our ride.

Both James and Vivie came for the lesson.  Vivie was on Romeo and James on Cordell.  My trainer seemed to debate for a bit about which horse I would ride, before telling me to catch Mariah for myself.  We rode in the indoor arena, where we could get out of the wind sometimes.  

I've been riding Riggs for the last two lessons and I think that affected this ride.  It's was kinda weird, because I haven't ridden Mariah for more than a month.  But, on the other hand, she's the horse I've probably ridden the most in the last year.  So I went into this ride thinking that we'd get along fine.

Which, for the most part we did.  But I should've been more on my guard and more careful about how I was riding.  I struggled with crookedness for a lot of the ride, and found that I was doing an old habit.  For some reason (I first discovered this on Shorty) I will twist my left hip up and to the side, so that I literally am not putting as much weight on it as I am on my other seat bone.  Don't ask me why, but I'll tell you that sure does not lend itself to straightness.  I haven't done that in awhile, but for some reason I did it during this ride at some points.

In general, I think throughout the ride I could've been more assertive and less timid.  I gave up on some things too easily and got tense too quickly, letting some old habits sneak up on me because it'd been so long since I'd ridden Mariah.  The ride still went well, but I think it could've gone better, know what I mean?

Anyhow, I was the last one to mount. I managed to get my stirrups to the perfect length, so that was nice.  

My trainer didn't give me anything to do, so for a little while I walked around the outside of the arena.  But that didn't last long.  She told me to pick up a rising trot.  The way she was describing what I was to do when I picked up the trot made it sound like I was supposed to be doing trot transitions?  But she didn't directly say that I was to be doing transitions, just told me to pick up a trot.

Anyhow, what she told me about picking up the rising trot was to continue doing what Vivie had been doing when she was riding Mariah.  See, when we ask Mariah to pick up a canter or a trot, she'll do it, but she likes to pin her ears back and let you know she is not happy about it.  So, if she does that, we're to keep our our leg on her until she unpins her ears at least slightly.  Not increase our leg pressure, but just keep the same amount of pressure on her until she gets un-grumpified.  

This is something that we need to do with Mariah, so much so that it takes precedence over other things we might be doing.  If we're asking for trot, and end up in canter, that's fine.  Just so long as we don't let off 

I think I could have been more diligent and on my game about this.  However, I was more diligent about making sure that we were going into the corners, and that she was not crooked.  Not being crooked was more a challenge than it should've been because of my own crooked tendencies.  She'd get huffy about me putting my inside leg on sometimes, but I wouldn't back off and I think we did good at this for the most part.

After I picked up the trot the first time, I just trotted several laps around because my trainer hadn't told me to do transitions.  But then, I figured that I might as well start doing some.  So we did some of those and I think they went well.  Again, I think I could've been more diligent in keeping my leg on until she wasn't grumpy.

 Anyhow, after that, we took a bit of a break with Vivie.  James was gaiting Cordell around the circle of poles and doing a good job for the most part.  Honestly, he was probably doing better than I would, because I haven't ridden Cordell's gaiting in so long...  He did get a bit confused at one point, but finished up good.

Then it was time for Vivie and I to do some cantering.  The same principle in the canter transition as in the trot transition was to be applied.  My trainer said I may have to get into two-point for a bit.  At first, I didn't quite understand why she said that, but now I know it was to ride out a fast canter until Mariah unpinned her ears if needed.

I also could've done better in the canter in general.  Honestly, my memory is a bit of a blur at this point so...  I do know that I could've probably done the transitions better and been more persistent about keeping my leg on.  

At one point, I came between Vivie & Romeo and the fence, which is a no-no at my trainer's, you can't pass someone that way.  And actually, that might the first time I've done that.  There are things that have been drilled into me that you do not do, but that has not been one of them, I guess because I've never attempted it before?  Yeah, that was a bit confusing but I won't do it again.

One of my bigger struggles was sitting the canter.  Somehow, it never occurred to me that I could actually, you know, slow Mariah down and make things easier until my trainer told me to.  Once she did, it clicked in my brain that yes,  I could slow this horse down.  And when I did ask Mariah to slow down, she didn't fight me at all on it.

One of my problems with sitting came from the fact that I was bracing against the stirrups because of some tenseness.  So relaxing and slowing Mariah down helped with that.  But also, I found, once again, that advancing my inside hip to complement Mariah's canter footfall really made a lot of difference.  You simply can't sit the canter like you sit the trot or the walk, with both hips facing forward and even, it just doesn't work because the foot fall pattern is different.

My trainer had me canter three times because of how I struggled with this, and on the last round I was sitting the way she wanted me to, so we came down to walk and took another break.  Vivie had been taking a break while I was on my third canter around, and so my trainer told her to pick up a canter on Romeo.  

Specifically, she wanted Vivie to feel of Romeo, to see if he felt more up-and-down bouncy, or was going forward as he should.  Romeo can be really bouncy if you don't push him out of it by making him go forward; the ideal is that he feel equal parts of going up and down and going forward.  Once Vivie felt that from him, she could bring him to do a large circle.

Vivie did well, and honestly, her and Romeo look so cute together <3 

After James had finished up with the circle of poles, it was time for me and Mariah to do more work on those raised poles  on the circle.  Before we'd cantered, my trainer had told me that this was what we were going to be doing next.  She said that she wanted me to work on this with Mariah while I was riding her, because I was 'handy enough' to handle her if she started doing something.  That in itself is a  compliment to me, that my trainer can use me to help a horse.

Going around the raised poles this time was a lot better than the first time I did it.  One pole was raised with blocks, but the other pole only had one block to raise it, so it was slanted toward the middle of the circle.  Last time, my trainer had used the mounting block to raise the other end of it, but this time she chose to leave it slanted.  I wondered if it would tempt Mariah and me to cut in to the inside, but this wasn't a problem in either direction.

I started off in posting trot going clockwise, and we did well.  Mariah just stepped over them, and for the most part I just kept on posting as she did.  So then my trainer told me to get up into two point.  Despite this change, Mariah didn't speed up too much or try jumping the raised poles.  Actually, our main thing was that I was letting her slide too much to the inside at one of the raised poles.  To counter this, my trainer told me to put more weight down into my outside stirrup. 

And yeah, that went good.  I did have to hold the two-point for awhile, but we made it. 

Going the other direction, I again started off in rising trot, but didn't stay in it for very long.  My trainer had me get into two point again, but she told me to go ahead and go back to rising trot if Mariah did good with that for a little while.  So I spent longer in rising trot going that direction.  

The pole on the east side both Mariah and I struggled to get in the center of.  It was right after a raised pole, and it was when we went over that raised pole, both her and I became unbent.  Then we would slide drastically inward on the circle.  I don't think we ever missed that pole, but it was hard to get her in the center of it. 

So we worked on that for awhile.  My trainer actually didn't say anything about it, but I knew she would if I didn't work on it.  We did better near the end, though I do think that I should've made one last attempt before ending it.  We'd gone over the raised pole weirdly, though I think we did get in the middle of that tricky pole, but I think I should've made another attempt so as to end on going over the raised pole better. 

After that I walked her out for a bit, and she did offer some lovely stretching.  When I went to halt her to get off, I almost got her to halt off of my seat.  Almost.  But then I had to use my hands.  So I asked her to back up a bit before ending the ride.  

Overall, it was a good ride, though I think I could've been more assertive and not let my tenseness get to me.  But regardless, it was good to be in the saddle.

Actual lesson 2/21/2023