kindergarten graduate

Ok. It's official. Charlie has "moved up" (terminology used somewhat.... loosely here haha) in his work. Meaning, we are now transitioning out of the "Introducing Charlie to Jumping" phase, and moving into the "Ok So We Can Jump Things. Now What?" phase.

enjoying daytime turnout even if it's cold and even if there isn't actually any grass (the green is a lie!)

This is EXCITING!! But. Um. Haha. Well. It's also the phase in which I transition from riding as a purposeful "bump on a big bay log" and become an "actual participant." Also known as, "Ha let's watch Emma make some terrible rider decisions on her very green horse!"

Except. Lol, joke's on you, there's no actual media proof ;)

white boots automatically = fancy, right?? isn't that how it works?? too bad the hinds rubbed him :(
also, i reconfigured our half pad shim situation again, with bigger shims up front and small shims in the middle. this has improved the saddle's clearance, and also helped adjust the front-to-back balance. my hope is this will reduce the saddle's likelihood of adding to charlie's downhill tendencies

Anyway tho. As I mentioned yesterday, we had a solid lesson at OF this weekend that unexpectedly turned into a private lesson. Trainer P put us through our flat work with a vigor and focus that we haven't had since our last dressage lesson with Trainer C, and Charlie responded really well.

sweet dopey face <3

Big takeaways include keeping the outside rein steady and full, while also remembering to give and soften the inside rein. Open the rein and show him the bend, sure, but then soften and straighten - even on a circle. Don't just hold him there - he's got to learn to carry the bend from my inside leg instead of my inside rein.

also did i mention it's been cold? kept this sweet ass quarter sheet (a hand-me-down from Wick, sadface) on for the entire ride

Right now there's a pretty noticeable difference in Charlie between tracking right and left. He's almost relieved to track right and softens very quickly. Tracking left tho is a lot harder for him, bc he's basically always falling left through that shoulder. And the increased difficulty means a less happy dinosaur, and a greater likelihood that we'll fall into a tar pit.... #stillaworkinprogress

also. i fucking did this again. took my horse off the trailer without unclipping him. i'm an idiot too - twice he started backing up and then immediately went back in again. instead of thinking "Hm that's unusual, I should investigate!" i just kept asking more firmly that he back up. so.... he did. ugh. emma. try listening to the horse next time, mkay? also these elastic thingies are stretchy AF

This cropped up in our jumping too - when about half way through we got mired down in the deepest darkest stickiest ugliest tar pit that we've seen in a LONG time. Ugh. It was not pretty. And so frustrating bc he gets to this point where he's basically like, "bring it on, bitch!" and I honestly feel pretty helpless as a rider. We worked through it tho. And homeboy found god. And we proceeded with the ride. Sheesh sometimes he's a real drama queen!

admittedly bad pic but you can see the two oxers, 60' distance. final jump height right smack between 2'3 and 2'6

But anyway. Back to the original subject haha. The whole "Charlie has moved up" thing. We're to that place where trainer P says she's not gonna "waste a lot of time with little jumps" and get right on along to "giving him something to jump." Obviously it's all relative bc a "little jump" is a cross rail and "something to jump" is still just a ~2'3 oxer. But now the cross rails are just the first warm up jumps, and trainer P pretty quickly builds right up to the "bigger" fences.

We started by working back and forth over the above line in each direction, with ascending oxers either way. Trainer P would still like us trotting in where possible bc that's more educational in terms of getting Charlie thinking about where his feet are. But tracking left (with the aforementioned dinosaur in tar pit issues), cantering in was easier.

Trotting in called for a quiet and compressed 5 - which was really good practice for both of us as I start relearning my eye for jumping. Cantering in was a true 4 (60'), which really is quite easy for Charlie but maybe mentally challenging for Emma haha. I was very proud of him when he kinda fumbled the jump in and I maybe wasn't committed to the 4, but Charlie went ahead and did it anyway. Good boy. Already learning that sometimes I make poor life choices lol!

two-stride to two-stride line from last time, but this time as actual jumps. ridden towards the camera

The other exercise for the lesson involved building up to the above triple, two-to-two line (30' distances), which you may recall from our last lesson (where we never quite got it right). We got stuck in our tar pit round around this time, since as you can see, riding the line in the direction of the camera necessitated a left handed approach. Le sigh. Again tho, we worked through it.

Once we were back on track, I still struggled with executing the turn. This is where the whole "I can't just be a bump on a big bay log" thing really cropped up. The horse is not great to steer right now and the "bigger" jumps only amplify that. So I couldn't just grab the neck strap while Charlie sorted it out - bc we had some major bobbing and weaving happening through the line.

We started with just the first two jumps, and Charlie tried his damnedest to run out to the left in between. Which led to some awkward jumps, but damn it if we didn't jump. Got through it a couple times, finally getting straight. Then added the third element and that sneaky pony ran out to the right.... Le sigh. Arguably my fault for a subpar turn and then a lost position after an awkward in jump... but still. I was quiiiiite annoyed with myself for showing him the exit. Oh well.

After that, tho, I worked a little harder on setting our turn up better and earlier (more outside aids - almost thinking counter bend!) and Charlie nailed it a few times. Good boy. He really was quite tired by this point too, but I was super happy with him for finally figuring it out, even if he first tried to figure out evasions instead....

Charlie: "yes i understand that there is a veritable mountain of hay behind me.... sure. but. it's not good enough."

So it was a challenging lesson haha. I'm still gonna categorize it as "Each jump lesson is better than the last" bc that's still true - Charlie worked over bigger and more complicated exercises than ever before, and he honestly made pretty good work of it. But there's no doubt tho that as I become more responsible for giving him a good ride and setting him up.... well. The chances for error increase haha.

It's cool tho. I'm honestly not gonna be super hard on myself bc I haven't jumped anything significant in a LONG time. And my confidence is shit right now. BUT. But. I'm starting to feel my position coming back again. We jumped from a LOT of awkward places in this ride - but I only truly lost my position (meaning: not able to recover and ride the next stride immediately after a fence) just once or twice (once being when we had the run out).

Sure, if there were media evidence I can promise that it wouldn't look particularly pretty (I got left behind a fair bit bc getting ahead of this horse is very high on my personal "no-no" list) but I was mostly able to slip my reins and keep my lower leg under me so that I still could stay out of the horse's way. Small steps, y'all. Even if they're ugly steps haha.

At least the actual jumping part is finally pretty easy for the horse haha!