taking it back

A few weeks ago, I wrote that it seemed highly unlikely we'd be able to wear long sleeves and jump around in the outdoor arena this January. Happily, I appear to have been incorrect.

Tho, admittedly I'm also wearing a coat and scarf in the below photos.... but our recent break in the weather has meant a return to the big ring!! Yay!! Not something I mind being wrong about!

i'm just plain never going to get tired of his expression and ears <3

Anyway, Charlie's grand return to jumping around this arena coincided with our weekly lesson with upper level event rider K. To sweeten the deal, former barn mate Rachael was able to haul her mare Birdie in to join us too! Meaning fun with friends AND videos!! Double win!

even if he was a little lethargic and behind my leg -- look at that loopy curb rein!! who is this horse??

And an extra special added bonus, Charlie was channeling his inner hunter in a MAJOR way this ride. Like.... Seriously just loooooping along, popping over everything from happy little gappy distances. Taking leg to the base, and a mostly floating curb rein. Only thing missing from the hunteresque picture is his auto change.... That'll be back* in time tho, methinks.

(*considering he busted one out (!!!) in the middle of the line around 2:05 in the vid below).

the go button still works tho!

Honestly I suspect it might have been more of a function of being rusty, or perhaps the wet packed and recently thawed ground had him stepping a little more thoughtfully. In other words, I don't expect Charlie to always go like this. But it was certainly quite enjoyable to ride!

the swedish oxer featured heavily in our mini courses

It's so funny tho, I've spent so much time telling trainer K all about Charlie being strong and occasionally nappy. And... .sometimes I wonder if she just thinks I'm crazy, bc she hasn't really had a chance to see Charlie exhibit literally any of the behaviors I tell her we struggle with.

And this ride was basically more of the same (not complaining!), tho Charlie *did* give her a little peek at his inner brontosaurus. Our last couple courses started on the left lead, and at the end of the ride he finally expressed some annoyance about this - with a half-hearted kick-n-prop, before striking off into canter of his own volition.

charlie showing K an itsy bitsy baby bronto-stuck-in-tar-pit moment. she hadn't yet seen this side of him lol

Which, honestly, it was useful for K to see it with her own eyes (tho obvi I doubt it'll be the last time) so that my explanation of our run at Fair Hill last fall made more sense: When Charlie started napping out of the start box and didn't immediately snap out of it - resulting in our catastrophe of a jump at fence 3, the red table (of George Morris Critique fame lol).

the simple barrel oxer was also well-utilized, tho it turned into a swedish too later on

So I'm sure that little nugget is just gonna get logged away in her gray matter until such a day as we need to address it more directly. Bc for this ride.... again, Charlie was just easy.

We started by trotting over a placing pole to cross rail, alternating approaches. During which it grew to a vertical, then oxer. Then we cantered it. Charlie was foot perfect. Sorry if I sound like a broken record lol, but I have to make up for months off from his surgery where I missed out on getting to call my pony a majikal unikorn! So I'm making up for it today!

charlie was quiet but VERY good off my thigh/knee/leg aids

After that, we just loped on up and over the swedish oxer and barrel oxer, jumping in both directions. It's not on the video but one of these times we got VERY LONG OMG to the swedish haha and I actually maybe almost fell off. Twas fine tho. He's still perfect lol.

wheeeee more swedish!

Then just starting to put course work together, using the center line oxer we'd started on, turning to the line from barrel oxer to plain vertical in an easy 4 (~57' to start, tho she stretched it out later), then back around to the swedish. Then the same exact thing in reverse order.

all the jumps rode in both directions so the course was fully reversible

Then we added in a little complexity by creating two lines to the swedish oxer - one from a vertical on the outside that we sliced at a fairly extreme angle to make a straight line to the swedish in 6-7 strides. And a bending line from the central rainbow oxer to the swedish that rode in 6 with bend or 5 if you rode it in a straight line.

still a few, er, *fun* moments. i swear when my hands are back like that it's bc i've slipped the reins. pinky swear! if you don't believe me, check in around 1:20 in the video and watch my hands as we approach the swedish and i see that we're probably gonna add, but slip the reins in case he goes for the long spot instead.

Bless Charlie's heart (he's perfect, ya know), bc I've kinda gotten into the habit of slipping my reins whenever the distances feel a little long (tho at least I'm getting better about still going with him with my upper body....) but am rusty with the double reins and was totally disorganized as we hurtled down the line toward the swedish (above).

And he just went. Just goes to the fence, even with minimal steering or rein aids. Goooood boy, Charlie!

mostly tho, he was just spot on. being all adorably tidy up front to this swedish barrel even from a close spot

So ya know. It was good practice. I REALLY liked the feeling Charlie had this ride where I needed to keep my leg on to create more canter to the fences. Putting my leg on seems to be a critical ingredient in telling my upper body to commit to the fence too lol, go figure.

Esp bc I know Charlie's gonna go if I leg him up to a fence, it's easier to trust and go with him, instead of staying behind him in the back seat.

video of the lesson here

Definitely a good feeling. I also really liked a lot of what trainer K had to say this ride too. She wants to see the same kind of outcome as trainer P when it comes to balance in turns and straightness to the fences, but just has a different way of saying things.

You can hear it in the video, but she talks a lot about using my knees to give leg aids - which is really interesting to hear after this week's dressage lesson with C, who told me to start at the top of my leg and go down, vs starting at the bottom. So hearing my jump trainer also direct me to use thigh and knee in my leg aids is nice reinforcement of the concept.

yup he's a good boy <3

Honestly this lesson was just another positive step for us. Mostly pretty simple. Mostly easy fences. Just ticking off the experience; checking that the pieces are working reliably. Calibrating where we are after a heavy focus on grid work recently. And edging me back to where I want to be: slowly feeling stronger and more secure in my position, and more in sync with my horse.

And all along, feeling like these exercises are routine, bordering on mundane. Practicing known skills vs challenging ourselves with the unknown. Because boring is delightful to me right now. The unknown will come in time!