So, for this lesson, I got to ride Rugar instead of Cordell.  Only Friend really had a lesson with me, Vivie didn't come and James came late, so it was really only Friend with me for most of the lesson.  Friend was on Mariah, and James ended up riding Cordell.

After mounting up, Rugar showed himself to be calm and willing to maintain a nice contact with me.  I walked around on a longer rein and did some circles, then my trainer told me to start shortening my reins and seeing if he would maintain that nice contact while bring his head up. 

 She told me to raise my hands first, before I shortened the reins, from my elbow and to keep them raised above his withers.  Then, after that, I could shorten the reins.  It was interesting how he would follow my hands and then I could shorten the reins to make the contact shorter.  

So I went around in a shorter, higher contact like that for awhile and he did good.  Before he got tired or something, I decided to let him stretch out on a longer rein.  That went good too, and my trainer said that I could shorten up the frame again and go up into rising trot when I was ready.  She said she liked to see me lengthening and shortening the frame.

So I shortened the frame again, and then we picked up a nice rising trot.  Despite Rugar's trot being bigger / having more suspension than I'm used to, I was able to keep my feet underneath me and control my posting.

We did some circles, and my trainer reminded me to push him through on one of them when he was slowing down.  Then she had me let out the reins, to see if he would either support himself or stretch out.  He didn't stretch out, but he supported himself and the trot didn't change much from when the reins were short, so that was cool.  My trainer told me for him to stretch, he'd have to have times with no contact.

We put him on a circle to see if that would encourage him to stretch out, but he just kept the nice trot, so we brought him down to walk, still pleased with him because he'd had an nice trot.  Once we were in walk, he did stretch out, and my trainer told me to let him have the reins to the buckle and walk him around for a bit.

So that's what I did, and then it was time do some jumping.

I wish I could do a better job of recording the jumping I do in a orderly fashion, but when we do rounds of it, it tends to blur together in my brain, especially when we do the same course over and over like we did today.

Rugar and I's course was to go over the telephone poles going northeast, then make a turn to the right to make the line to the log standard jump.  And that was it.  I wasn't sure where to go afterwards to get back to the telephone poles to go again, but I figured it out after I'd jumped it and it wasn't that big a deal.

The first round we did all in trot, though Rugar broke to the canter after the first jump.  But I brought him down to trot and we went to the long standard jump.  That went good for the first round.  

Then my trainer told me that this second round, we were looking for him to pick up and keep the canter after the first jump this time.  Sure enough, we got the canter, and my trainer told me to shorten my reins.  She actually said this a lot to me during the jumping, haha.

So I shortened them, and we made it to the second jump in canter.  I can't remember if it was this round or another one, but this jump he decided to add in a stride.  I didn't realize that's what he did until my trainer said it, but she was like "Aren't you glad you decided to wait?"  If I hadn't stayed back and waited, she said I could've likely fallen off when he did that, but I stayed back and that saved me.

I took a break while it was Friend's turn, and then it was my turn again.  We did at least three rounds this time, I think.

This round, my trainer got onto me about having short reins and not letting him speed up on the approach to the jump.  I think it was the first jump we did, and I let him speed up on the way to it, and my trainer was like, "Stop!  Stop him!"  So I sat up and it took some pulling, but I got him to a stop and even backed him up.

She told me that I needed to have short reins and that if I let him do that, it was going to snowball and things would just get faster.  I could not let him do that.  Then, as I was starting off, Rugar was tense, and she told me to get my heels out of him.  My foot had gone far enough forward in the stirrup that I couldn't hardly do that, so I had to readjust.  The moment I did and my heels went down farther, he relaxed.  So I kept that in mind too.

So, we came back and did the first jump again, and this time thing went better.  I had to learn that I could half halt, and to half halt, on the way to the jump to keep him from speeding up too much.

I think we went over the log standard jump two times (I think) on course, and each time he took it long, generally speaking.  It unseated me on the last time and I landed on his withers and he was not happy about it.  He tossed his head and put it down, but I was able to sit up and keep from coming off.  I circled, brought him back, and then my trainer said to do the log standard again but in trot.

So I came to it in trot, using half halts, and this time was better for both of us.  My trainer later said that when he'd said "I'm going to take it long" (taking it long means he leaves the ground sooner than he should and thus has to make a bigger leap to get over the jump), I had said "Okay, I'm going to take it long to, hope this turns out, hail mary!"  and thus ended up landing on his withers, which had made him be like "I need to get this off me!"  But  I had sat up and things had been better.

Instead of taking it long with him,  I needed to stay back / say to him, "Okay, I'm just going to stay up here in my two point and let you do your thing."  

What I'm struggling with, too, is how to let the horse move me and just stay in my two point.  I don't have to move, the horse can move me and my two point can bend / fold to move with them.  So, I'm still just having to figure that out.

It's different, too, being able to interfere with a horse on the way to a jump.  Usually, I've been told not to do that, to let the horse do what it needs to do.  But now, I need to 'interfere', otherwise things will snowball into a place I don't want them to go, at least on Rugar.

After that, I walked Rugar out on a long rein for awhile to cool him out from all that cantering, and then dismounted.

Overall, a good lesson, just one where you have to fiddle around with new things and figure out what's right and what's not.  Rugar was a good boy overall, and I do like him.  He's a lot of horse, but I want to learn how to ride horses that are like him because it can be fun and awesome when you get the hang of it.

Actual lesson 1/30/2024