So, for this lesson I got to ride Twister, which I kinda wasn't expecting.  Nibbs was tied up there, and I was thinking it would be him.  But that's alright.

So who rode Nibbs instead?  Well, two girls showed up.  We were never introduced, and I never quite caught their names, although even if I had I'd make up other ones for them for privacy reasons.  One of them was wearing a dark pink helmet and the other a dark green one.  So, I'll call one Pink and the other Green, okay?

Pink got to ride Riggs, and Green rode Nibbs. Neither Pink nor Green had ridden Riggs or Nibbs before, so they were new horses to them.  

The two were very obviously extroverted.  They chit-chatted with my instructor while I was just over to the side, listening while I tacked up Twister.  They were fun, sweet girls and I definitely wouldn't mind riding with them again.  

Just as we were finishing tacking up, it started spitting rain.  Before, we had been going to head out to the outdoor arena, but now it looked like it could turn more serious.  (Where we live, storms comes up suddenly, dump a ton of rain on you in a few minutes, and leave.  This happened one time when I was riding Cordell, before my trainer had an indoor riding arena, so we had to take shelter in the tack shed.) 

I had just finished bridling Twister, and Pink & Green were just about to bridle their horses.  My trainer had them untie the horses and we headed into the indoor arena to take shelter under it.  

There, I checked my stirrups and girth on Twister while they finished bridling.   Trainer told me I could go ahead and mount from the ground if I wanted.  It quit spitting, but the threatening clouds never went away during the lesson, and so we stayed in the indoor arena. 

Twister was just short enough and my stirrup leather just long enough that I could barely reach it from the ground.  After three or four hops, I propelled myself up there.  He was good and stood perfectly still.  

I'm so used to riding smaller horses that Twister feels big.  See, Mariah, Nibbs, and Shorty are only a little more than 14 hh, I don't think any of them even reaches 15 hh.  

Anyhow, I gathered up my reins and put Twister in a walk.  Green had already mounted Nibbs, but Pink had to go get another girth for Riggs, the string girth was too big to be safe. 

My trainer didn't give me anything to do right away.  I tried to make sure Twister had a good walk, and started doing the circle in corner exercise. I focused on making sure that he was bent right.  

My trainer didn't seem to see any problems with this.  When she did speak to me, she said to pick up a rising trot and do the circle in each corner exercise.  

Now, if you'll remember, the last time I did this with Twister I really struggled.  But this time, while we still had problems, it was better.

There were two things my trainer wanted him to have:  a good trot and a good bend.  If he had a good trot, it'd help him have a good bend.  If he had a good bend, it'd help him have a good trot.

I had to use my inside leg a lot to make him bend.  At one point, my trainer said, "There, do you feel that?"  when he finally did bend.  She mentioned she wanted him to be 'pushed' into that outside rein. So basically, some work on inside leg to outside rein.  I also had to be careful that I wasn't blocking him from bending with one of my reins.  

A good chunk of the lesson was this exercise.  Both Pink and Green did this exercise as well.  And yeah, it was good. 

After that, my trainer asked if we were all comfortable cantering at the same time.  The three of us were, and so that was what went on next.

The first transition of Twister's and I's wasn't great.  He was doing that head tossing thing, and earlier in the ride I'd been told to 'push him forward' when he did that.  So, that's part of the reason we just launched off into the canter so badly XD

Our second one was better.  I don't know if it was that transition or another one, but my trainer told me "He doesn't need all the wind-up".  I was riding as if he did, as if he did need a big fast going trot to get the canter, because at one time that was the case..  But since my trainer is now working on / has taught him how to do walk to canter transitions, he probably doesn't XD

Going the first direction was my easier side, and we had a pretty good canter around.  I probably could have gotten him a little deeper in the corners, but other than that, it was good.

The second time, going the other direction, was my bad side.  He was constantly trying to bend to the wrong side, and my aids just didn't seem to be enough to keep him to the fence. Looking back now, I realize that my crookedness was not helping things, and that I should have been realigning myself.  

The temptation to use that inside rein indirectly to force him over to the fence was strong.  But my trainer said, "You'll only prolong your agony if you keep pulling on that rein."  

See, indirect rein seems like it should be able to force a horse over to the side.  That is NOT THE CASE, people.  I don't even know where I got that idea from.  Also, I just want to pull and hang on that left rein.

Instead, I should have used my outside rein to invite him over to the fence, and I did eventually.  Compounding all the problems I was having was the fact that I couldn't seem to get back to the fence because either Pink or Green would be in my way.  That was my fault, not theirs, I was picking bad spots to try to do that.  

Eventually, we got it sorted out and had a bit of nice cantering around before coming to the walk.

The last little bit of the lesson was spent talking with my trainer.  She'd told Pink and Green to think of questions that they had about their new mounts.  

Green asked about horses and spooking, I think her question was along the lines of "What does training have to do with horses spooking" or "Can you teach a horse to spook".  This was based on an incident with Nibbs earlier.  He'd been 'spooking' at the flag next to the arena, and using it as an excuse to get out of work.  Trainer ended up getting on him and giving him a schooling.  (Afterwards, I think she told Green 3 different times that what Green had been doing hadn't been wrong.  She was tired of seeing Green do it right, but Nibbs just going like "Hahaha".)  

So, my trainer laid out three reasons why horses spook and refuse to go by something.   The first is, they're genuinely afraid of something.  In which case, you work to get them over that fear.  

The second is what Nibbs was doing.  If they can 'spook' at something even though they're not really afraid of it, and get you to dither on with them about it, then they can get out of work.  

The third is, they've learned that's what they do when they see something scary.  They turn, stop, and stare at it, and are rewarded by the person riding them for it, intentionally or unintentionally.  My trainer's horses don't do that.  For one thing, they're not scared of much, and for another, if they are they look at it from the side with one eye as they go by instead of at the thing head on with both eyes.

One thing my trainer said she does to help a horse get over something that they really don't want to go near is circles.  

Okay, so, if the horse is going along, and he spooks at something, she'll be like "Good job horse, you saved us" and turn them on circle so that they come back to the thing.  Maybe a little closer, maybe not.  If they don't want to come close and spook away, she does the same thing again.  

This way, the horse gets to look at the scary thing, but doesn't have to get too close to it, and isn't punished for being scared.  After making how many ever circles it takes, they get over it and go on.  

Pink had a question about why Riggs carried, or tried to carry, her head down so low.  The brief answer is, she was trained that way when she was broken in.  Now, I have trained Shorty to stretch down, but this was not the same thing.  She wasn't helping anything in that position, her head was literally in the way of her moving forward.  So, my trainer has had to train her out of that.  

And after that, that was the end of our lesson.  If we'd been able to go out to the bigger arena, I believe we might have done some jumping.  But not this time, and I don't mind.  It's good to have a more basic lesson every once in awhile. 

Actual lesson 7/19/2022