cruiseliner cavaletti

Ok so... Y'all are used to hearing me go on and on (and on and on and on) about how perfect my horse is and how much I love him and all that, ad nauseam.

There's a reason having actual photo and video representation is so important, tho. First and foremost: having video really helps me connect what I'm feeling in the saddle with what it looks like in real time -- and helps me identify areas to improve.

Secondly tho.... Without the representative imagery it might be easier for y'all to forget that... Ya know... Not infrequently, despite all my gushing, we look like this. Behold, our majesty:

we r beauty, we r grace, we r the most perfect brontosaurus that ever did strut

Lolololol....... Oh man, a lot of time, money and energy has been dedicated to the pursuit of looking that good.

palette cleanser of charlie's best friend iggy being absolutely stinkin adorable 

Ahem, cough cough. For real, tho, turns out the time out of the saddle didn't do my riding many favors.

lol charlie you're a good dog <3

But on the flip side -- actually, the break was probably a net positive for Charlie. He continues to prove again and again that.... he always comes back from a break better than ever.

It's like... with time off, Charlie lets go of any mental fatigue he may have accumulated from training, as well as any physical fatigue. But simultaneously, he remembers all the lessons and skills and always comes back feeling refreshed, willing and sharp. I like it!

weeeee canter poles!!!

Honestly, it's hard to argue against the benefit of routine seasonal breaks for the horses. Except there are distinct downsides for me as the rider. Sure, if I had a whole string of horses ranging from babies to campaigners, I'd be able to have some sort of system wherein I was always riding even as individual horses rested.

def set this line a little too short

But.... as a single horse adult amateur, that's just not my life. And time out of the saddle has historically not been good for me. After past breaks, I've often experienced increased feelings of weakness in the saddle and consequently diminished confidence / increased anxiety.

This is.... counterproductive for my purposes haha.

nbd tho, look at this clever pone pone!

Interestingly, tho, so far I'm not sure that's the case. So far I actually feel pretty ok about things. Possibly bc, again, Charlie has proved over and over that everything is basically exactly as I left it three months ago.

i <3 his ears

Tho ya know, it also helps that.... It doesn't really matter right now lol. There's a couple schooling shows on the horizon that might be fun... But I feel exactly zero urgency. The ground is super hard, Charlie still doesn't have pads on, and homeboy is fat. So why push it?

not sure our turns would pass doug payne's "stringent criteria" test, tbh

Instead, we're kinda just having fun. Like this past week when my riding appointment aligned with the owner of Charlie's best friend, Iggy.

was an X instead of oxer to be inviting for all riding friends

Back in the before times, we used to occasionally ride together and set up fun trot and canter ground pole exercises. They're still working on cantering single ground poles and trotting small fences, so it always ends up being the perfect opportunity to focus on footwork and turning exercises that we can both enjoy together.

still a useful exercise tho

Plus - even better - we were able to get some video for each other!! Yay my first video footage of riding Charlie since.... our February clinic with Sally Cousins??

emma girl, pick your hands UP + put your heels DOWN!!!!

Lol and ya know.... It's fun. And useful haha. Like... It's pretty clear seeing the footage that our approach to this ride wouldn't quite pass muster with everything I just wrote over the past week or two about doing everything to a very exacting level of correctness.

wheeee canter poles the other way!

For instance, Charlie's canter is .... sluggish LOL. And I really need to get better about always riding my canter like there's a 3'3 oxer in front of us. Which... clearly is not the case here. In my defense, tho, I did a shitty job setting up all the canter poles and set them up on way too short of a stride.

aw charlie <3 just ignore that monkey on your back!

But ya know. It was actually fine. Actually, better than fine. Sluggish canter and sloppy rider aside, it actually felt like a pretty fun and effective session. We just looped around and around between various elements - very small singles, a cross rail with placing poles on takeoff and landing, and 7 canter poles in a line with some raised.

just lopin' on along!

We did two different cycles, one on each lead. The video is from the second session, which was predominantly on the left lead, tho I did switch at the end to catch a few off the right lead for video purposes too.

And god bless Charlie, he really did just canter on around in a steady consistent rhythm. And turned remarkably well as we executed quite a few smallish radius half turns (tho not immediately after any fences as Doug suggested). Sure, it's a lot harder to turn like that in a more forward canter, but eh. One thing at a time right now LOL.

video!!!!! with bonus fox <3

One of these days we might actually look as good as I feel riding this horse haha. But eh, the good feeling is nice enough <3

And in the meantime, I'm going to try to get better about setting up ground pole / cavaletti exercises weekly. Doesn't necessarily have to be the most complicated stuff in the world, but enough to give us options to keep looping around and around, while working on footwork and turning. Lmk if you have any useful resources!