tranquillity the other way

Our local eventing club, MCTA, had their final starter trial of the year last weekend at Tranquillity, and obvi I had to be there to volunteer! Honestly I'd been tempted to ride, esp bc MCTA events earn double points for year end awards... But, eh, y'all know me. We don't really, uh, earn points anyway. Double of zero is still.... zero LOL.

majestic mare, patiently snacking at the trailer <3 <3

They're always desperate for volunteers anyway, so it all worked out. And while I was there, I ran into a former barn mate from the last place (she's since moved on too), who mentioned wanting to come back this week to school the course. Obvi that sounded like a great idea to me, so we made a date!

our riding buddy for the day -- super mare Bella omg! long time readers will remember! she has a new owner these days, but is just as awesome as ever. we were still boarding together at the last place (tho they have since relocated as well), so she and doozy know each other and vibe very nicely

My goals for the ride were pretty modest. I wanted to jump solid things, experiment with letting Doozy canter on, and avoid/correct any of those sticky stuck moments that have cropped up in other recent jumping outings.  

cantering a warm up jompy, yay!

I also wanted to keep the jumps themselves relatively few and simple: select jumps with nice clean robust profiles situated on pleasant terrain with easy approaches. Sorta trying to find the best approximations of what we might expect to see at a Loch Moy event.

wheeee jumping into the downhill chute thru the treeline!

We warmed up briefly around one of the jump rings first, tho, since riding buddy R wanted to establish her ride with a couple show jumps first. It was nice practice to take Doozy into yet another new-to-her arena and flat around a little bit. Also a nice reminder to me to... ride the horse the **same** as if we are at home. Pilot not passenger, right?

bench we saw at Shawan for jenny camp! most of the littles spend the rest of their year at Tranquillity and just go to Shawan temporarily
anyway we had a little oopsie here bc it was a fussy approach right up against some shrubby nature, and i let doozy canter the full approach, which proved to be faster than she's currently capable of reading all that

Then we pretty quickly moved out into the fields and I started Doozy over the same two jumps we warmed up over last time. Including carrying the canter away from the first and all the way around to the second. You'll have to watch the video for proof but omg, Doozy was perfect. Just loped around and kept even pleasant strides all the way to the jump! Good girl!!

weird rail thing right into the sun, good girl dooz!

Then we played a little with terrain going down the little rollercoaster chute, and I made myself let Doozy gallop out a little bit. Just to keep getting that experience together, right? Like not just starting and stopping, but traveling around some. 

barbie dream house goin up the hill!

Next we went over to the "water," which is more of a fetid mud puddle at this point. I had zero intentions of even bothering to fuss with Doozy about stepping into the muck, bc.... honestly not worth picking a fight, right? 

There was a cool little line around the perimeter tho that I wanted to try. Unfortunately we had a little bit of an oopsie at the first jump. I wanted to intentionally canter the full approach, which made Doozy happy. But it was all just slightly too complicated -- a bending approach right up against the woods without an obvious landing path -- and Doozy squirted out the side. 

step up the bank!

Nbd, tho. Probably I should have trotted the approach instead... But honestly it just felt like a normal green horse mistake. Her feet moved faster than her brain, and she ended up not having an answer. We reapproached at trot and she was very honest to it, and then very honest around the bend to the backlit weird rail thing. Good girl, nice learning experience!

little coop! jumps were still decorated and flagged from MCTA's starter trial last weekend

From there we moved on to the Barbie Dream House (also from Shawan), which is basically exactly the profile I wanted for this type of ride. She trotted in just fine (having perhaps learned the value of patience lol), and then cantered on up the hill -- at which point the bank complex appeared before us so we went right on ahead and stepped up that too! 

link to helmet cam video here

Last little jump of the day was a perfect coop. To which Doozy was, obviously, perfect. Including her little canter away -- yay mare! 

peaceful stroll around the property back to the trailers

Maybe I could / should have jumped more... But. Eh. I had clear goals for the ride: jump some solid things calmly and pleasantly, and let the mare travel across the ground. I liked that we were able to continue the trend of kinda stringing "questions" together -- whether that was the log down into the 'rollercoaster,' the bending line around the water, or the jump uphill to the steps. 

so pleased with this critter <3 <3 <3

I also liked that this ride managed to be a "new" schooling experience vs a repeat of our visit here last month. We went the opposite direction around the property this time (counterclockwise around the loop), and jumped almost entirely different fences aside from the first two. 

That's part of Tranquillity's charm, honestly. There is just so much there, you can kinda create whatever style ride you want and still not get to everything. Or you can be like me, visiting often and nibbling off tiny little bite-sized rides each time. 

So. Another great experience in which Doozy continues to ride the wave of her new chilled + relaxed vibes breakthrough. I like it!