happy thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving -- and that you get to enjoy meals and sweet treats with the folks and critters you love best <3

any occasion can be a special occasion when there are cupcakes to share <3

i like to think charlie is with his bff Iggy again, swatting each others flies** and grazing endless grassy pastures <3
(**they have to bc the best horses go to heaven without their tails <3)

forever Charles

I wrote yesterday about Charlie, "Time is an amazing gift, we'll see what it brings." In a way, I am grateful that feelings of happiness, hope and optimism colored these last few months with him. 

We said goodbye to him very suddenly and unexpectedly last night. Charlie spent a gorgeous day outside in the sunshine, doing normal Charlie things. Then came in, ate his dinner, then had a sudden and extremely acute neurological event of some sort. We don't really know. 

It felt like forever waiting for the vet, but in the grand scheme of things it was not a long, drawn-out protracted affair. There was no hand-wringing or uncertainty. I got to stay with him and reassure him that he truly was the best ever, and then we said goodbye. 

forever my favorite <3

normal barn things

Something about the transition from summer to fall always feels really fast and furious to me. Almost hectic. Idk what it is... folks reawakening after the dog days of summer? Suddenly realizing the shortening days? Idk. Regardless, September is kinda a wild time in my life. 

omg guys, doozy has new ponies <3 <3 <3

November, tho? Well. Ok. Also kinda wild LOL. Imminent holidays, closing calendar (and maybe fiscal!) years too... All sorts of shenanigans. And woof, before you know it? Almost December!

and a new bff, wave!

But from a horsey perspective? We're currently at a moment of breathing deeply, of resting, however briefly. The weather is turning. Daylight hours are very short. Weeknight riding options are now limited to lighted riding spaces.

she embarked on her first solo mission into the woods too omg

Doozy got some pretty significant (and VERY welcome) lifestyle adjustments in recent weeks too. She and her bebe Morgan paddock buddy integrated into another small cabal of pony mares just in time for round bale season. 

something about the woods in winter tho, i just love it

Doozy LOVED her pony friends at the last barn, but never really warmed to her little Morgan friend since moving. Tho... tbh, the quality of her days doesn't seem particularly reliant on whatever society she keeps. Annoying bebe Morgan? Meh. Cute group of pony mares? Eh. 

Bc apparently, in Doozland, it's all about the food. If there's something to eat? Mare is happy!

strolling by the stream!

Still tho, I secretly appreciate that she has friends now. Esp bc I feel less guilty about taking her out of the field away from a group instead of a single bebe. And I not-so-secretly love that none of them care about the extraction. Yessss!! Ya just never know with mares, amirite?

woot woot, officially transitioned to round bales! tho, as of this post, this particular bale is already all gone omg mares

Our under saddle work is kinda simplifying a bit too. Leading up to Waredaca, I made it my business to find daylight hours to get in our final working sessions -- including reintroducing grids at slightly more realistic distances from last time lol. 

continuing to jump around outside for as long as conditions allow

Recall, Amy came to visit and serve as jump crew a few weeks ago, and I'd set an 18' grid that Doozy cruised thru using some interpretive dance moves that were not exactly what I'd intended. 

omg grids! this is a 9' bounce to a 21' one stride

It turns out, a 21' distance (still shorter than true) is a better fit. So we've played around with variations on this distance in grids. I first set up a configuration that was bounce to one stride, tho we actually came thru the other direction too. 

a week later: simplified to a bi-directional 21' one stride with 9' ground rails on both ends

Mostly, tho, just the simple one stride grid seems to be doing what I want it to do. Which is... Ask Doozy to be just a little straighter and sharper without punishing her keenness. 

and another week later, carrying on with the bi-directional 21' one stride -- increasing beefiness to individual elements -- note the hogsback vertical pole in that far element? eventually everything will all be verticals once Doozy feels really confirmed in answering the grid question

She's learning to recognize the exercise, which is good bc it can be a LOT to look at coming around a corner and seeing a veritable sea of poles lol... Eventually I'll continue progressing the exercise into more height and variety and like, oxers and stuff... But for now, this suits! 

indoor is big enough for courses and fully stocked with supplies!

And anyway it's dark most days when I get to the barn so we're just working with what we got in sharing spaces with lessons etc. 

the big star <3

Over in Chuckleslandia, the big guy is doing well too. He's being slightly less ridiculous now that he's getting more attention (and more work, even if it's just walkies work). 

he is GLOSSY and FAT omg. and demanding, LOL

This is the first year since I've owned him that he hasn't been clipped, and he's FUZZY! But still oh-so-soft omg <3

and omg he sometimes canters <3 <3 <3

It's been really nice sitting on him more regularly, but I'm still trying to just take it one day at a time. Some days he feels really eager and ready to go, and I can't resist pushing for a little more!

my janky selfie game can't hide his celestial aura <3

Some days, tho, he's more distracted or dull or just less forward for whatever reason, and it's easier to feel all his physical limitations, and we content ourselves with... a lot less. 

the bestest bronto <3 he loves when i try to take selfies bc it's essentially just extended moments of face hugging haha

And it's all good! I remain ever hopeful that Charlie may still surprise us yet. But, he's in a home and situation where it's all good either way! Time is an amazing gift, we'll see what it brings.

it's not a bad gig for the big guy, tbh!

So yea. Both horses are easing into the season. I kinda pretty deeply wish Doozy was as fat and glossy as The Sir Himself... But then again, he certainly didn't look the way he does now, back then. So I'm trying to be patient. 

back to doozland -- mare looking straight up drugged at her farrier appt. twas not drugged, just bein a sweet lady!

Doozy's new farrier, who has seen her 3x now, absolutely swears that she's grown. Idk if I see it, tbh lol... But, eh, we'll see what emerges come springtime!

Maya Kuntze Photography knocked it outta the park with their shots of us at Waredaca!! consider how tricky the lighting conditions were in that second pic, but they were determined to feature the gorgeous pond. i love it!

She's certainly come a long way this year, tho. Our winter plan is to explore fun educational opportunities, and keep shoving calories into her as much as possible. Oh, and continue all the wellness stuff we've figured out for her general management. 

my pretty starlet <3

I'm also gonna try to get away without clipping her too -- just to keep her as warm and insulated as possible. Tho ya know, I also don't wanna spend ages lollygagging around waiting for her to dry after a ride, so we'll see. 

bundled bc it's apparently winter now, y'all! stay warm!

Anyway. That's a lot of pictures and random updates from the last few weeks of us just sorta doing normal barn things! Just the little bits of minutiae of everyday horsing. It's been quiet and relaxing, and for that I'm grateful haha! Are all y'all settling into the season similarly? 

First Year Event Horse

With the competition season winding down and holidays looming large on the horizon, it feels like a good time to pause and reflect on Doozy's first year as my event horse!

It's been a long journey with this mare... Lots of ups and downs... From flunking her 30 day performance review to absolutely winning me over in her first jumping lesson, and everything in between - and that was just her first 3 months with me, last year's news! 

So today, I wanna keep it high level -- focusing mainly on the big training milestones and competition landmarks, with a representative photo and brief memory of each ride. And obvi links to the original post should you be inclined.

sweet doozy, it's been quite a year!

Starting back in January 2024, with a decidedly ill-advised Dressage Clinic with Lauren Sprieser. I say "ill-advised" bc we were in no way, shape, or form ready to truly benefit from this caliber clinician (recall, we could barely trot a normal circle) and it was very expensive. 

Buuuuuut... It was at a lovely facility close to home, with a friend (who **really** wanted the clinic to fill so she could ride in it) stepping up to help ensure we had a successful first trip off property. Verdict? #WorthIt

 

i tried to choose a single representative photo from each big ride this year. apparently pickins were slim from this clinic LOL

Living through that first experience shipping out to lessons with Doozy gave me confidence to sign up for our next adventure, a Jumping Clinic with Sally Cousins (slightly farther from home). Again, we needed a lot of help from very capable friends, plus a full hour of hand-walking before my lesson... But again, it was so worth it -- this lesson was a huge boost in believing Doozy might really be the horse I hoped/thought she was.  

legitimately one of my favorite pics of this mare like.... ever -- pc Niamh O'Connell!

It was still slow going, tho. The flatwork in particular with this horse was (is?)... challenging to me. And we had a somewhat frustrating go at an at-home Dressage Schooling Show in February.

trying hard to do the thing, stupid white gloves and all <3

We persevere, tho, amirite?? And anyway, I serendipitously got home a day early from a trip to California (Ram Tap - loved ya!) and managed to snag a seat on the bus to XC Derby Schooling @ Loch Moy!!! Holy cow, guys, this was a great day! Sure, it took something like an hour of wandering around all the rings familiarizing before we could actually attempt to do anything "real." But once Doozy was like, "Oh, we're jumping?" We were JOMPING, MA'AM!

wherein doozy blew us all away by being an absolute rockstar

What a horse, guys. Next on the agenda was a perfect playdate with friends that, for me? Really encapsulates the types of formative experiences that are so beneficial for green horses (and nervous riders). We went to the Blue Goose Schooling Dressage Show at the Stables at Fox Crossing, wherein we completed two dressage tests (completed them quite badly, but did in fact complete them) and then headed out for a lowkey play in the adjoining xc field. 

None of it was perfect, but all of it was fun.

this day really encapsulates my approach to bringing doozy along

So I tried to remember that feeling bc the very next week was, OMG, Doozy's first real "show" - Hunt Club Farm's Starter Trial!! We just did the combined test of dressage and show jumping... But still. I was pretty nervous. And probably didn't ride very well. But it was fine -- better than fine. Doozy was so so so good. Like. Ok. Hard to ride in the warm up rings, an enormous handful when she first came off the trailer... But she soaked it up, sucked it in, and was a solid citizen when it counted.

holy crap we did it!

So obviously, the next key milestone was figuring out that third phase, with an XC Clinic with Sally @ Windurra! Not gonna lie, I was mostly just hangin out on the periphery while my two friends had more advanced lessons on their N/T horses... But we jumped some stuff, played with banks, got in and out of the water, and generally learned the rhythms of an xc lesson with horses coming and going, often at speed. 

Similar to the Sprieser clinic, we probably could have accomplished this at a lower cost than Windurra... But, eh, it was a great day so #yolo

we didn't jump much or particularly well, but it was a lot of fun <3

Anyway, it was around this time we started semi regular dressage lessons with my longtime trainer C. I'm not going to link to all these posts, esp bc I didn't even write about them all, but do want to emphasize the impact these lessons have had on us, esp when framed by our overall journey and timeline.

lessons <3

Tho. Lol. It's still me and Doozy we're talking about, here, so the impact in terms of performance at actual competitions will take a while to see!

But we proceed with the competitions anyway, bc we wanna!! And by late April, Doozy attended her first 3-phase Starter Trial at Fair Hill! What a day, guys. Soooooo much hand walking. Doozy was a huge handful. I thought more than once about scratching. But I didn't scratch, and am so glad for that. Doozy just went out and jumped her jumps -- esp the xc phase. It was literally the easiest part of our whole day!

holy crap we did it AGAIN -- this time ALL of it!

Sooooo. Ya know. It was starting to become apparent that, maybe this horse might actually really like this whole jumping thing. Not to mention that she was growing up and maturing considerably with each big trip off farm. We finished April with another low key reaffirmation -- a CT at Thornridge that had some bloopers but was overall another solid experience.

chaos normalized

It was around this time that I sensed we were getting into a phase I remembered from Charlie's early days. That phase where the green horse thinks they know everything. When. Cough cough, they absolutely do not. This phase, in my experience, usually involves going very fast over jumps that suddenly feel very small. Case in point: another lesson at Kealani with Sally, where we kinda had to break it down again for the mare. 

doozy started getting pretty big for her britches lol

Sally encouraged me to still keep getting out and about, tho, that it was just a phase and exposure would be the cure. So we kept it up, including more lessons with Trainer C.

starting to figure out the game along the way

Because the biggie was still ahead of us. By May it was clear we'd be moving farms after having Charlie at the last place for 7 years. So all my focus shifted to orchestrating the barn moves and planning big "Last Hurrah" adventures with my longtime friends and barn mates. Including a lovely evening spent  schooling the xc courses at Shawan with Amy!

had a last hurrah schooling adventure with our longtime friend Amy

In a way, I'm grateful that our next show - the MCTA Jenny Camp @ Shawan Downs - had this sorta larger external framing, bc on its own it was a pretty hard show - esp given we moved up to the 2'3 level. Doozy was almost unrideable in dressage warmup (and we had a decidedly not sympathetic judge), and extremely strong bordering on frantic in show jumping. We also had a little trouble getting out the start box on xc. 

Knowing that it was an important day in terms of closing a very important and deeply meaningful chapter in my horsey life helped me keep my perspective and not get too bogged down in the difficulties of the rides themselves. It helped that the xc was downright wonderful tho, yet again. Are you sensing a theme here from Doozy? 

omg we did it again AGAIN! was a little wild tho

So anyway. A few days later, we unloaded at the new barn. In retrospect, this was fortuitous timing. The move gave us space to slow down, reestablish our basics and partnership, and untangle everything Doozy had learned about jumping from the somewhat frantic feeling that begun creeping in to our jumping.

and then everything changed. for the better.

Moving barns also helped/forced me to take a fresh look at our coaching landscape. And as luck would have it, a summer clinic series with Dom Schramm popped up close to home. These lessons were hugely influential for us -- Dom had a heavy focus on reaffirming flatwork fundamentals within the jumping that made a huge difference for helping Doozy slow down, take a breath, and regain her confidence. Lessons one two and three linked here.

embarked on a summer series of clinics with Dom, and really figured a LOT out

Those lessons also served as an effective launch pad for getting back to my own privateer roots. As much as I'd love to completely immerse ourselves in a program, it's not realistic and I can't just wait around for someone to have time for guiding me through every activity I wanna do. 

So. Armed with fresh skills, we embarked on operation "Put Together a Fall Season!" Starting with, naturally, a self-guided XC Schooling @ Tranquillity in early September. Our first time out xc since Jenny Camp. And it was a good ride. Not perfect. But good.

got serious about creating our own xc schooling destiny, #PrivateerStyle

Tho we did enjoy some proper coaching at our next outing - a Schooling Jumper Show @ Swan Lake with trainer Kelly, where we did a round at .70m in the pouring rain. Doozy was again LIT UP in all the atmosphere at the show, it was a big ask for her. But I had a plan to help her settle and feel prepared for when she entered the ring. And Kelly gave us a really solid warm up, so that by the time it was our turn? Doozy was honestly very good. Very green, but very good.

dipped a toe in HJ land in the pouring rain

If Swan Lake felt like a LOT of work for a little ride, our day at Loch Moy in late September for the Pick Your Test / Jumper Rounds was kinda the opposite. I knew we needed more exposure, and wanted to get Doozy back to this facility before the next starter trial, so we came back for a quiet day to run through our test and an easy (and tiny!) show jumping round. It still wasn't easy, but it maybe wasn't as hard?

this day was more about preparing my own head space than anything else

Anyway. I made some adjustments to Doozy's mgmt in late September, including introducing more gastric support esp re: trailering and training, and a body work session that quite possibly helped Doozy release an entire year's worth of tension from her muscles. Bc her next dressage lesson was legit lovely, and she's kinda been a new horse ever since. 

doozy saw her body worker again and magically melted off months worth of ingrained tension

We went back to Tranquillity with a friend for another quick xc schooling trip before kicking off our Fall Season in earnest, and Doozy was just.... perfect. Like I still made mistakes and stuff, but she's just really starting to get it.

casual xc, nbd

And at our next big show? The Starter Trial & MDHT Loch Moy Farm?? Well. Doozy was just spectacular. This was clearly a horse who knew what to expect from each phase, and knew how to do it nicely. Well. Ok, not "nicely" for the dressage, but that's more a reflection of her trainer (me!) vs the horse herself! This day was better than it had any right to be, and I'm still so over the moon with how it went!

Queen of Jompies, Knower of Everything
(the mare, not the human!)

So obviously no rest for the weary, right? It felt like a lot of what went right at Loch Moy was related to the routinized schedule and preparation. Doing the things makes the things easier to do, and all that. We therefore hit up the Combined Test @ Thornridge Manor, but this time at BN, to keep the momentum going and also give the mare a bit more of a challenge. This was without a doubt our best dressage test yet, and the jumping was honestly quite good even tho they were bigger fences and I made a couple mistakes.

jumping slightly bigger sticks <3

We snuck in a final trip for more xc at Tranquillity again at the beginning of November. Not necessarily bc the mare needed it, but bc it was clear that this routine has been benefiting my own headspace and anxiety too. Honestly, we should probably be doing this every few weeks or every month for as long as the ground can take it, bc it's just been SUCH a good routine for us!

routine preparations

And that brings us to the conclusion of Doozy's first year as an eventer -- finishing the season at Waredaca a week or so ago! 

what a mare

Virtual cookies if you actually read this far LOL! 

For real, tho, I'm so proud of this little mare. She's come so far, has become so consistent, settled so nicely, that it's easy to forget how tricky the early days were. But this actual eventing 'job' seems to come quite naturally to her -- and the more she learns about it, the easier everything else seems to get! 

There's always more to come -- and plenty of fun off season adventures hopefully on the horizon. But for now? It's nice to sorta step back and feel appreciation and gratitude for it all.