MDHT Spring Starter #1: Intro Combined Test

Ok folks - let's get on with recapping Charlie's official eventing debut! I've got absolute mountains of media, but made the executive decision to pull everything into a single mega post. Bc let's be real. It's a walk-trot dressage test and itsy bitsy stadium jumps. That's not an awful lot of content to spread over two days haha.

But PICTURES!!!!! SQUEEEEE!!!

all my gratitude goes to Liz, who captured this shot of pure, unadulterated 12yo girlhood joy after we finished stadium 

Seriously, thank you so much, Liz for taking so many excellent photographs, and for taking video of our stadium round! And thanks Austen for shooting our dressage test too! The difference in quality from my standard fare is quite apparent in this post haha (watermarked photos = quality; non watermarked = crappy video stills haha), so hopefully you readers will get to enjoy the added quality in resolution too lol.

<3 this horse. also the homemade stock tie held it's own!! 

Anyway tho. Let's talk details. Like I wrote yesterday, we arrived on the show grounds with just enough time to immediately start tacking and hustle over to warm up. Alas this meant Charlie's mane went unbrushed (Brita went after his body, hooves, legs and tail while I dressed, and I didn't notice the mane until I saw the photographs, sadface) but otherwise I felt like he pulled together for a very nice picture.

(except I'm honestly quite ashamed of how thin he is and wish I could run up to anybody who noticed and grab them by the shoulders, saying "I Promise We're Working On It!"... but oh well. it is what it is for now.)

yup. dis how we trot. i'm cool with it.

My plan for warm up was basically to walk forever. And this got an immediate boost from the steward who let me know things were running about 10min behind schedule. Yas.

Charlie had been fine getting off the trailer (tho I hand walked a couple laps anyway). Fine to tie and tack up. Fine to mount up over by the office. And fine to navigate the bustling path between the two giant arenas filled with five dressage courts and seas of horses. So naturally he was also fine in the warm up ring traffic. Good boy.

not bothered at all by traffic in warm up

A couple other horses in the ring were acting up a bit (spring sillies, no doubt) and Charlie was a little distracted with looking every which way. But as the minutes wore on, I slowly picked up my reins and started explaining to him that looking outside the arena would be increasingly discouraged. He complied. Gooood boy.

So we walked and walked. Then eventually trotted. Then transitions between walk and trot. Then canter, then trot, then canter. Then walk. Then halt. Then trot. Then halt. Etc etc etc. You know the deal. And the horse was fine. So fine that I volunteered to go early. We were ready.

dis how we trot inside the ring too. points for consistency?

I didn't push him quite as forward as I do in lessons with dressage trainer C bc the judge at our last dressage show called me out for speeding. So instead I worked on pushing him out with my inside leg and trying to create engagement that way. And I think this approach produced a nicer trot for the purposes of a show, and we'll save the rest for schooling.

he's got the 'stretch' part of the freewalk down pat. now to add swing and overstep. 

Honestly I think the judge really liked what she saw. The scores are quite generous in places but the whole test flowed so smoothly. No shining moments of brilliance, but also no movements that stuck out like a sore thumb. 

And therefore our movements were all scored 6s and 7s, except for the aces up our sleeve: the centerline turns and halts we had just practiced with trainer C last week. The first got an 8 and the second got a 9. Yassssss. Thank you C!!

pictured: riding the snot out of that centerline turn on a giant horse who struggles turning right.
boom. fucking NINE.

Our collective scores were more of a mixed bag. Again, I think this judge liked the test itself - but she also identified two major areas of weakness and dinged us hard for them in the collectives, tho not at all unfairly. We scored 5s on submission (the x2 coefficient at this level, ouch) and accuracy. She noted: Charlie "objects to rider picking up contact" and my circles were too small (again, ugh).

"very straight, lovely halt"

I think the accuracy thing is actually a symptom of the contact issue. Charlie does not accept the bit yet, nor yield or give to that pressure. And bc he doesn't give to the bit, I struggle with pushing him fully into the outside rein to bend around my inside leg - so we fall inward if I try for anything that approximates inside bend. Thus the too-small circles and too-shallow turns.

It's happening tho. I was actually thrilled with this test bc while he doesn't give to the bit, he was neither leaning heavily or fully braced against my hand (relatively speaking). He had a consistent softness to the bit that may be an intermediary step between the 'lean against' and the 'give to.'

video here, complete with notated movements, scores and comments

We left the arena feeling like I couldn't possibly have asked for any better of Charlie at this point in his training. He just... ya know.... did the thing. Even nitpicking my own riding, I can identify some weak spots but generally feel like I also did the thing, did what I set out to do.

Oh. And Charlie scored an 8 on his gaits. An EIGHT. Considering he's a fairly high-mileage horse who had varying degrees of lamenesses in various legs when I bought him, that feels GOOD.

The test put us in 3rd after dressage with a score of 34.4%, just 2 percentage points and change between us and first place. I didn't see the score until after jumping but was just thrilled. While it means Charlie lost his "undefeated" status (lol) - it's still our best yet score for this test, which we've now ridden five times.

warming up on uneven ground as if he hadn't struggled with going down hills just three months ago

And the judge's feedback is helpful. The submission thing really is our next big issue, I think (if we were full time students of Stephen Birchall, it would have been issue #1, instead of coming second after trainer C's focus on forward and hind end activity). Bc it crops up in our jumping too - especially in steering haha.

Anyway tho, no rest for the weary. We had an hour and a half before stadium that went by in a flash - then it was off to warm up over fences! The warm up area for intro & elem (which have their own jump and xc courses separate from the rest of the divisions so that they can run simultaneously) was actually located in a roped off area of the xc course instead of in a ring.

careful pony left me in the dust in warm up. i can live with it!

This felt.... challenging to me haha, seeing as Charlie has very limited experience actually working on terrain (vs hacking around, which even then we've only done a little bit). And we've never jumped on uneven ground before. No time like the present, I guess!

"look ma, i can canter on a hillside!!" - best pony ever

Charlie warmed up like a star tho. Found a reasonable balance trotting and cantering up and down the hillside, tho it took a couple tries to get the correct lead (in both directions, embarrassing lol). And he wasn't at all distracted by horses outside our area after taking a couple looksies during our first laps spent walking.

aaaand a little more unity between horse and rider haha, but still givin that jump plenty of space!

And the jumping? Honestly? Perfect. Trainer P wasn't on hand to coach (her ride times were much later in the day), but she had advised me to keep it short but purposeful. Probably a little more than what I did for Isabel, but not much.

tidy tidy! all i gotta do is basically hang on and stay with him lol

So we trotted each jump once (often coming back to walk after, to help Charlie continue landing quietly). Trotted the oxer a second time bc we knocked it down once - just an honest mistake. Charlie was kinda launching up over the fences, I think bc it felt so unfamiliar jumping on grass. But he was super honest and SUPER game. We chilled for a bit longer, then cantered the vertical before following another rider over to the arena.

jump 1 and it is ON
also that's only one of three massive trailer parking areas. twas a big show!

Charlie got to watch one rider go (during which I learned my course and made a plan for striding in the one related distance) then it was our turn!

the quintessential Loch Moy picture, with Sugarloaf Mountain and a writhing sea of dressage riders as a backdrop

It's a bit unfair publishing this post before writing about our jump lesson the day before the show (coming soon!) bc my strategy was totally informed by how he had jumped in the lesson. But I can fill you in: we practiced our first ever jump course in the lesson and Charlie did great, but showed that he can get strong if I goose him.

we match the jump!

So I planned to trot most of the fences to help him understand that we can stay steady through 8 fences. And he was fine. Totally fine.

basically just an exaggerated canter stride over the maryland jump

Walked into the ring, walked down the fence line shared with dressage warm up, let Charlie see everything while we waited for the bell. Then picked up the trot for a short approach to jump 1.

"lemme at it!!" - gung ho pony!

Came back to trot for fence 2 too, then cantered on to 3. Landed on the wrong lead so came back to trot into the only line on course, cantering out in an easy seven strides. Landed on the wrong lead again and Charlie felt maybe a touch strong (tho he doesn't look it at all in the video) so I opted to trot the next fence too.

"wheeeeeee!! turning right is hard but who cares!!!!" - every ottb ever lol

Then cantered right on around to the last two - kinda hilariously failing a little bit at steering (turning right is hard, yo!). But it's funny to watch bc even as Charlie's body was drifting left he's still totally locked on to the fences. Like, there was never any question or naughtiness to the wiggles - it's literally just how his body goes even when his mind was fully focused on the fences haha.

#soproud through the finish flags
also you can tell the right turn was hard bc this might be the first picture since before breaking my leg where i'm actually sitting more left than right... crazy

The jumps themselves tho..... ahhhh so fun! This course felt like a million bucks. Every single fence felt perfect! And who doesn't love finishing on their dressage score??

Watching the video was actually a little bit of a disappointment bc it doesn't look as good as it felt.... But they're all <2' fences, with a 17h awkward greenbean bombing around like a boss without even having to try. And a rider who is basically just clinging on, trying to keep the horse pointed in more or less the right direction. It's obviously not gonna look like the grand prix haha.

video here!!

I still love it tho! Especially compared to Charlie's earliest jumping efforts, it's clear how far he's come in his footwork, awareness, form, and general understanding of what this whole 'jumping' game is all about. And I think he likes it!!!!

have i mentioned lately that i <3 this horse?

He certainly likes it well enough to be forgiving of my rusty position and nerve-induced tight style of riding. Which is great bc it's probably going to take me a little while and lots of practice to loosen up and get my jumping strength back again.

brita & bella absolutely dominated the jumping phases too, and damn liz can take a nice picture!

And in the meantime I'm just having SO MUCH FUN jumping this horse (scroll back up to photograph #1 to see my exact face after finishing this course). After walking the xc course, I feel like we probably could have done a little better than just survive had I entered the full three-phase this time around, but I have no regrets sticking to the CT instead.

pictured: the visual representation of why we event. brita's and bella's expressions say it all

Emotionally, I really REALLY needed this outing and this experience. I needed to go through the motions again at a level that felt relatively easy to me and the horse (even if I still got super nervous about it all haha). Needed to feel like I knew exactly what to expect.

also pictured: someone whose inner 12yo has been let loose to play ponies with basically the best behemoth ever

Because every time Charlie blows my expectations out of the water, my confidence grows a little more. It becomes a little easier to imagine what this horse might be like when he's more trained. And I get a little more excited, and a little less guarded, about the future.

Charlie is officially assuming the mantle of being my new eventing partner! Now to actually get him properly introduced to cross country :D