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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

MDHT 4/19: Show Jump Time!

Moving right on along through the massive mountains of media from last weekend's season opener at Loch Moy Farm.... Let's talk show jumping!!

This phase has traditionally not been my favorite. Like, at all. Especially with Isabel, I eventually ended up being wayyyyy too influential as the "pilot" despite being somewhat wildly unreliable in that capacity. Actually I'd be hard pressed to find a single show jumping round with Isabel that didn't include at least one cringe-worthy jump haha.

the sweetest pony <3 pc Austen Gage
So it's been kinda strange for me getting used to jumping Charlie in competitions bc it turns out, show jumping is possibly his strongest phase. Like, sure we still often have careless rails or whatever. I'm not saying we're perfect at this phase. And obviously the horse is a cross country machine haha, let's never discount that.

But I guess what I'm saying is: for whatever reason, of the three phases, show jumping tends to be our smoothest and least error-ridden test. Go figure haha, and I'm certainly not complaining! And, uh, I'm also not taking any credit LOL. It's all Charlie: he just goes in there and does the thing. I like it!

first three fences were set on a serpentine. pc Austen Gage
I did make myself be a bit more purposeful about warm up. Often times this is the part of my show day where I'm at peak tension and nerves haha, so we kinda just try to squeak through without dying or going SPLAT!

But again, I was really working my mental game hard, repeating again and again (are you getting sick of this yet?): This is FUN, we are EXCITED to do this! Which then translated to: it will be most fun if we are properly and adequately warmed up, so do your damned job, Emma!

Charlie, for his part, definitely felt good. He knew what we were doing and was definitely puffing up in the atmosphere. My eye was a little iffy in warm up, I kept seeing a deeper spot.... But it was ok. We got through it, did all the jumps, knocked the oxer once, but then aced the vertical for our last effort, then headed down to the in gate for Go Time!

plus all that bonus construction work haha. pc Austen Gage
Realistically speaking, there isn't really a whole lot you can say about a minute and a half of jumping haha, ya know? Like, it's all in the video below -- I don't necessarily need to do a blow by blow of every fence. But then again, I *do* like to evaluate what went well and what didn't, for that whole "reproduceable" thing lol.....

This course honestly looked pretty well suited to our preferred typical way of going. Jumps 1 through 3 created one long serpentine across the arena, with the first loop landing left to an inside or outside turn option.

I figured I would have to be pretty prompt with our simple lead change after Jump 1, something that has occasionally caused issues for us. And also figured the time and space needed for the simple change would necessitate taking the outside turn to Jump 2. Other than that, tho, the course looked perfectly straight forward and all the lines were riding in very consistent striding.

most of the jumps he kinda just cantered bigly, but he did nicely over this oxer! pc GRC Photos
And?? Yup, it all worked out pretty darn well. Charlie declined an invitation to spook at the construction, picked up his best hunter-esque canter, and loped right on along over the first. Was a complete gentleman about his lead change, and honestly really aced it through the whole serpentine.

The outside line rode in a perfect 4 strides for us, tho as is our habit, we were starting to pick up a little speed as we went. Charlie is a bit like a snowball or an avalanche haha, in that he picks up momentum and energy as he goes. The hackamore worked great tho and we were able to stay in a pretty nice balance instead of him dropping his wither and flattening on me.

such a good boy even tho the jumps are kinda small for him haha. pc GRC Photo
Tho we were still a little funny through the bending line across the center. Not terrible tho, but just a bit strung out -- losing that nice hunter-y look haha. 

Then I over-corrected a bit coming down the following line. I put him in a too-quiet canter into what should have been an easy 5 stride line. Instead tho it rode a bit long for us and we kinda had to make big moves to close the gap.

Oops, sorry Charlie!! Sorta a bit like this Wayward Thoughts article Amelia sent me, where I was so busy thinking 'Whoa, dammit!' that I forgot we still had to ride forward through the combinations. 

Oh well, no harm, no foul. We just landed again a bit out of balance and kinda running.... But again, Charlie was able to recover his balance and jumped the final fence actually pretty nicely. Boom, way to go Chuck!! 

Also I hope you appreciate my videographer's giggles too. Apparently Charlie was activating the turbo boosters, toot-tooting his way around the course, tho you can't really hear it from the video.

the most fun! pc Austen Gage
There honestly isn't a whole lot I would change about this jump course, other than continuing to work on being more consistent in our pace. Esp the part where I had him too quiet -- that's really not the greatest mistake to make with Charlie bc it is so counter productive. If he's too quiet, then we get forced to make those big moves that disrupt our balance.

That's a me problem tho, not a Charlie problem. Bc Charlie, for his part, basically just did whatever I asked, for better or worse. Honestly he kinda just does it for fun. These fences weren't really of a size to captivate his attention, but then again I'm pretty sure he'd happily bop around N forever, ya know?


So yea haha. I'm always mildly shell shocked when we have a more or less reasonable stadium round. Bc, again, I'm not sure this phase will EVER be my favorite haha. Honestly of all three phases, in some ways I think stadium gets disproportionately harder with each move up a level.

Like, mistakes that didn't matter at one height suddenly can become game changers when the rails are only a mere 4" higher. Whether it's mistakes that simply topple the rails, or worse sins that create vicious cycles of crashes, refusals, or falls like I had with Izzy.

For now, tho, at least in this moment, I'm just gonna sit back and appreciate that Charlie's got us covered haha. That probably won't always be true, but on a day like this? It's extremely welcome news haha. Good boy, Charlie!!

Up next is the cherry on this tasty little cake: cross country time!!


21 comments:

  1. That looked awesome. Nice and smooth. I love the partnership you have with him

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    1. Thank you! He’s such a good boy - so fun to jump!

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  2. He looks like a totally different horse from your first spring starters with him 😍😍😍 He's always been impressive, but his presence now is just so much bigger to me for some reason. You've done such a great job getting him to this point. What a great round!

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    1. Aw thanks haha! It’s kinda crazy now looking back on those earliest rounds lol. Knowing how he is now, you can totally see moments of it in the early rounds... but mostly it’s just been a huge change as he’s settled into this new job <3

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  3. He's such a pro at this now. And his comfort jumping would be such a comfort to me. I'm not good at making good jumping decisions, so I'd be likely to end up on the Izzy refusal train. A horse like Charlie would make it so much easier to work on me!

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    1. oh man, amen to that! i never really thought isabel was all that complicated to jump and mostly just blamed myself for everything. but.... while yes, a more competent rider would have gotten more consistent jumping from her, i also now recognize that part of that was bc she just was NOT the most straight forward, esp as the jumps got bigger. charlie, on the other hand, is wayyyyyyy more my type haha. forgiving, forward thinking, using his own eye, and able to fill some of the gaps for me. i like it!

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  4. As someone who has never run cross country - I think stadium would be my favorite round since it's the closest thing to something I know. Great round though! You can definitely see where he wants to steam roll but you got him back

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    1. ha thanks! yea he definitely tried to hit the accelerator in a few places lol... but was a good boy!! and yea in some ways stadium feels like it should be better or easier for us, since that's what we spend the most time jumping vs xc.... but idk, it's so easy to mess up!!

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  5. Because I am a giant weenie, and will likely never in my life have the cojones to run cross country, I'm always surprised when eventers say the struggle most with stadium. Charlie clearly had a great time though! You two make such a great team!

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    1. aw thanks haha, i think we both had a lot of fun!! and yea i know what you mean about being surprised that the stadium rides harder than the xc (or, at least, that riders often feel that way). the best i can understand it is: by and large, horses simply understand solid fences a bit better than the airy style poles we see in stadium. it's easier for a horse to read a solid log or roll top or coop or whatever, it makes sense to their eye and they generally understand that they need to get over it. and esp once they've got a bit of experience, they really don't need to have these xc jumps explained to them. and lower level xc fences all tend to be pretty inviting in their profiles and are designed to be jumped safely a faster speeds.

      show jumps, on the other hand, aren't really as intuitively "natural" for a horse. the airiness can make them harder to read, esp in competitions where ground lines are few and far between. so it becomes more important for the rider to apply more style and technique with rhythm / track / balance in order for the horse to be able to jump successfully without faults. at least, that's kinda how i think about it haha!

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  6. You two looked great! It looks like the hackamore combination you have on him worked super! He did definitely want to power through, but you got him back to you, and I think the whole course just looked fantastic. I can't wait to hear more!

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    1. thank you! and yea i really really liked how the hackamore worked for us during this round. it's effective, but so much so as to actually back him off. it'll take a little getting used to having reliable brakes tho haha, bc i'm still maybe expecting him to go blasting off into space and am riding a bit too defensively. just takes practice i suppose!

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  7. Charlie = hunk. I have nothing more to offer. lol

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    1. the hunkiest bronto that there ever was ;)

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  8. He is so steady out there - just goes and does the thing like a good boy! A very good boy!!

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    1. such a good boy <3 <3 <3 idk how i got so lucky with him!!

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  9. Very nice course! He does have a pretty hunter canter now, doesn't he? <3

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    1. ha thanks!! i like to think it's hunter-y, tho i know it wouldn't necessarily pass muster in a proper hunter ring lol. one of these days i'd love to try in him a local derby or something just to see tho!

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  10. You guys look so calm and smooth together, it really looked like that was an easy round for both of you!

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    1. Thank you!!! It’s so reassuring to get into a show ring and feel like the course is easier than what you practice at home! Definitely helps with my nerves!!! Charlie just seems to love it all anyway tho haha, which obvi also helps ;)

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  11. I do so love your mountains of media ;)

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