jumping into a new year

Our latest jumping lesson happened on NYE, so it still technically counts among my posts summarizing Charlie's progress as we close the book on 2016 and look forward into 2017.

For those keeping score at home, this was Charlie's third jump lesson. The last lesson was over a month ago, and his first was in the beginning of November. It's been hard to keep a weekly schedule with the holidays, weather, clinics, and all... but hopefully things will settle soon bc damn I just love these lessons!!

"whoa where did that come from?!?" - charlie, cantering a fence for the first time ever!

This lesson was fun bc it was a little mini-reunion, as former barnmate R hauled in with her mare Birdie too (of bridal-themed paper chase fame), visible in the background below.

And Charlie continues to be a cool customer about traveling. OF always has a lot going on visually - horses and people and hustle and bustle in basically every direction. So he definitely still looks around and whinnies. And I let him hand walk a lap or two around the driveway to take a looksie before tying him... but he was fine. Actually, maybe too fine haha, as he got completely and totally drawn in to eating this poor shrub next to the trailer....

"i <3 this shrubbery tho" - charlie

Anyway. I doubt that you care much about Charlie's tastes in foliage, so let's get on with the lesson haha.

Charlie and I had a fairly rough ride the evening before the lesson. Not emotionally upsetting (he's still too new for me to take anything he does personally yet, tho that'll surely happen eventually) but frustrating. We crashed into the wall of his sticky stuck resistance and I felt at a loss for how to work through it. The ride ended without resolution, and the horse came in from the field so grouchy the next morning that he lunged at and bit a barn worker. Not cool, bro. Not. Cool.

big bay club!!!! with extra set of grey ears

He was fine for me tho (we did a quick ground work session to see where he was at before putting him on the trailer) so I packed him up to present him to trainer P for her expert opinion. And she didn't disappoint!

big guy is figuring it out!! 

All the same tho, I kept our flatwork to a bare minimum, feeling a little hesitant about pushing him too much or tiring him out. Mayyyyybe not the right tactic... But I was just thinking about keeping it fun and focusing on playing with some colorful sticks.

meanwhile i just sit chilly and keep a finger looped through that neck strap lol

Which Charlie VERY happily did. And actually, we appear to have graduated to a new level in trainer P's book. There were no ground poles to start. No small pole piles, and no cross rails. We went straight to lines of itsy bitsy verticals and never looked back.

First line through, trainer P had me follow R and Birdie down the line, and Charlie happily landed from jump one cantering, reached jump two at a canter (which is a first for him), kinda had a "WTF" moment, then picked those legs WAY UP haha and jumped the thing. Good pony!

That first bold effort kinda set the tone and Charlie was basically pretty darn good for the whole ride, tho still with plenty of bobbles and flops and knocked rails. Obvi haha.

this is what a sticky go button looks like

It was esp useful for me tho, bc Charlie's sticky stuckness cropped up pretty early - you can see it in the video our first time through the short diagonal line, trainer P is growling and clucking at Charlie and he looks a little preoccupied with thinking about turning around to bite me out of the saddle.

Trainer P told me to kick him up into canter after the line and it kinda devolved into the "dinosaur-stuck-in-tar-pit" situation you see above - which was basically where our ride the night prior had ended. My convo with P as this unfolded went a little bit like this:

Trainer P:    Use your whip behind your leg.
Emma:        Ehhhh idk about that.
Trainer P:    Why?
Emma:        Well we just haven't gone there yet.
Trainer P:    No time like the present!
Emma:        ....Ok, if you say so!

aaaaaand this is how you apply some wd-40 to said sticky go button

Basically, P's point was that: Yes, I need to do everything I can to mitigate any physical issues Charlie might have. Yes, I need to be fair to him, and sensitive when something is new and hard for him. BUT. There must be a clear, firm line. And when Charlie crosses that line, I need to be prepared to use all of my tools to explain that certain behaviors are not acceptable. And napping back like that now officially falls into the 'unacceptable' category.

The great thing about Charlie tho is that he is not a dumb horse. Treated fairly and consistently, he responds accordingly. One discussion about re-drawing that line, and he was crystal clear and happily moving forward again. As evident in the video - the difference is clear between his first time through that diagonal and the next (which took place after the above 'go button greasing').

so stupidly proud of this big bay boy

Trainer P encouraged me to canter him off after every line of jumps, with no consideration for lead or whatever. Just encouraging him to land and go forward. Which he then happily did every time. The purpose here was twofold: A) establish forward, and B) get his body moving in more of a 'jumping' way.

Bc. Of course, the whole point here was setting Charlie up to figure this whole 'jumping' thing out. Which he totally did!!!!!

Trainer P likes to start horses over fences by trotting everything, and letting them figure out the 'canter' part on their own. The idea is that they will learn about landing cantering first, and eventually figure out to jump from the canter too.

Having us focus entirely on lines of jumps rather than single jumps also helped reinforce the idea for Charlie, since he would have the first jump to kinda do whatever he was gonna do, and then pull himself together for the second jump.

bc for every cute picture, there are 3-4 more that look like this haha

And whenever he approached a jump from the canter, my job was essentially just to sit there like a bump on a log (which I'm VERY good at, btw, not even trying to brag haha) while he sorted himself out. This led to some.... colorful moments. Like the above haha, where he basically just ran through the jump...

eeeeee but i love the cute pictures!!

The benefit to this approach is that Charlie has opportunities to experience every mistake in the book. He knocked half the jumps down. Stumbled over plenty of them. Tried launching over one or two. Nearly face planted a couple times for good measure.

And none of it is ever a big deal. We just come right on back and do it again, letting him learn from his mistakes without me ever needing to be responsible for setting him up perfectly. Because the reality is that *I'm* going to make plenty of mistakes too.... and if he learns from the beginning to be overly reliant on me... Well. We will end up running into problems later haha.

jumping big ponies over tiny sticks ftw

It's cool tho. He definitely started figuring it out. Once or twice picking up the canter a couple strides from the fence and totally nailing it (there's one jump in the video where P turns around to Brita after, asking, "Did you get that on video?!?").

And the gif above is from our last time down the line, where he just cantered on through like the easiest thing in the world. Got the correct striding and everything!

video here 

I really love this video too, bc you get such a sense of what our lessons are like haha. Everyone else in the group is working over way bigger stuff (you can see P building their courses while I jump around in the video), but they're all still super encouraging and cheering for Charlie whenever he gets it right. 

Like, you'd think by listening to the cheering that we were jumping around Rolex or something haha, rather than taking a giant horse over the tiniest of fences. But whatever - we gotta start somewhere, right? And I'm super grateful to have all the footage too. Plenty of stuff worth studying, plenty that needs work. But also plenty to be happy about. 

dinner at the trailer, sharing his slop with Riley lol

Here's hoping it won't be another month and a half before we get out for another lesson! And here's double hoping that the weather holds for continued outdoor riding!

Because so far I'm having a TON of fun figuring out how to ride this horse. And every time we have a good lesson like this, it becomes just a little bit easier to imagine what it might be like to actually event Charlie. That idea still feels very distant and vague, but I'm hoping we'll be able to take a crack at a full three-phase next spring or summer!!