fun around the farm

Back when I used to publish posts each and every day (a habit that went uninterrupted for nearly 500 days, until I broke my leg), almost every schooling ride merited its own post.

For whatever reason tho, with Charlie, I often either don't write much at all about schooling details, or I just provide summaries on recent trends and highlights (or lowlights lol). Despite keeping the horse on a fairly consistent 4-5 days/wk schedule.

from the right angle and with the right amount of blur, he miiiiiiight almost look not totally unfancy!

That's not bc the rides aren't interesting to me - quite the contrary, I really enjoy my rides very much and look forward to our time together. And that's not bc they don't ever challenge me (also definitely not true - green horses are a constant trial in frustration and testing patience ugh haha). I almost want to say it's bc I don't usually have media... but that's not quite true either.

I think it's mostly bc we're working on very small things when we school at home. Just one step at a time. Can I displace his barrel with my inside leg for this one step? Can he push evenly from both hind legs into both reins up this straight away? Can we do a full circle without him bulging out or falling in?

And can I hold my own position throughout? Or are my reins slipping longer and longer; is my upper body tipping forward and down; am I sitting evenly on both sides of the horse?

baby bank ftw!

Like I said. Small things. Very important things, and the small little details that will continue contributing to both the horse's strength, and my own. But.... Ehhhh.... Not nearly as compelling as the bigger chunks of work we break off in our lessons with jump trainer P or dressage trainer C. So those get feature length billing here on ye olde 'Fraidy Cat Eventing.

But with the arrival of spring and longer daylight hours, we've been able to branch out in our schooling rides at home in a way that makes them maybe more interesting. Or at least adds a little variety. Namely - the horse needs conditioning. He needs work outside of the arena, on uneven ground. We can't just do mentally exhausting flat work for 20min 4x a week and call it good - that's not sufficient. Nor really useful for my purposes.

pets for good ponies. also this is a more normal trot haha

And lately we've been getting out of the arena a LOT. Last week (before our fun xc schooling over the weekend), I managed to get on the horse in the brief period between the day time and night time turnout shifts in the front mare's field that houses the above adorable baby bank.

This thing is obviously quite small.... but it asks the right question. And especially after Charlie's minor undoing at the bank into water during our xc schooling (which was caused by the water but bled into our later bank efforts anyway), I foresee us getting a lot more miles over this little bump. Up and down and all around, and maybe you should try doing it at a speed faster than a mincing shuffle, Emma!

faux rocks!!!! one of which charlie knocked down haha

Another exciting development around the home farm has been the transformation of a far field (part of Charlie's turnout, actually) into a jump field for an upcoming equitrial. The program directors have hauled out a bunch of natural style hunter jumps to mix in with some friendly solid fences. And they've been taking all the lessons out there to school.

logs on left, swoopy arena jump on right, cord wood stack in middle background. oh, and you better believe we practiced in those puddles too haha

So naturally Charlie had to go out too! I had felt a little sheepish after not actually schooling any fences during our xc outing.... And so forced myself to trot the solid jumps (log and cord wood) and the rocks a couple times each earlier this week.

Bc why school normal, level-appropriate and true xc fences when among the safety and camaraderie of friends when you can jump your green horse in a field by yourself when nobody knows where you are? #geniusoverhere

cord wood stacks!

And obviously the horse was fine. Like he was a little up and tense bc he knew he was in part of his pasture that he hadn't seen in a couple days, and he was pretty sure that his friends were right on the other side of the fence and maybe he really ought to get over there post haste.... And his always-present draw to the barn was amplified by his tension...

happy ears forever drawn toward the barn...

But ya know. He also just jumped the fences. And walk-trot-cantered around like the reasonable soul that he is. Next time, Emma? Jump the goddamn xc fences out with your friends when you have the opportunity. Bc the horse is fine. lol....

We went out again with a lesson the next day just to focus on flat work over terrain, since I often tend to get a little passive when we leave the arena. Having the other horses around helped reassure Charlie that this was totally normal, plus he got to stand around quietly and observe while they all jumped around. Always beneficial, imo.

And? He flatted quite nicely. Including some reeeally lovely canters. I feel like I always say that haha.... bc I really truly do love his canter. But the transitions are feeling really solid and consistent recently in a way that makes me feel borderline confident about tackling a wtc dressage test. Which, not coincidentally, is the requirement for most 2'3 divisions around here.

freshly organized trailer is so tidy! still feel like that hanging bag could be better optimized, but it's good for now. inside the bench pictured below

So long story short, it's felt really REALLY good to get in a lot of solid and true "eventing" practice lately, all without ever having to leave the confines of our small, quiet h/j farm. I love hauling out for lessons and getting to experience the benefits that different trainers, facilities, and locations have to offer.... But dammit sometimes it's nice to just hang out at home.

left: extra spurs, gloves, hairnets, xc/helmet cam helmet, spare strap goods
middle: extra grain, beat pulp pellets, treats, and beer coozies
right: bungee cords, extra bells, horse shipping hat, stud chain, spare cross tie
not pictured: tire iron & easy-up trailer jack

Tho bc we do, in fact, travel an awful lot, we also recently enlisted the help of my life coach Brita to clean out the truck and trailer for the season to come. Fun fact: Brita's OCD is the perfect complement to my hoarder-ish tendencies. When we boarded together, she would actually throw out my stuff without telling me, all while waiting to see if I noticed. And.... I never did haha. So obvi now that we don't board at the same barn I am desperately missing her tidy habits!

Luckily we were able to do some much-needed spring cleaning. Including optimizing storage within the truck's cap and the trailer's built-in bench to ensure easy packing / unpacking for all the adventures we hope to embark on this year. Tis the season, right?

Have you undertaken any big spring cleaning efforts lately? Or have you been looking around your farm with fresh spring eyes lately - looking for opportunities to shake things up and try new things?