wheels of the bus go round 'n round!

I gotta say, it feels really good to write lesson recap posts again. This past weekend saw a couple new landmarks for Charlie (bc basically everything we do these days is a 'first' one way or another haha).

Specifically: Charlie went on his first off property field trip with me, and rode in his first jumping lesson!! Very exciting stuff guys - we hauled over to OF for my erstwhile weekly jump lesson with trainer P, meaning I got to ride with Brita again for the first time since our bridal-themed paper chase in September!

new friends and old friends, together again!

Hard to believe it had been that long... but things were already basically over with Isabel by that point, and the bottom fell out a bit unexpectedly with Wick right after.

But. We are back on track now. And I had the pleasure of meeting Brita's newly leased project mare, Bella!! Cha-cha-cha-changes, y'all.

trying to figure out where i hid the carrots

Anyway, the trailering experience was fine. No, Charlie didn't suddenly jump up the training scales to become a perfect self-loading horse. But I got impatient. I was too eager and hungry for lessons and riding with my friends to wait for that day lol, so I planned ahead and enlisted the help of a second warm body.

exploring the grass at OF

We already knew from when I first brought Charlie home that he's a pretty straight forward horse to get into the trailer with two people, one leading at his head and another applying pressure from behind (and to close the door).

Obviously that scenario won't work on the many occasions when I'm going places by myself.... But whatever. For this weekend, I got the help of a barn mgr at Charlie's barn to go to OF, and Brita helped put him back on the trailer to come home. Good 'nuff for now.

back at my old stomping grounds!

It was totally worth it. This was also the first opportunity for one of my longtime trainers to actually physically lay eyes (and hands) on my new horse, and I was eager to hear trainer P's thoughts.

Verdict? She likes him! She observed that he has the build to make a very elegant picture when he's more trained up (fingers crossed lol) and she liked his canter too - describing it as ground covering and rhythmic. Music to my ears since I'm basically reduced to a state of drooling bliss while cantering him.

She also only half jokingly encouraged me to take LOTS of pictures of him now to fully document this "before" stage haha. Yup, I'm on it, I promise!

pony introductions!!! and note trainer P's hand delivering scritches to the ever-willing Charlie haha

The actual ride itself was pretty straight forward. I was late to the lesson (bc relying on favors from other ppl to help put your horse on the trailer means that you wait on them with patience and gratitude) so Charlie got to experience being saddled up all by himself at the trailer.

And even did the slightly long-ish hack up to the arena totally alone too, and very quietly at that! Which obvi only further whetted my appetite to take him on a real trail ride lol.

#futureeleganthorse

Once we got up to the arena I let him walk around for maybe 10ish minutes while the other horses started jumping. Then a bit of trot, wherein P took me to task for not focusing more on putting him to work. She encouraged me to raise my expectations, especially with regard to contact.

Charlie was going around softly enough for him, not high and braced, nor low and leaning. So I was basically looping the reins at him as a reward. But P said that wasn't quite right - that horses don't think deeply enough on the subject to understand that contact happens in some circumstances but not others - they just need to know that contact is always a thing. Consistency and such.

bella is CUTE

We cantered around briefly, about a lap or two in each direction. But mostly, we just kinda walked. And watched the other horses go. My objective for the ride was less "serious lesson" and more about just getting that experience. Letting Charlie soak it up and hopefully enjoy himself a little in the process.

she couldn't be more different from wick, but brita's already making good progress bringing her along!

Tho we got our turn too when P set up some ground poles for us. Charlie is basically a ground pole expert now, so he graduated quickly from that exercise. Then onto a cross rail with placing pole - again another exercise Charlie has done and seems to understand. 

Next up a small vertical - which he knocked a couple times bc snoooooze. But then P added a back rail, which started by just resting in the cup on one side, with the other side on the ground. So not a true back rail - just a suggestion. Charlie saw that and lifted his shoulders WAY up over it - exactly the reaction P had hoped to inspire. Good boy! Then obvi he knocked it all down the next time bc boring haha. 

go little race horse, GO!!

He was unfazed by the full oxer too. Clobbered it once or twice, but gave it a few nice efforts too. We finished on the trip captured in the quickie video below. What a good pony!!

super quick video here

He gets a little quick in the trot when we start jumping, but isn't really pulling against me. Nor does he land super strong or anything (as far as he knows, the game is just jumping one thing then stopping. he doesn't know about courses yet lol).

Trainer P wants me to focus on not letting him get overly quick, but the main priority is to give him his head and let him figure it out.

so freakin happy with this horse

All in all I could not have asked for a better or more promising first outing with this guy. My plain with a good brain OTTB just took it all in stride, with a soft relaxed eye and easy good nature. I think I'll keep him haha.