Well, I got to ride Cordell again for this lesson, and work on some things that I learned last time.  James got to ride Riggs instead.  Vivie was also there, and she was on Romeo.  Lastly, my Friend was there as well, so I basically had all the people I knew fairly well in the same lesson together.  Friend rode Mariah. 

I actually got to do groundwork with Rugar for an hour or so before the riding lesson.  See, for how many ever months now, my trainer has been giving a groundwork lesson to Vivie and James before they had their lesson.  Usually, during that time I'm doing whatever work my trainer  assigns to me.  But today, I got to do some groundwork with them.

I was mostly left to my own devices with Rugar.  Despite him having been at my trainer's for three or more years, I've only ground-worked him once before, and have never ridden him.  I don't know why, other than I guess it's just never worked out?  But I like him. 

With the ground work, he was really attentive to the rope.  How he responded was nice.  But, especially in the beginning, it was like he wasn't there with me, wasn't 'with me' mentally.  Oh sure, he was responding to my requests pretty well, but I could just see in his face that his attention, his mind, was elsewhere.  Normally, if a horse is like that, their responses are slow and sloppy.  But Rugar was still responding well to me, only I could clearly see his mind was elsewhere.

My trainer later told me that this was due to bad lunging in his previous life.  He was basically lunged around and around and around, without anything else being done.  Thus, he learned how to do things on 'auto-pilot' if you will, and be able to pay attention to other things while still doing what was required of him.

In particular, his attention was drawn to the northeast corner of the arena, where the pigeons were...  Doing scary pigeon stuff, I guess.  He didn't ever really spook at them, but every time he'd come through that corner his attention would switch to it.

I worked him with that awhile, and his attention got a little better.  But not as good as I wanted it.  So I took him over and away from the pigeon corner and really focused on having him do things in quick succession and random order.

This helped him focus more on me.  It was then that my trainer asked me what I thought of him.  I told her about his attention problem, and she told me about the bad lunging.  Then she gave me two things to work on for this last little bit of the session.

The first was getting him straight in his body by moving his hindquarters.  The second was getting more of his attention.  To do that, she wanted me to just take the rope in both my hands, grip it firmly, and turn to march away.  If Rugar wasn't paying enough attention, this would force him to yank it back to me.  But, on the other hand, if he was and adeptly adjusted to follow after me without hitting the end of the lead rope, then that was a good time to stop and take a break as a reward.

I could've worked more on the straightening part, but I honestly wasn't quite sure what my trainer meant by it.  On the other hand, I think I got his attention pretty well.  We went back to the pigeon corner and he focused on me more.

Near the end, I was moving his hindquarters, and my trainer told me I was moving my feet too much.  I was chasing after him too much.  When I stopped moving my feet so much and swung the lead rope more instead, I instantly saw how that put him more straight.

My trainer explained that if we just chased after their hindquarters on foot, all they'd end up doing was over-bending their head, not straightening up in their body.  It's alright if we have to move a little bit, but we shouldn't be chasing them so much. 

Anyhow, after that, she told me to tie Rugar on the hitching rail, then go and get my tack while she went to fetch Cordell for me.  

Tacking up Cordell was not as much of a hassle as it'd been last time.  For one thing, I chose to just use the inflatable pad without a saddle pad, and for another, it wasn't windy.  

I was the last one to mount.  We were all riding the indoor arena, and that can get pretty hectic with four horses.  Fortunately we never had a close run-in like I did with Vivie last week, but a lot of the time we were uncertain as to who was going to come to the inside and who wasn't! 

I also had problems with my stirrups.  I mounted, and one was shorter than the other.  So I got down and lengthened the one stirrup and shortened the other one.  When I got back on, it had switched so that the one that'd been long was now short and the one that was short was now long!  I decided to call it good and do the best I could, as I really didn't see a way to get them even.  And we made it alright.

I walked around for a bit, then my trainer told me I could start gaiting him, but if I wanted, I could also do some halts first to check to see how much he was leaning on the rein.  I did some halts, and he wasn't leaning badly at all, so we went onto gaiting.

I was really intentional about putting into practice what my trainer had told me last week about how to sit on him.  Because I started on this right away, it was easy for me.  Sure enough, I could feel just how much better it was to sit this way.  I felt rooted down into the saddle, in a way that I'd rarely felt when riding Cordell.  My trainer also pointed out how much control it gave me over him.

Of course, it was tricky to keep this up for awhile, and near the end I wasn't doing so well.  Partly because I was trying to keep a good running walk tempo and also not run into anyone.  So I was flustered.  But my trainer didn't seem to mind, she told me to come into the middle and take a break with Vivie.

Meanwhile, Friend and James stayed on the rail.  Friend was working on posting without lifting her hands up too much and thus yanking Mariah in the mouth.  My trainer wanted her to maintain a steady contact with her hand.  James was working on sitting trot.  He's ridden Cordell a lot, so he's kinda having to relearn what it feels like to sit the trot.

Both of them did well at this.  After that, Vivie was put to work on a trotting circle while trying to get Romeo to give to the bit and offer some connection.  I can remember what it felt like when I was finally taught how to do that, it felt so cool.  Vivie did well at that.

Meanwhile, I was told to canter Cordell around when James was done with trotting.  Apparently, the reason that Cordell can feel so smooth and flat when cantering is because he won't keep the suspension.  He won't lift so high in the air, won't take his feet off the ground.  In fact, he'll break the moment of suspension by quickly touching down with on of his feet (I didn't catch which one he does that with).  So, especially going through the corners, I was to urge him to keep up that suspension by pushing him onward.

This was definitely the best part of the ride.  I had the rail all to myself, so I didn't have to worry about passing anyone.  Cordell picked up the canter well when I asked him. 

My trainer helped me out more in the beginning to feel when he was starting to loose the suspension.  I figured out that the bumpier his canter feels, the more suspension he has.  It honestly feels like a weird canter, but hey, whatever works.  Thus, when his canter was starting to smooth out, that meant he was loosing the suspension and I would urge him onward.

We cantered both directions for about three to four laps with a walk break in between.  

My trainer said she could tell that as the cantering went on, I was catching on quicker to when Cordell was loosing the suspension and thus catching him before his canter got nasty.  I guess I was sitting it alright because she didn't say anything to me about that.  

That was my good part of the ride, I don't think it could've gone much better.  I walked Cordell out for a bit afterwards, and the cherry on top was the way he stretched down and lifted up his back!  That felt good.  We came to the center of the arena and halted.

Afterwards, James tried cantering Riggs, and he actually got her up into the canter, which is pretty good!  Friend also cantered around on Mariah and looked amazing.  It was a good, slow canter, and Friend was sitting it really well, while maintaining a steady contact with Mariah that wasn't jouncing the mare's mouth. 

So we all had good rides, doing good work, and were in a good mood when it was done.  My trainer was pleased with all of us.  She had me get off Cordell after the cantering and walking out, so we didn't do anything else, but that's alright.  

Oh, and did I mention the weather was so nice compared the last two times I've taken a lesson?  So yeah, it was definitely a great lesson.

I don't know if I'll ride Cordell after this, but it was good to be on him again.  James said he felt like Cordell was looking over at him as if to say "Hey, why aren't you riding me?"  XD 

Actual lesson 3/7/2023