taking flight @ tranquility!

Our little barn group headed out bright and early Sunday morning for what's become an annual tradition: Tranquility's Labor Day Hunter Pace!! Get ready for the photo spam haha!

repurposing kid's costumes FTW!! also, it's hard to tell, but Royal's boots are literally dripping in blue glitter omg

Our team consisted of two OTTBs and two pony mares. All first-timers except Charlie, tho one rider did past outings with her late mare, Cos. So Charlie was technically the most experienced of the group, but it was honestly a downright great set of horses for this kind of ride. 

i love how Tink looks like a dragon here, ready for her wings lol.... 
(in reality, she's just cat-stretching haha, see the extended hind leg?)

Obvi we all dressed for the occasion too -- horses included lol. It really doesn't take much to throw together a reasonably cohesive and fun look, ya know? One set of glittery mesh costume wings in all different colors, and each horse + rider color-coordinated shirts, saddle pads, and accents like gloves, boots, bonnets etc. Ta da!

Stella was absolutely mint condition in her little wings too <3
also, omg, the izzy vibes are so strong haha

Extra details finished the look: Katie's epic dragon wings (with retractable pull cords to open + close, omg); and Charlie's repurposed-kid-costume butterfly saddle pad lol. Another set of mesh wings adorned Stella's saddle pad, and Royal dazzled in his array of glittery body paint designs! 

Royal's glittery butt paint!! this pic was actually post-ride, too. pretty sure she used Tresemme glitter gel for it

It was a little tricky layering all the wings and pinnies etc, but once we were all dressed -- it was GO TIME!! 

lol my wild beastie was a bit of a pre-ride pest....

You don't really need to warm up for these rides, and honestly we don't bother for the longer 6-8mi paces. But this weekend was only ~2.5mi, and we knew we wanted to spend some time jumping around. So -- off to the warm up ring we went! 

obvi he's still a total pro, tho <3

Which.... Proved to be a good call haha. The dragon wings were.... uh... just a tad too spooky at speed. They snapped and flapped like noisy flags at anything faster than a walk, which sent poor Tink scooting up Chuck's butt, thus sending poor Chuck scooting forward too haha. 

assemble!!

So, eh, the executive decision was made to ditch that set and replace with the last remaining set of mesh kid's wings. At least we'd already gotten our pictures LOL (bc let's be real, isn't that the important part here?? lol). 

ahhhh-mazing, right?? the wings had little draw strings so they opened and closed omg

Meanwhile, the other riders who had never really done a ride quite like this with their horses (meaning: crowds everywhere, trotting and cantering in different directions as far as the eye can see) got a feel for how to manage their horses in the conditions. 

Again -- these are all very good riders on reasonably experienced horses. But group riding will always feel a little different, and it's important to make sure you're really supporting your horse, who might be more distracted and on edge than you're used to feeling. 

wheeeeee lift off!!! gettin run away with in warm up lol!! 

So everyone walked, trotted, cantered, and jumped around a little in the warm up to sorta 'calibrate the parameters' lol, and then before we knew it, we were out on course!!

don't be fooled by those pretty Thornridge pics -- this how we trot like 95% of the time lol

The track dumped us almost immediately into Tranquility's first main xc field alongside the driveway, where naturally we all popped over a couple things here and there. Starting with a little log to get the feel for it, then some more exciting stuff. 

omg wings errywhere!! sadly, had to replace the too-spooky dragon wings for the notably-tamer pink pair... ah well, was worth the try!

We had a couple good trots and canters out, then found ourselves descending the hill toward the water hole, where we had another fun little school (and Royal got to settle some years-old history with those blasted blue twisty tables LOL). 

flying lol

Then we zoomed up another hill, jumping all the fun jumps along the way -- like the awesome rampy chevron thing, and arrived in another little schooling zone with the ditch etc. Obvi everyone got to play a bit there too haha. 

Tho, omg, Charlie actually kinda peeked at the tiny little ditch! Probably baggage from me catapulting off of him back at Fair Hill, whoops... He jumped it, tho, and that's what matters <3

ok we did not win any awards for team posing haha

Actually --- Charlie jumped everything pretty freakin great. He had been quite emotional at the trailers, in his own internalizing sort of way. The track went around a path right behind our trailers on the other side of a wall... So Charlie was very worried by all these groups of horses zipping past out of sight.... 

wheee go team!!!

Then in warm up he felt a little fragile, esp after getting a bit spooked by the Dragon Wings lol.... Then kinda wanted to be very strong and running away with me when we started jumping. 

the sadness of my selfie game: people faces OR pony faces, but NOT both, lol.... siiiiigh

But once we got out onto the course? He felt great!! Like, still very strong -- esp in the early part of the ride. He wanted to race up all the hills, and spring forth into canter the moment any other horse picked up speed... But he really jumped everything very very nicely.  

silly? 100% yes. the most fun? absolutely

I made it my business to be careful with my hands and not take him for granted. If we wanna jump, we gonna jump like we've been taught lol, not just running headlong at random stuff. So I held the neck strap like a good little {flying} monkey, and kept my leg on and eye up. 

And Charlie happily cantered on up to everything in a nice forward but still uphill balance -- and found everything right out of stride. Good boy!! 

another attempt at posing near the end of the ride, as we passed the trailers

I was also happy with my bridle choice. Charlie has so many different bridles... I can torture myself about what to wear lol.... 

The hackamore is an old favorite, but sometimes Charlie jumps better with more contact than it should do. Our KK loose ring snaffle tried at past paces isn't enough when Charlie gets really strong -- I end up just hangin on him. And this past spring, Charlie officially declared our go-to KK elevator bit as too pinch-y. So... we switched to a loose ring waterford, which Charlie's worn for most of our big rides and outings this year. 

link to helmet cam video here!! 

I was always convinced Charlie did better with leverage vs different mouth pieces... But after seeing interviews with multiple grand prix show jumpers who said they liked this bit for horses who lean, we decided to try it. And? Charlie seems to like it! No head tossing, no fussing, and, uh, it works -- but without backing him off, he can still push into it. 

Works for me! And this ride felt like a great proof of concept -- and was maybe the first hunter pace where I felt like Charlie wore the exact right bridle for the occasion. 

finish line!!!

The course kinda meandered around through some fields, tho notably not around all the pasture lines we've used as gallop stretches in the past. And oddly enough, even tho the track was basically the reverse of last year -- and I complained last year about it being 'mostly down hill' -- it still felt 'mostly down hill' this year too. 

clocked a finish time of 39min, optimum time (kept top secret until after) was 26min. imo, it was extra time well spent!

So we probably skipped something like half the jumps, bc eh no thanks to jumping down hill LOL. Sure, a reasonable person might note this was the perfect opportunity to practice in safe low-key settings.... But, eh, nahhh, haha! 

Finally, tho, after one little tromp through the woods, we emerged in the last xc field for a quick circuit back to the finish line over a row of bright red hunt coops (gif above)! 

the boys back at the trailer. omg it is definitely time to trim that tail, eh?

I was super proud of Charlie at the finish for jumping the 3' coop foot-perfect (thankfully, since it was hella crowded LOL), AND pulling up right at the line quite easily -- rather than mowing down any innocent bystanders like he might have in years past haha... hahaha. 

until next time!! 

And with that, our ride was finished!! Elapsed time of 39 minutes over the 2.5mi track. Pretty slow, all things considered, but time well spent schooling around all the fun little areas on course.

All that was left was to enjoy a quick cold white claw at the trailers while we cooled off and untacked the horses, and rehashed our favorite parts of the ride. Each horse got to jump a lot of new and interesting things and gain in confidence and experience. And they were all fantastic about group riding!! No bolting, bucking, kicking -- nada!!  

Everyone had a good time, and... ya know.... that's kinda the whole point -- of all of it, haha. Obvi the costumes are a little silly, but it just makes the whole experience so much more memorable. We're already looking forward to next time!! 

caption that photo

Happy long weekend!! God I needed this.... lol... 

For real tho, the long weekend felt well-overdue, and we made the best of the pleasantly cool and misty morning (still humid but not like... omg) by hitting up our favorite Labor Day Weekend hunter pace at Tranquility! 

caption that photo

Obvi there are a metric ton of pictures, bc duh.... And that'll all come soon enough.

But this one... This one I kinda love and wanted to share early. Bc... Idk.... the "caption" choices kinda seem endless....

"Charlie do be tall sometimes...."

....

"Charlie's Angels... of Good and Evil"

....

"It lives under a tree, ok?! Don't judge :( "

....

"CALM DOWN, CHARLIE. But like, for real this time?"

....

"He has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. He's also

deaf in one ear...."

....

friday foto finish: hinting at tradition

Happy Friday, everyone!! And a happy long weekend especially to the US readers out there!! Idk what it is, but this Labor Day Weekend both snuck up on me, AND simultaneously feels way overdue. 

bc it's been too long since we featured some cats here on ye olde blogge

Probably bc... This is legit the first Labor Day Weekend I can ever remember that occurs after we're already days into September. 

And like, Holy Fuck, y'all. It is September 2021. How, -- why!? So much has happened since 2020, and yet.... omg, why are some things not even remotely different yet?! Arghhh... 

lolz, in case you were confused by yesterday's shoddily edited "hint hint" pic.... here's a memorable throwback to an amazing "inspo pic" from years past....

Ahem. Cough Cough. (But not coughing *like that*)....

Anyways. One Very Important Thing is getting back to normal this year. I mean. It happened last year too.... But. Eh, last year was a cluster. *I* was a cluster. So we're kinda just gonna move on and harken back to better, earlier days - and hopefully better (immediate) future days too!

obvi we recycle here at 'Fraidy Cat Eventing, with one mighty superhero cape passed down to the next generation <3 
(pro tip: stuff like this makes excellent 'wrapping paper' -- two gifts in one!)

In case you haven't figured it out yet -- I'm talking about the annual tradition here at 'Fraidy Cat Eventing of liberating our inner 12yos, in conjunction with local farm Tranquility Manor's annual Fall Hunter Pace. 

aaaaand back to the cats again. yes that gray one is exactly as bad as he looks lol

The hunter pace is basically a beautiful mix of glorified trail riding and cross country schooling -- with the bonus of potentially winning ribbons. All for the bargain price of $25. 

Teams gather at Tranquility for a jaunt across their extensive property -- following a specially marked trail through the woods, over hill and dale, and -- notably -- through all their schooling fields. There are different "divisions" to enter, based on whether you want to go fast over the big stuff, or go lower and slower, or even just enjoy a relaxing flat ride (every jump can be gotten around). And each division has its own "optimum time," which is kept top secret until all teams have completed. Closest to the time wins!

it was literally on the floor for like, one second so i could take a pic. then -- insta-cat-battle-ground

Naturally, organizers fully expect teams to linger in the xc schooling fields, tho -- taking full advantage of Tranquility's extensive collection of many many fun fences. They have an enormous assortment of all manner of xc jumps, virtually all of which are below 3', and many of which are right around the 18"-2'3 sweet spot. 

So the "optimum times" are generally padded out with the expectation that riders will take their time to enjoy the facilities, ya know? 

ooooh there ain't no cats in this one, tho!

Tho... Uh, obviously none of that really speaks to the content in any of these photos, lol....

The truth is... We tend to go a little extra at these events. Like, obviously most teams opt for some degree of outfit coordination. By which I mean, the day is generally an absolute ocean of navy blue polos + tan breeches. With the occasional "wild" purple or pink outlier lol. 

hmmmmm, yessss

We kinda go.... hard in a completely different direction. It started innocently enough, with the random creative spark to use the hunter pace as a vehicle for a surprise bridal shower back in 2016.

It grew wildly out of control from there, tho. Like, 'costumes' aren't required (or even really encouraged) at this event, and we are 100% the only people who do this.... but yet, we can't stop haha. In years since, we've done: 

- Taste the Rainbow (2017)

- Jockeys & Racehorses (2018)

- Superheroes (2019)

- Did Somebody Call a Doctor? (2020)

"i was told there would be an adventure?!" -- charles, ready for action

And this year?? We hope to take flight <3 

Or at least, lol, that's the idea. It's a bit of a hodge podge this year, thrown together at the last minute with a lot of new horses in the mix. As it should be tho, obviously haha. 

Ultimately, we're hoping for a Good Day. With good horses, fun facilities, and riders who are ready to let loose and enjoy themselves and this ridiculous lifestyle we've chosen lol. Oooh. And I'm hoping for at least a couple good pics, too ;) 

Happy Weekend, everybody!!

wellness 2.0

I read commentary recently from an athlete in an entirely different sport, that "you don't get fit from training -- you get fit from the recovery."

This, to me, was an insightful perspective, esp given where Charlie and I are in 'resetting' our overall training program. Basically, I've struggled with the balance between learning how to condition a horse, vs risking unnecessary overuse or stress-related injuries. Since... Ya know, it's no real secret that most riding-related horse injuries occur during training and fitness work. 

my glossy sleek beastie, ready for action!!

So... I'm trying this new perspective on for size as a way to evaluate where Charlie is now, and make plans for where I want him to be. 

It's been a very hot, humid, and dry summer -- after what was honestly a lovely (and well-hydrated) spring. Charlie's hooves don't thrive on drought-hardened ground, and I don't thrive in heat indices above 95*F.. So... Let's just say that beyond our little CT and Derby outings, we've basically laid low. Let's call it a "recovery" season haha. 

obvi those nails don't look great, but these are charlie's interior hind hoof walls at 5wks in august during a drought. knowing that he likes to rest his hind hooves on top of each other (thus putting extreme stress on those particular nails), i'm honestly quite pleased with how well the walls are holding up!

We've worked hard all summer at basically.... Sustaining. And maintaining. Staying vigilant about the things that are going well --- like OMG Charlie's feet!! This is the first summer since I've owned him where he actually went 6wks during his July cycle. Unheard of. 

That's due in large part to getting a head start on hoof care last March, with leather pads etc, zealous keratex applications and fly boots. Plus obvi trying to make good choices about how I use Charlie in sub-optimal ground conditions. 

charlie's fronts at 5wks in august. unbelievable. these hooves benefit from leather pads + fly boots. all 4 hooves get keratex about 4-5days/week.

Still tho, even with protective and limited use, the hard ground seems to have a cumulative effect on horses. They can't ever really "take a load off," ya know? It's not like Charlie can just park it on the sofa with his feet up. The bad ground conditions are basically inescapable, and have a ripple effect on Charlie's entire state of being. 

So a few months out from his last hock injections (March), we opted to do another course of Adequan. I try to strike the right cadence with all these treatments so that they each support and increase the longevity of the other. Tho, eh, what do I really know, ya know? 

hm, somebody's got the drunk sweats....

My vet advised that new research suggests doing a whole box of Adequan at once (one shot every 4 days, for a full 7-shot box over 4 weeks) produces similar / equitable results to the traditional "shot a month" approach. 

We started using Adequan with Charlie in December 2019, and I do about a box once a year(ish), generally spaced depending on when we last did Charlie's hocks (his most reliably annual intervention).

TFW you're way more crippled than your horse during the flexion jogs...

Of course, we've done other interventions with Charlie in the past, too. Like his coffins, which we injected in November 2019. And his stifles, which he had injected on the track before I got him, and then with me in June 2019 (the point at which I realized some hard lessons about how complicated conditioning work can really be....).

smooshy sleepy nose!!

There have been a couple moments lately this summer where I wondered if Charlie might be ready for stifle attention again. And esp after thinking about building "fitness" from "recovery," I decided to schedule a lameness exam to take a closer look. 

Charlie's honestly pretty freakin sound right now, but was mild-moderate on one of the three stifle flexions on the leg that's been most suspect. Baaaaasically borderline... But, eh, with Charlie I like to play the margins. He's a big horse who will compensate for a weak hind end by pounding more heavily up front. Thanks, but no thanks, those feet already suffer through enough. 

charlie fully embraces the sedation, takes him FOREVER to wake up cuz he likes it so much...

So we went ahead and did his stifles again, just one injection apiece (of 3 potential sites), with the idea being that after all this -- the horse should well and truly be in a place of stasis. 

His feet are in good shape, his joints are freshly supported, and his muscles are basically pretty well rested at this point. Tho obvi he got an appointment with his favorite chiro / acupuncture guru just to really put the icing on the cake. 

not as much of a fan of stall rest. pictured: wild tb on the prowl while 'hand grazing'

For me, all this timing seems.... Honestly really good. I'm coming to realize that... Actually peak summer might be my least favorite season, LOL. It's hard to admit bc there's always so much cool stuff going on in July and August... And obvi we've DONE a lot of cool stuff these months. 

But... The nice thing about sticking with low-key, small-ask schooling type events is that... Eh, if the weather sucks, we can bow out. And since our chosen levels are well within our training, there really isn't a whole lot of prep needed for a little CT, ya know?

the most curious george

But the fall season?? That's 100% my favorite riding season. There's so much to do!! More fun CTs and Derbies!! And hunter paces omg!! And, maybe, just maybe, we'll actually possibly potentially consider evaluating the rough likelihood of conceivably perchance entering a full 3-phase event. Perhaps. Maybe. Ahem, cough cough. We'll see. 

oooooh and even more stabby jabbies!!

So. Back to that original sports commentary from above, I'm looking at building Charlie back up again with a big focus on maintaining wellness, on recovery. Starting from a place where the horse is basically in his topmost form, and adding from there. 

Rather than thinking of our conditioning or cardio rides as indicators of 'fitness,' I'll focus on giving Charlie's body the rest and wellness he needs amidst all that to really inform where he's at. 

obvi gotta do all the things for my sweet social butterfly -- he has very important plans!!

Or, ya know, haha. That's at least my plan at this point. We're primed and prepared for the season ahead, whatever may come. And, ahem, there are some plans to come. And some very important traditions to uphold (hint hint). But we'll see about all that later, lol. 

In the meantime, now that the remains of Hurricane Ida have well and properly drenched our ground and alleviated the drought, it's time to get back at it. Is anybody else taking a fresh look at your conditioning and wellness plans with an eye toward the changing seasons? Is there anything you always look out for in anticipation of fall weather**?? 

(**Obvi other than buying your fall dewormer in advance bc, ahem, cough cough, apparently there's a run on the market right now, wtf....)

more pics + a comparison

I got a few more pics from our CT at Thornridge Manor last weekend -- courtesy of Bethany P Photography -- and honestly am kinda in love with them. 

Obvi these are the absolute *most* cherry-picked of the whole bunch. Like... If you're going to spend nearly the cost of the entry on 2 photos, gotta pick the best, right? But they feel representative of how Charlie went in this test, for which he earned a 31.7% (would have been a 30.7% had I not gone off course...).

he's easy on the eyes <3

Since I got such a nice candid shot from last month's outing, this time I wanted two good action shots -- including one at canter. And for each, I chose the pic where Charlie showed the most lift through his shoulder and wither. 

"Lift" is not really something we got a lot of with this horse, let's be honest. Nor is there much in the way of "suspension" lol. The moments can be fleeting, few and far between. But, again as I wrote in the actual show recap, we managed to get the warm up just right so that Charlie was primed to perform his best in the test -- and these photos feel like a testament to that. 

Charlie was more forward, and therefore had an easier time propelling himself up and off the ground. 

i love his thick, wild mane and glossy coat

It's interesting to compare to older pictures too, like the below from Loch Moy in 2019. All things considered, Charlie and I are still at the same level of competition as we were then -- novice eventing  / first level dressage. But a lot has changed in how we go. 

Learning how to ride Charlie on the flat has been a constant evolution. Isabel was the first horse I ever actually seriously tried to get 'on the bit' -- and the primary focus with her always revolved around lengthening her neck and not curling. The switch from her to Charlie was..... enormous lol. Charlie's defining characteristic is his extreme physical length lol. 

So the difficulty with him has always been in getting him to sorta shorten his body from nose to tail -- to be less rangy, less strung out -- but without sacrificing stride length or shortening his top line. How to preserve a long topline on a horse whose body you want to shorten? 

flashback to april 2019, first show of the year at novice. we earned a 36.9% in this test
pc Austen Gage

I've written a lot already about how we 'kinda gave up' on dressage last winter, but the gist was that I basically stopped fussing with the bridle altogether -- opting instead to ride exclusively in our hackamore. And in the meantime, just focused on keeping the horse moving forward in a steady rhythm while working on my own position (har har). 

And while that approach didn't necessarily fix everything, it felt like an effective "reset" for us, and helped break a couple really bad habits:: like riding the horse too much front to back, too backward and behind the leg, in order to get him "round" (bunny ears intentional there).

It feels like we're both a little happier in the work -- not fighting as much or picking at the details. Which.... ya know.... is kinda the whole point. I want to walk away from our rides -- at shows, at home, anywhere -- with Charlie strutting like a champion rather than wilted and relieved it's over. 

Bc it's supposed to be fun, right? And, as far as I'm concerned, Charlie has all the pieces for first level to be well and truly FUN for us. Tho, lol, let's not talk about second level -- even just a brief scan over those tests convinced me that Charlie would 100% feel personally victimized by that level - so... thanks, but no thanks!

Obvi a couple photos cherry picked from a 4min test will never really tell the full story. But these photos above from last weekend feel validating that we're on the right track, in terms of my own personal objectives. 

can't win 'em all -- thornridge edition

This past weekend was the third combined test at Thornridge Manor of their summer series -- one being cancelled outright due to rain. Go figure, this one almost ended up cancelled too after 3" in the last day or so... but luckily the weeks of prior drought meant the ground could take it....

gotta admit, i don't love getting up before the sun...

This summer series has been wonderful for me and Charlie, as far as I'm concerned. The first of the season was basically all about just surviving a competition completion. And the second saw us swing kinda wildly in the opposite direction, with flagrant disregard for the outcome (as evidenced by my lack of preparation and disheveled hungover state lol). 

Tho, go figure, Charlie ended up winning his classes at both of those events, good boy <3

but the dawn does occasionally make for some lovely scenes

As seems fitting, this third time around I had an even newer set of objectives and goals. Basically, it was going to be a slightly bigger class than what we'd seen before, and I figured --- ehh, let's give the dressage a real try for once, maybe?

it's always critical to have your barn manager sign off before shipping out!

Maybe this is just me, but I often end up wanting to "save" my horse for the jumping at these one day events, and don't really push for much in the dressage test. 

The result is usually a reasonably nice test -- obedient and steady, but lacking any sort of forward sparkle. For this week, I figured -- eh, what the hell, let's try to actually light the horse up for the judge! 

first to arrive on the show grounds!

And actually -- it sorta kinda worked! You might remember, back in April I wrote about discovering how counter canter was enormously helpful for getting Charlie forward, engaged, and up in front of my leg. I actually fondly refer to the horse as a "counter canter savant," and therefore opted to employ the exercise fairly liberally in our warm up. 

sad to not have video... also, LOL @ the "rider" comment in the collectives.... siiiigh

Basically, my aim was to ride much more forward in our test than we typically do. It's such a delicate balance with him, bc Charlie can go around pleasantly enough -- softly doing the things etc -- but in a shuffle-y sorta way that judges don't love. But -- rev his engine too much and he's likely to stiffen his topline and plow through the bridle, losing power steering in the process. 

 

marching down to our destiny in the jump ring

Somehow tho we managed to strike the right balance for the test. Charlie's got like 4 really good minutes in him, and for once we actually got those good minutes when it counted. I'm sad not to have video from the test, but Bethany P Photography was there again so hopefully we'll get some good still shots. 

so pretty it's almost easy to imagine this rail *not* falling

Overall, the score ended up being our second-best at this level! Kiiinda exciting, considering we've been riding the test literally since it was published in 2018 (and yet I still manage to routinely go off course, whoops)... So it was a cool proof-of-concept that Charlie's got the capacity for better scores when we push for them. 

lolz my darling counter-canter-savant thought our new trick should be doing an entire round on the wrong lead

Tho.... Uh.... There's a "but" to that, lol. After about an hour break, where we tinkered around at the trailer and I got the studs in, Charlie kinda deflated into dozing off. Even when we got down to warm up for the jumping, while Charlie's body felt good and like he had plenty in the tank -- emotionally, he was maybe a bit used up. 

sweet thing <3

Combined with the absurd humidity.... Yea. It felt like I didn't have a whole lotta horse to work with. Charlie was good, and moving up to the fences, and pulling me along just the way I like.... But he wasn't exactly bursting off the ground like he's capable of doing. 

if the front end looks reasonable enough, we can ignore the hind, yes? 

Also... Somewhat hilariously, my clever little pattern- and puzzle-oriented pony has maybe learned the 'counter canter trick' a little too well. I swear to god, it felt like we did the entire friggin course on the wrong lead. Maybe I should have ridden it more like a schooling round -- and insisted on the simple changes etc. But... Eh, sometimes for actual shows I like to just get out there and ride what the horse gives. 

#cheesin

And to be honest, the counter canter wasn't really the issue. Rather, Charlie was jumping a bit flat. Like we had good distances to both of the first two jumps -- but had those rails anyway. Ah well. The turn to fence 3 was sketchy esp with the soft ground, so after dropping the first two rails I opted to circle for a nicer approach (and therefore nicer effort) rather than careen around. And it worked out fine. 

link to our helmet cam video here

Per usual, Charlie super-charged his way up the outside lines heading back toward the gate, covering the uphill distance like it was the easiest thing in the world -- good boy! Tho we did drop one more rail on our final little tour around, womp. So all told -- 3 rails and 1 circle definitely undermined what was otherwise a competitive dressage score, whoops lol.

heck yes for our second-best ever score on this test! 

Honestly tho... I hardly cared. At last month's CT we had three heavy rubs but no rails despite the lightweight PVC poles. Luck can be fickle, ya know? 

As it was, I felt like it was a useful overall experience. It was nice seeing that we *can* push for the better dressage scores when we want, but that it *will* use up more of my horse in the process. Charlie's always had a somewhat limited emotional capacity -- and I've always tried to get him over-fit physically to compensate for his emotional willingness to throw in the towel lol. 

one day we'll learn how to selfie lol

But we've stepped down fitness and conditioning work in a big way so far this summer, partly bc I haven't really felt interested in doing a full 3-phase, and partly bc I've been working hard on the margins of Charlie's overall soundness. It's always going to be a balancing act with this horse, I guess. 

Anyway, it was tempting to try a second round to clean it up, but I opted not to. Charlie was tired and sweaty, and honestly did quite nicely considering we aren't taking lessons or even doing any proper schooling lately. We'll get back to all that eventually, but things just are what they are right now lol, so I'm happy to just get out and enjoy the horse as he is. 

Tho. Lol.... We miiiiight start practicing more simple changes again, since Sir apparently forgot about those haha. Eh, details details!

WW: Thornridge Dressage

As promised, here are some pro photos from our dressage test at the Thornridge CT a few weeks back!! 

I'm so spoiled by our main local show photographer GRC, who will sell every single digital image for $99 ($79 if you already have one of their reusable thumb drives), that the price of individual photos always gives me sticker shock.... 

Bethany P Photography did such a lovely job, tho, I had to grab at least a couple! Obvi one of Charlie proving himself to be a very good boy in the dressage ring, flaws 'n all. And then another of us just being happy to be out doing the thing <3

just a charlie horse, strutting his stuff

the actual sweetest <3