ground swell

Things have been pretty quiet in Charlieland these past few days. Our brief little heat wave broke tho, which was nice. Tho the rock hard ground persisted a while longer.

potential changes of view are coming my way. this one is refreshingly green

We knew the ground was hard, and heard all about it from competitors and other volunteers at Shawan Downs the weekend before. So naturally we planned accordingly when taking our own horses schooling last week.
 

historic and charming(ish) old neighborhood

After Charlie's great schooling ride, he got his legs all wrapped up and hooves packed to stave off any soreness from the hard ground. Alas, it wasn't quite enough and Charlie was a bit tender-footed last week. Probably in the future I'll just plan to ice his hooves after work on hard ground.

uh.... that's the block down there. nice balcony tho?

Not the most inspiring result, if I'm being honest. His lack of toughness is..... well documented. But. Ya know. We work with what we got. And I'm more than willing to do whatever it takes to keep Charlie comfortable and happy considering what an actual saint he is as a jumping horse.

different balcony in the same building, with improved view of the harbor

So we've kept the magic cushion train rolling, plus stepped up our keratex treatments. I had been mostly focusing my treatments around Charlie's hoof walls - especially the nail holes. But perhaps I'd been neglecting his soles, so now they're getting extra attention too.

honestly tho these sun-seekers won't care so long as there's sufficient space and bright spots

And I also started conversations with Charlie's farrier about assessing whether going back to leather rim pads (or full pads, tho I'm not very fond of them....) might be a good idea. We'll see what he has to say about all that later this week, hopefully.

speaking of sun seekers... how on earth am i supposed to figure out which one is mine??

In the meantime, tho, I'm diversifying my portfolio beyond its current holdings of SMZs to also include Magic Cushion. Bc yea that stuff is actually seriously magic. I've been packing it in each night once Charlie is settled in his stall, so I can just squish the stuff in there and then set the hoof back down on sawdust without wrapping it.

normally i'd guess mine is the goofy one but... 

I'm not sure how long the magic cushion actually stays in the hoof without a wrap, but probably at least a little while. A couple times I've picked his feet out 12-24hrs later and still had bits of tacky gunk stuck in there. So I think it's pretty reasonable to believe it's at least sticking around for most of the time he spends in his stall overnight.

nope, there we go - i spy my fly boots! phew! otherwise how could i have known??

And I think it makes a big difference too - and helped relieve Charlie of any bruising or tenderness in just a couple days instead of his typical long, drawn out week and a half of "OW MY FEET HURT! MY LIFE IS FULL OF WOE!!!"

this is a very pretty time of year in the wooded areas

But. Ya know. It's all good either way tho, right? I feel like a broken record, but these past few months Charlie has really really settled into his job. Obviously I would like to stay on a fixed schedule of schooling rides - for my own benefit as much as for the horse.

charlie's got it all figured out where all the watering holes are lol

But.... Charlie never really seems any worse for the wear rest. Which is nice. Makes it pretty easy to keep focusing on maximizing his down time, physical well being, and comfort while trusting that the training will be there when we need it.

i did actually wrap the magic cushion in there after charlie went back to work, just to get as much bang for that buck as possible.... plus fly boots to reduce stomping.... #highmaintenance

And actually, in revisiting my goals for this quarter, I was reminded that my intention was for the lion's share of our ridden work to focus on fitness and conditioning. Which, considering that's most of what we've done - seems like it's working out pretty well haha.

woods are pretty in the rain too, plus the softer ground is very welcome!

So once Charlie's feet stopped feeling tender on the driveway, we hit the trails again. First in just an easy going hack (after which I still packed and wrapped his feet like a neurotic freak lol....), and then for actual trot sets in the woods after getting soaking and very welcome rain.

two pics stitched together to try to portray the ground undulations

And I gotta say (again) that taking our trot sets into the woods has been revolutionary. Idk why. But we both seem to really really enjoy it a lot! Like I love cruisin around the open fields too, and we're fortunate to have a few options in that regard.

honestly pics never do it justice tho

But there's something special about just letting the horse move out over the kind of varying terrain that presents itself in the woods - like eroded ruts, jutting roots, branches and brambles every which way - and allowing the horse to sort it all out himself. Ducking and dodging the branches as you go.... Laying down onto the horse's neck, trusting that he'll stay true in his aim.

but these small fields are great for some quick up-and-downs

Plus it was kinda cool to do it all after a recent rain fall. The dampness of the leaves as they whipped past added a refreshing element. And the ground was jusssst slick enough to hold Charlie's attention without actually being slippery. I can't stress just how great it feels to have this horse FINALLY learning how to read the ground himself.

easy going hack on the left; trot sets on the right

I'm also loving having the Altitude Profile app for these rides too. Partly bc the meta data surrounding overall distance and average speed is helpful. Mostly tho I really like having the data on relative changes in elevation.

And as you can see from the above charts, it's helping me figure out how to string hills together so that we always have another hill to climb in our rides. For the trot sets in particular, I now know a great route where we can basically trot all the ups, and catch our breath on the downs (or trot those too if we really want).

from stopping by the arena to chat with trainer P on left; then cruising around the fields trying to maximize hills on right

And it's kinda cool getting to zoom in on the gps satellite views of the farm to get that bird's eye view of what we're really doing, and how all the various pieces of the farm actually knit together. This farm is freakin giant and I still really don't know most of its odd little corners. But we're figuring it out!

also, last pic from kentucky ;)

Plus. Ya know. Hacking out is just plain old pleasant to do <3

Hopefully we'll have a couple more purposeful schooling rides this week too. It's supposed to be rainy and thunderstorm-y all week, but that's ok. I've tentatively got two lessons on the books so we'll see. One should be a much anticipated return to dressage lessons with trainer C!! Cross your fingers for us lol!

But as is always the case with Charlie, mostly we're just gonna take it as it comes. I've got plans, like I always do bc I love plans. And those plans include our second event of the season this coming weekend. We'll see what happens tho!

For now, we're mostly just in cruise control. Which ain't really that bad, let's be real haha. Have any of you likewise been looking forward to the new season ushering in lots of fun stuff to do?