clinic prep: smooth as ice

Or..... Not haha.

It got reeeeeeal cold here for a couple days, tho things should warm up with the help of freezing rain and icy road conditions just in time for us to haul over for a clinic with Stephen Birchall tomorrow morning!!!

I'm stupidly excited about this haha. Well. Not the weather, that part makes me sliiiiiightly nervous.... But you know what I mean. I've ridden with Stephen three times, twice with Isabel (here and here) and once on that lovely tho sensitive mare Shen.

I've also had the opportunity to watch him teach others, including a few of Austen's lessons, Liz's lesson, and some auditing while I was laid up with a broken leg.

My impression of him as a clinician is extremely favorable. Riding with him is sorta like a time machine six months into the future. Like, "This is where you are going, this is what it's going to be like, this is what you will be working on, and this is how you're going to get there."

Then obvi we come home and try to recreate the magic on our own but obviously the time machine only works in the presence of Stephen and we're relegated back to doing all that homework he gave us (including continuing on with trainer C's program, bc the two trainers mesh perfectly) in the hopes of finding that sweet spot again bc it turns out there still aren't any shortcuts or silver bullets in dressage.

My schedule leading up to this outing aligned in a way that we equestrians almost never experience: the timing has been pretty darn perfect! 

Charlie had a great dressage lesson with trainer C on Sunday, day off Monday, schooled Tuesday and Wednesday (once in jump tack, once in dressage tack), day off for the frigid arctic blast Thursday (but got his feet done, a very important detail here), and will do.... something tonight, as yet undecided. 

Mostly at this point I'm just interested in moving him around to keep him limber and thinking and in a working frame of mind, but I obviously don't expect to be able to school or fix anything the night before the clinic. Rather, I am focused on preparing and clearing the slate in anticipation of a serious learning beat down haha. 

Only downside lately is that there was a miscommunication with barn staff and Charlie ended up on a 6wk shoeing cycle instead of the agreed upon (and vet recommended) 4wk cycle. So he's been all kinds of awkward and tripping to a degree we haven't seen for a while now, and maybe even a titch foot sore. That..... that's maybe actually pretty unfortunate timing.

Oh well. So we may be super awkward in the lesson. But. I mean, that was guaranteed anyway.

Bc let's be real. It's Charlie. And me. At a super fancy dressage barn haha. In what I expect to be among one of the most physically and emotionally demanding rides of our brief shared history together, since Stephen doesn't play around and I signed up for an hour.

It's cool tho. I have a ton of trust in this clinician despite having only actually met or ridden with him a handful of times. He proved with Isabel to have a really quick and clear read on the horse, and an excellent perception for when and how hard and in which direction to push.

Plus Charlie isn't exactly an enigma either. So long as my priority remains keeping it positive and fair to the horse while hopefully absorbing some new skills, we should be good.

I mean. C'mon. The horse looks extremely handsome in dressage tack. Surely that'll be sufficient for getting all the DQs to forgive our erratic awkward flailing, right?? lol...

How do you like to prepare for a clinic? Do you take very green horses on outings like this? Or do you prefer to wait until they're a little more schooled? What are your typical goals/objectives for the earliest outings with your horse? And when/how does the focus shift from "survival is my only goal" to "we're hear to learn, baby!"??