Happy Memorial Day to folks here in the States! And happy resulting three day weekend!
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| picture chosen for flag cameo |
Charlie and I took full advantage of the lovely (tho humid omfg) weather on Sunday to wrap up our crazy May of doing all things eventing.
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| do we look happy ?? |
We had our whole group of friends showing with us - including Brita, former barn mate Rachael, and new show partner in crime, J (whose first event ever was with us at last month's MDHT Spring Starter #2). Plus Austen was able to make it in time for all of our rides - always so great to see her!
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| i'm just so freakin crazy about this horse |
Austen also brought along her camera and shared love of all things candid-shots. Which obvi I adore. All of these pictures are courtesy of her. Thanks girl!
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| seriously tho. i <3 him |
Per usual I'll have plenty to write about the event itself - complete with lots and lots of
very nice quality photographs. Yesss! And video too, naturally.
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| high 5s for poultice hands! |
The quick 'n dirty version is that I've completely modified my mental thought processes while riding since auditing DOC's clinic last week. And the shift in Charlie is nothing short of incredible. There will be plenty more to write on that later too.
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| wandering around through the controlled chaos that is Loch Moy |
But it means that we were able to lay down our nicest dressage and stadium rounds yet. And our dressage was actually competitive, placing us 4th in a class of 11th!! I'm super proud of our stadium round too - tho we had a rail that unfortunately knocked us down a few places to finish. That's cool tho bc right now, rails aren't what matter.
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| good boy knows he's good |
Cross country was also good in showing a nice honest horse who's getting the hang of this whole thing. The course was
much too short tho - 9 fences over 500m (compared to 13 over 1,800m last week at Jenny Camp), and we never quite settled into a rhythm.
Charlie went easy and clear tho, so nothing to complain about there!
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| go team!! |
The slightly bigger moral of the story tho? This horse is a Good Horse. I'm so happy with Charlie, and so so happy with how well he's developing into my eventing partner. He's basically everything I've ever wanted in a horse and I can't believe how lucky I got with him.
Charlie makes it so easy to believe in him, and so easy to believe in what the future might hold. To quote Michael Jung, he gives me a "very good feeling." And for that? I'm grateful.
Happy Monday y'all - hope you have all had a great weekend too and stay tuned for more to come soon!
Hooray for another great event with Charlie! Those photos are terrific, you both look so happy. While I love show pictures, candids are my favorites (and also incidentally the ones my family never takes for me haha). <3
ReplyDeleteYea candida are the ones that ppl often forget about - but then they always somehow manage to capture the best moments. My mom actually saw some of the candies Austen shot at a show a couple years ago and begged me to give her prints of them for Christmas. Kinda sweet!
DeleteWow ok both of those above should say "candids" --- apparently not a word autocorrect recognizes lol!
DeleteAh yah! Congrats to all of you! Looking forward to the deets!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! Details coming soon!!
DeleteCongratulations! Also, I don't know if it's just the angle but Charlie is looking decidedly less skinny these days.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Actually yea he has filled out quite substantially as the spring grass has come up. Still a little thin in places but doing much much better!
DeleteCongrats!!! You look so happy in all those pics. What happened to the berry bonnet? Can't wait to read all about how the event went
ReplyDeleteThanks! The bonnet was left in the trailer this time around. I'm honestly just not totally sold on the look of it, esp compared to Charlie's cute star face. We will see tho. It might make more appearances in the future too ;)
DeleteAck!! I think you're happy! Great pics :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely super happy :)
DeleteSo happy for you guys! I'm totally in the Charlie fam club, he seems like just a super fun dude!
ReplyDeleteFan club....... stupid fat fingers :p
DeleteHa thanks - yea he's a really really good boy. Makes it easy to work with!
DeleteI'm so happy Charlie is your dream horse. I hope he takes you above and beyond your wildest dreams.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways he already has. I'm just looking forward to keepin on keepin on with him ;)
DeleteSuch great things! I know the feeling you have with Charlie cause I have had the luck of having that for the last 7 years with Steady. Is these thoroughbreds. They can get a bad rep but if you restart them right. Build their trust and confidence in their new job and you're not fearful they will give you more than any other horse out there.
ReplyDeleteYea I'm definitely a big tb fan. Charlie is the third that I've gotten fully going, tho there are a few others out there that I spent a lot of time with too (most famously on this blog would be Bali). Gotta love those special horses :)
DeleteYay! Glad you had an awesome weekend with ribbons to prove it! I didn't go anywhere but did manage two rides on my horse. I also shot several 20-round clips through a (fully permitted and licensed) Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, set a lot of things on fire, managed to attend several family obligations, saw the new Fast and Furious franchise movie, and cleaned/vacuumed both my car and my work pickup. Your weekend was probably more fun, though.
ReplyDeleteI mean, all fun is relative right? But yea having some ribbons at the end helps too lol
DeleteI completely 💙 everything about this post! So glad that things are going well. And it was a fun surprise seeing Austen's hat on her Instagram post 😊
ReplyDeleteHa yea I thought you might like that!!
DeleteThat jacket looks amazeballs
ReplyDeleteThanks I'm totally obsessed with the color!
DeleteGo Team Charlie! I love the photos- it looks like a blast.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely so much fun :D
DeleteAnd Charlie is looking great! Icing on the cake!
ReplyDeleteThanks the spring grass has really helped him fill out
DeleteThis post made me smile so big! Of course we love all our horses but it's just so special when we find "the one" :-)
ReplyDeleteYea it's definitely a special feeling unto itself!
DeleteCharlie is so handsome! Glad you had another good outing!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteAwww this post makes me so happy. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo glad that everything is starting to click - you guys look SUPER happy!
ReplyDeleteLove love love that show coat! And Charlie is amazing. He stood next to a flag while you mounted!! The thought of doing that with Macy makes my stomach turn.
ReplyDelete