now boarding the struggle bus

I gotta say, if it weren't for Sunday's awesome hunter trials where we did the pairs and team classes, I might have walked away from this weekend feeling.... not great about things.

but first: we trot

For some reason, Charlie and I have been a little out of sync in our jumping lately. Luckily not so much the solid cross country stuff - that all seems fine. Just the arena work.

charlie isn't anybody's idea of a naturally talented dressage horse, but his trot is still light years ahead of where we started

The likeliest culprit is, obviously, yours truly. We've been working so hard on our dressage lately, but that's a sword that cuts both ways when I'm the one in the irons. The more I insist on being influential on the flat, the more naturally the horse becomes influenced by me over fences too. Right? Like isn't that the whole point of training?

i've always been a sucker for his canter, personally

But... The issue here is that I'm not always the most reliable pilot over fences. So it's not necessarily the greatest thing in the world to cultivate a feeling of reliance in the horse. Honestly, I'd much prefer the horse to be a bit of a packer. Which.... Let's be real, Charlie totally is.

ha. haha. but you knew the fails had to come sometime, right? look how mad he is at me lol....

And idk, I think my attitude going into this ride was not quite what it needed to be, too. I was thinking about keeping things low key, relaxed, laid back. Not really pushing for anything, just getting a couple easy reps over some fences ahead of the next day's fun outing.

even Riley dog is trying to figure out wtf is going on here lol

This attitude was further evidenced by deciding to ride Charlie in his hackamore, which I've noted on many occasions is not great for any sort of serious flat work. And so my warm up was as expected, quite low key. In my mind, this was on purpose and totally fine.

"ooh. fascinating." - charlie, probably

Realistically, tho, it was *not* actually fine haha. Like, at some point I'll learn that consistency really is key for horses. That I can't just act like contact and rhythm and balance and impulsion matter in 4 schooling rides out of 5, but that 5th schooling session becomes a gimme. Horses just don't think that deeply about it, they don't just flip on and off like that. Charlie will perform his best with clear consistent expectations.

this is what a 1,400lb behemoth looks like flinging himself over a 3' oxer with nothing but the grace of sweet baby jesus to help him out

So we warmed up like total space cadets, literally dragging our toes all across the arena stirring up lazy clouds of dust. Then when we started jumping, suddenly trainer P is taking me to task for letting Charlie get strung out, letting him kinda launch lurch over the fences instead of asking him to step up and push off from behind. She wanted to see me get him more balanced and moving to the base of the jump before rocking back to take off.

we never quite ironed out all the kinks, but it got better-ish. i can live with better-ish.

That's all well and fine and whatnot, but realistically with a horse like Charlie (and a rider like me, let's be real), you can't just manufacture that balance out of nowhere. Like.... Getting that feeling is basically the entire point of the warm up in the first place, right? So instead I ended up just kinda shutting Charlie's pace down and letting him get behind my leg. It *looked* like the compressed collected add stride, at least over the small warm up fences, right?

pictured: not dying over the out jump

But then the jumps suddenly went up 4 holes all at once and.... yea haha I got totally caught out with the backwards pace lacking impulsion. Whoops....

also not dying jumping into the treble

Poor Charlie. I think this ride was the first real time he's had an actual refusal in the arena. But... Well, you'll see it in the video. While a jumpable spot was right there if I had ridden him forward to it, I just.... didn't. And instead we got to a spot from which he legit could not jump. Ugh.

he's a saint guys. 1,000%.

As is my way, I sometimes need to get slapped upside the head to remember to do my job. And after that, Charlie and I mostly got back on the same page. Riding forward to the fences, plz Emma! Luckily this horse is incredibly generous and kept doing his best to jump the jumps!

phew, and made it out alive too!

The course itself isn't my favorite either. For some godforsaken reason it's still set up from the horse trial a week ago -- a course that didn't exactly do us any favors then either. Tho the triple was pretty fun I guess, at least after I stopped burying Charlie in it haha.... sigh.

yet another video example of "not our best"

In all seriousness tho, it really wasn't the worst lesson in the world. It bugs me to no end when I make stupid mistakes and Charlie pays the price. But... That's what it means to be an amateur rider sometimes. All I can do is just keep trying to be better, keep working. Which I'm doing.

yes sir. all of the pets. 

And until I somehow manage to get my shit back together again over the colorful sticks, I'm hereby deeming this "Horse Appreciation Month" lol.... Thanks Charlie for all that you do! Maybe we'll just stick to hunter trials and paper chases from here on out lol!!