Slug Lyfe

Ok. So. Ahem, *clears throat*..... I try to be pretty honest in this space. I try to show everything. There's no secrets about how this 'Fraidy Cat sausage is made, ya know? And that's kinda how I prefer it.

In my opinion, everything is always easier when it's "self evident." Like, the nice thing about copious riding media is that with a lot of video, there isn't necessarily the need to explain myself or my ride, right?

he might be lazy but at least he looks happy <3

But. Ya know haha. This is the internet. And while I may come off as brazenly shameless (which like, #truth), even *I* still have limits haha. And dear god but Charlie hit those limits in our jump lesson this week.

we had to work for it, but there's a good boy! this is what i want EVERY TIME hahaha....

I swear. This horse, he really is my best boy. I love him for his bravery, raw athleticism, and "no shits given" attitude. It's a major factor in why I have literally any shred of hope in our success together when it comes to all those ambitiously terrifying goals I laid out for our future.

pic is relevant for the below course map -- we had two diagonal one stride grids -- this one is shown in RED below

But..... Well. It can make the "day to day" stuff a little more challenging haha. Charlie is brave. Downright ferocious when on course. It's cool, right? But it also means that he's pretty unimpressed with the more "relaxed" type schooling scenarios.

Coincidentally, this is also a boon for me, bc again I really need jumping to feel normal and mundane and routine and not at all too exciting in order to keep all my anxieties at bay. But, uh. Yea. Charlie be taking that way too much to heart lately haha.

also relevant for the course diagram - these two jumps make up the center purple two stride line when ridden in a straight line -- obvi in this pic tho, charlie and i are just jumping the one as a single

So. Anyway. In an ideal world, your typical jumping horse doesn't need to do max height course work every single time he jumps. I'd actually guess that most horses competing at the higher levels only school competition height a fraction of the time.

Bc realistically you can school all the important questions and gymnastics etc perfectly well without all the wear and tear. 

dear god, could he try any less?!?! notice the crop hand already in motion haha

Charlie honestly barely jumps 4x a month mostly bc I can't seem to keep the fucker sound long enough haha. But even so, very often it's not to height. I'm not sure this has been really working for us tho, considering for this particular lesson homeboy was LAZY dear god.

Like the sole reason there isn't video is because I was sitting up there kicking and flapping around like a fried chicken wing basically the entire time, ugh haha.

lol wait, spoke too soon.... haha, c'mon chuck, really?

Anyway tho, it was actually a pretty cool lesson. And I was legit sad to not have better media to share, if for no reason other than to share the cool lines that we did. Because trainer P has been on a serious angled fence kick in recent weeks and I fucking love it.

Feast your eyes on this spectacular example of "jumps errywhere!":

i wish i had a video for you but you'll just have to use your imaginations instead! fwiw this is super versatile and would work equally well with poles

Again, I wish I had more clear media for how, exactly, that all worked. But for most of the lines it either didn't end up on video, or the way the videographer had to swivel around, the lines still don't really add up. Sorry!

first jump on the green line in the diagram, fwiw jumping right to left according to that diagram

The most interesting was the green line in the diagram. For all Charlie's lazy #slugness, he really was a star for these lines. No question whatsoever, and got the appropriate striding and everything.

second jump of the green line, going right to left according to the diagram. not pictured in the diagram is that third element, the orange vertical that was roughly 4 strides out kinda just hangin out there haha, but it all rode arrow straight

Actually the second element of that green line, the oxer that would normally be the middle of the treble in the blue line of the diagram, consistently produced a fantastic jump from the horses.

oxer into the bending line, his pony face kills me

Anyway tho, Charlie was honestly fine for the jumps themselves. It was just getting him going that was such a monstrous undertaking. I swear, this horse is just such a slug sometimes.

But like.... he wasn't necessarily "sour" about it. Not like the sucking back against my leg that has gotten us into so much trouble in the past....

combinations would be easier with jussssst a little more oomph!

Instead it was sorta a more soft hearted, "Ok ok, I'm going, yes yes, just give an old man some time!"

Except.... Uh, Sir. We are literally barely getting around!!!

there we go, slightly better with the jumps up a hole. but let's be real, this is my giant brontosaurus beginning to unfurl his forelimbs on a 3'+ fence before his hinds have fully pushed off....

Again tho, I shouldn't complain. In a way, the weakest link in my own riding gut instincts is riding forward. So I appreciate that my horse makes me work on that in our lessons. Sure, he's kinda hot and cold in whether he's running away with me or just like, literally barely crawling along.... But it's all good practice haha.

still kinda casual through the treble tho, even after we raised it

And meanwhile, per usual, Charlie mostly perked right up when we set the treble up to full 3'3 height haha. This horse.... He just doesn't care about small jumps. Tho of course he still wasn't meaningfully impressed and knocked everything down the first time, so we had to do it again.

go charlie, GO!

That's ok tho. The nice thing about lessons immediately after a show is.... nothing is on the calendar right now haha.... So if we want to work on crazy lines, or work on literally just getting our horses to carry us forward... Well, we have all the time in the world!

And being totally honest, even tho I had to flap my wings and kick my legs the whole way around this lesson, I'm actually still really happy with how Charlie feels right now. It feels easy to him. Boring, even. Which like, obviously my flighty nervous heart adores haha. I LOVE the feeling of *needing* to put my leg on!

he's a good boy tho <3 <3 <3

All the same tho, it's probably time for Charlie's "forward" bootcamp to start again haha. Some things never change!

Regardless, I'm pretty excited about this jump lesson. Mostly bc, hot damn, that course diagram is nothing to sniff at, but Charlie handled it all with ease. For any of you out there looking for #gotd inspiration, I highly recommend it! We did everything at mostly compressed distances, but it seems reasonably flexible.

Let me know if you give it a shot! Or like.... I suppose if you're like me and having to deal with a horse that maybe takes a bit of encouraging when things are a bit more boring haha....