a series of daring adventures from a secure base

Thanks to NYT columnist David Brooks, who in a completely off-topic and unrelated editorial, wrote the above title phrase that manages to perfectly encapsulate my philosophy of horse training with Charlie.

The second half our our big weekend included yet another incremental, intermediary step in transforming Charlie into a show horse. And while yesterday's recap of his dressage show focused on performance, this outing swung back in the other direction to focus on experience and exposure. Or, in other words, an adventure focused on firming up Charlie's base training.

taking my giant pony for walkies around the new grounds. also it was goddamn freezing.

Riding buddies Brita and R are both signed up to compete in an upcoming eventing derby at Loch Moy, wherein they'll go through a timed jumping course over a mix of stadium and cross country fences that wind through all of Loch Moy's interconnected giant all-weather arenas. In anticipation of this upcoming derby, Brita, R and others from OF had signed up for schooling at Loch Moy with one of their trainers.

charlie got to tag along with birdie in R's trailer! 

The lesson itself didn't sound particularly enticing to me (we don't have an immediate enough need to jump solid fences that I was super interested in taking my green horse on his first xc experience with a new and unknown trainer) but the venue absolutely did.

also, Clark Montgomery happened to be on site teaching clinics too. how cool!

You may remember last week when I wrote about entering our first event scheduled for Loch Moy at the end of the month. Wherein I also wrote that Loch Moy shows can be BIG. So it's been my goal to find more ways to expose Charlie to higher and higher degrees of atmosphere.

he spent a lot of time staring off into the distance lol

So I opted to tag along for this lesson, with the game plan basically being to exist amid all the surrounding activity. It was perfect too - Loch Moy was bustling with groups coming in and out for schooling (our group alone had 3 trailers and others were constantly pulling in and leaving while we were there).

Plus Clark Montgomery happened to be onsite teaching clinic lessons. And all the various groups of horses were moving between the three main giant arenas on the grounds - with a few more visible on the xc course itself.

selfies!!

Our trailer arrived a solid 20min earlier than the rest of our group so I took the opportunity to hand walk Charlie around the grounds a bit. Around the whole trailer area, near the office, and even a ways through the middle arena (that's usually set up for dressage rings) so he could see further into the distance and inspect some of the jumps.

cool with the activity at the trailers

He was certainly happy to have that opportunity too, with lots of stopping to stare mixed in with the walking. Horses in the distance definitely transfixed his attention, tho I was happy to note he didn't seem particularly concerned with going toward or away from the trailer and new friend Birdie.

out a-wanderin while everyone finished getting ready

By the time the rest of the group arrived, Charlie was sedately settled in at the trailer with his hay net and water, tho still staring alertly (and majestically haha, always majestically) off into the distance. He was fine to tack up too and actually hilariously mirrored every other horse - whenever any of them would take a deep breath he would too lol.

eager to get movin and warm up!

He was also solid to get on, and we walked a few circles around the trailer area while everyone else finished tacking. Then off to the first arena - where they usually hold stadium. I basically kept Charlie walking the perimeter and big swooping figures on a loose rein for maybe ~20min while the lesson warmed up and started over fences. He was a bit distracted by staring out at horses outside our ring... but was otherwise fine.

birdie says she needs bigger jumps

We progressed to actual purposeful trot and canter warm up work in that ring for a little while before the whole group moved on to the next arena - going past the trailer area into the biggest of the rings where they normally set up multiple dressage courts (the same arena Charlie and I had hand walked earlier). He continued to be fine going around the entire perimeter - no difference shown going toward or away from the others. Just mildly distracted by horses in the distance.

casually observing two side by side GIANT rings

Same story for trotting and cantering through this arena. And I tried to be good about continuing to ask him for more. Asking for softness, connectedness, straightness, focus. We didn't achieve anything ground breaking - but it *did* feel on par with our current level of work at home.

I think the distraction could be an issue - but in the mildest sense of the word. He's doing everything I'm asking, he just happens to want to watch whatever else is going on too. It also feels like this will fade with experience.

bella needs bigger jumps too!

Anyway after ascertaining that the horse felt pretty damn great, I decided to pop him over a couple of the teensy tiny intro xc jumps. There were actually quite a few that looked perfectly inviting at this height, and others at the next height up that I'm sure trainer P would have sent us over had she been present....

we jumped dis!!!

But bc it was just me, and I'm a yellow-bellied 'fraidy cat, I just stuck to two quick efforts trotting over these itsy bitsies. And Charlie was perfect!! Did not fall on his face! Nor did he hesitate in the slightest. Saw the jump, understood that we were approaching it, did not wiggle, did not change tempo or rhythm, jumped the jump, landed in his patented World's Best Canter Ever and continued on with life as I pointed him at another.

we jumped dat too!!

Ahhhh such a good feeling!! A good enough feeling that in looking back on the ride, I know that we should have done more - tried more fences, tried cantering fences, maybe strung some stuff together. But that's exactly the kind of feeling I like to take away from an outing: a confident feeling like I know in which ways to push for more next time.

and WATER!!!!!

Charlie felt like a million bucks too. Definitely confident. In moving to the third and final lower ring (that's usually a mixed warm up / occasional dressage ring), he felt right at home with everything. And even got into the new water complex there with minimal hesitation. Then was able to go in and out all on his own, and even trot through!

such a good boy!

Which obviously was super fun. And is the source of our only video from the day haha, so I milked it for everything it's worth with these screen shots lol.

i call this 'ground covering' lol. also yes that's ice lining the water's edge. twas COLD.

But basically after going in and out a couple times and ascertaining that Charlie could in fact trot through the water without issue, I asked Brita to film while we walked in and trotted out over some ground poles.

wheeeee ground poles!

If trainer P had been there (or if I knew the trainer they were lessoning with better) I would have asked that she set this into a cross rail.... and now in retrospect I kinda wish I had repeated this exercise in the opposite direction too - trotting down over the ground poles and into the water. But again, see above re: preferring to leave an outing thinking about what more I would do next time.

my new favorite video of charlie here!!

As it was, tho, I just had so much fun. Grinning ear to ear. What a good pony! And you can really see in the video just how relaxed and confident Charlie felt. Sure he was slow to step in the water and needed to think it through a little bit. But it feels fine. And I'm cool with him knowing that I'm always going to give him time to think if he needs it.

Plus then he just trotted right on along, basically ignoring the water once he locked on to the ground poles. Homeboy definitely would have been happier if we had jumped more, methinks!!

i'm basically obsessed with this sweet guy

Even tho we had been riding for over 2hrs by the time it was done, Charlie just felt fantastic. Like he would have happily kept going and exploring, and doing all the things. That's exactly the feeling I wanted from him. He still doesn't really know what this game is all about. But he's maybe figuring out that it's probably gonna be kinda fun ;)

emma: "c'mon, charlie, be CUTE!"
charlie: "staahhp you're embarrassing me in front of my new friends!"

Actually, if anything, I think he'll eventually trend in the direction of getting pretty strong. Not out of naughtiness - but just plain enthusiasm haha. We'll see tho. For now, I'm straight up thrilled with him and am looking forward to our eventing debut. Especially if I can get there early enough to hand walk him around a bit, and then walk for basically ever during our warm up, I think he should be fine.

And of course I'm eager for our first true xc schooling lesson, hopefully to be done at OF under trainer P's watchful guidance sometime in the near future! Esp knowing how good he was for this outing, bc let's be real - I needed that confidence boost at least as much as, if not more than, he did haha. Do you ever feel that way too - like some steps in the training process are as much about preparing the rider as they're about preparing the horse?