undefeated champion of the world

Valegro's lucky he's retired. Just sayin. Bc Charlie is on a goddamn roll. He is KILLIN IT at intro level dressage. I'm not sayin he's been selected for the next Olympics or anything..... but he's probably a guaranteed in on the short list. Obvs.

pictured: the look of a champion

Ahem. Cough cough.

**Clears throat {and hubris} loudly**

lucky number 4?

All kidding aside tho, the horse did super well for our second competitive outing. We entered Intro B twice in OF's Long Johns Dressage Schooling Show, and unlike our first outing, I had hoped to actually make Charlie's performance count.

i still haven't figured out how to wait until the horse is immobile before i salute...

I mean, obviously it's all relative still... And the horse isn't particularly... broke haha. But unlike his first dressage show where it was all about the experience, I wanted Charlie to be able to get into the show ring and get to work without distraction.

trotting left!

I'm not totally sure we accomplished that perfectly - the guy has a strong draw to the gate still, and for whatever reason, as soon as that bell rang he was forging like a maniac, ugh. But he was good. For our current level of training, I felt like it was a good representation of what we can do.

i swear the horse isn't actually built downhill. he just... goes that way. for now.

The judge got a good read on us actually, too. Lots of great feedback from both tests. With the forging, especially in the first test, she pointed out that it's an obvious indicator that the horse isn't connected. Which... I know... But she still took me to task for not doing something about it.

free walk: not shown. got a 4 on this movement lol. bingo??

She also commented that, re: our 'forward,' if the speed limit was 55mph, I was doing about 56 or 57. In other words, she wanted me to tone it down a tad. Be a little more responsible. Get him into the outside rein. Help him get off his forehand more.

there's charlie's patented nose-in-the-dirt walk!

The judge also noted that the horse has a very lovely and free walk (despite botching our first free walk with some jog steps, oops), but that his trot is very earthbound. Obvi she didn't see his canter bc we were only doing Intro B, but that would have probably only reaffirmed her conviction that his trot is by far his weakest gait.

trotting right!

And of course she saw that he's a bit hard to steer. Especially for those center line turns. Which, in fairness, we really haven't schooled - and they're a surprisingly complicated movement for a green broke horse. Esp with this horse, turning right, away from the gate. Ahem.

pictured: forging lol

All told tho, her feedback from the first test (which netted us a 61.8% for 4th place) was constructive enough that we could get back in the ring, take better control of our tempo (and therefore balance) and lay down a nicer test for a 65% to take 1st place. Yay Charlie!

so many pets for a good boy!

Opportunities for improvement in the 2nd test kinda surprised me (in a not-so-great way): accuracy. Usually that's my saving grace bc I'm nothing if not accurate. But I knew what she meant tho... Charlie doesn't really reliably flex super well right now, and there were a couple times that I asked him to supple inside ahead of our circles and he... kinda just pulled in instead of bending lol. Oops.

really he was a star!

It didn't really help that the ring was set as a large court, and I've honestly never ridden a test in a large court before. So my circles ended up slightly anemic - judge told me to fill them out more. And she made a great point: esp at Intro level, there are so few scores that I really can't afford to give up easy points bc I cut my turn a little too early.

snax at the trailer

Beyond the movements themselves, the judge had good feedback for the horse too. She pegged Charlie as super green, and kinda hard to steer lol. But she said he was on track as far as contact and connection go.

video here - complete with directives, scores and comments

She encouraged me to think more about compressing his stride (which is something I've worked on with dressage trainer C, but have admittedly not practiced bc that shit is hard, yo), but generally felt he was "well presented" for his current level of training.

moar snax! allll the snax!!!!

So I feel pretty good about it. I was especially pleased that the weak spots she identified aligned pretty closely with what my trainers have observed. It's always nice when that happens haha, bc nobody likes surprises at shows lol.

The 'compression' thing will be hard work.... but we really do need to address it. Charlie has certainly figured out how to get long in his body, but he's not really gotten the hang of adjusting his longitudinal balance. #needswork

ribbons!!!!

While superficially it doesn't appear much different from Charlie's first go at a dressage show riding this test, it honestly feels a lot different. Plus, as anticipated, the showing atmosphere and environment at OF was a non-factor. Mostly bc we are there legitimately every week so he's pretty familiar with the grounds at this point.... but it was still helpful lol.

Anyway tho. Intro B appears to be the test of choice for most of the lowest-of-the-low divisions around here, so it's good for us to get this practice and feedback. Especially the judge's thoughts on where I need to be more responsible for not leaving points behind unnecessarily on the table. So I'm feeling good about taking this test on the road!!

Do you all like to ride the same test again and again? Or do you prefer to switch it up? With Izzy I kinda liked riding all the tests bc she always loved a challenge and it kept her thinking. But with Charlie I'm kinda enjoying working on just this one thing at a time. Of course... all bets are off once we're ready to canter in a test haha....