So Charlie did his first BN this past weekend! This event was kinda looming on my mind for a few reasons... Not least of which bc the last time I jumped around 2'6 in their show ring was the
awful no good jumper show with Isabel where I fell off a whole bunch of times.
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| go charlie, go!! |
But much like how Charlie boldly overcame my own personal demons at Fair Hill and Jenny Camp - where I previously had disastrous stadium experiences - he went into the show jumping ring at Tranquility for his biggest class yet. And
nailed it. Good boy!
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| locked on to that caboose! |
And actually - he was pretty damn baller out on cross country too! The course actually felt not-quite-as-soft as the last time I rode in this event (back in 2015) and there were quite a few substantial options for BN.
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| such a freakin cute train tho! choo choooo! |
Which, naturally, Charlie happily took. We continued the theme of "High options, plz, Emma!" bc I really would like to get closer to feeling we're ready for prime time at BN at other venues too.
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| he jumped some other big stuff too |
Suffice it to say - and obviously I'll write up more later - the height itself is not an issue for the big guy. And while some of the jumps impressed him a little bit (shocking, I know) and he's still super uneducated on xc, I feel fairly confident he could get around
most of what we would see at BN just about anywhere right now.
Most. But not all.
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| but at heart, he's still a bit of a goon. as evidenced by this baller fly-mask-induced hair style we rocked all day long lol |
Because we still have some pretty glaring holes in his cross country training. Mostly since we honestly haven't really been schooling - we've just been getting experience via competitions. But it's time to go schooling asap, I think, bc Charlie really showed his greenness at the water again this weekend (if you're keeping track, this is the second time he's seen water on course).
It ultimately resulted in our elimination (something I didn't know until I had already finished), tho it's possible a different jump judge would have assessed penalties differently (ie, giving us a couple refusals but letting us finish 'with a number'). But whatever. Our dressage still needs enough work that we're not exactly competitive anyway so it's almost moot.
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| it was a good day for the whole group, actually! |
Mostly I'm just so pleased with the horse and feel like we both learned a lot this weekend. There's always more work to be done, but it feels good knowing that certain pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit nicely into place. Especially since one particular piece - stadium - has given me so much grief in the past.
Anyway. Details coming soon. Hope you all had a great weekend too and are wayyyy less sun burnt than me lol (farmer's tans are cool tho, right?)
Oh too bad about the elimination. I can't remember how it works for the jump judging but I know that you guys will figure it out!
ReplyDeletethanks! and yea i mean.... i have thoughts and opinions on the jump judging lol (which i'm sure doesn't shock you in the least haha!) and i'll write more about them later. but whatever. i'm focused on the outcomes and can't help but be happy with what we got out of the weekend!
Deleteoh i am sorry you were eliminated :( But it sounds like you had a great day and you got to finish the course (WHICH is the most important part!!). I wish you were closer to school at FH. that water jump is the reason Remus is so good with water. I think if i had started off somewhere else it would not have been as easy. Fair Hill has a gradual big entrance and it is level and not too hard to trot or canter across....and there are a few entry points. I hope you can get him schooling water somewhere this week. Is there anywhere close by.
ReplyDeleteLove his hairdo and glad you had fun. ANd sheesh some of those jumps look big as snot to me :)
yea i'm looking forward to trying out FH's water next week with charlie. i've done it a few times with izzy, who had her own water issues, but by then we were more or less confirmed enough to head straight on in through the flags (albeit at a walk or trot). with charlie, i'll take advantage of the multiple entrances to the water since they allow you to get in and out and all around so long as you don't cross through the flags the wrong way or whatever before actually presenting to the flags. still tho. he's green, ya know? like he just plain old has limited experience. so i kinda need to view these shows as schooling experiences and let the chips fall as they may. (hopefully we don't get E'd next weekend too tho!!!)
DeleteBummer on the elimination but hurrah for getting out there and tackling BN!
ReplyDeletethanks! it was nice to get out there and reaffirm to myself that the height really isn't an issue. like, i already "knew" (academically, so to speak) that charlie doesn't care. but really, i needed to know that *i* don't care either. that *i* can do it too. it's reassuring!
DeleteAre you as sunburned as I was last weekend?? If so, yes, rocking the farmer's tan is awesome ;) although my shoulders are starting to peel, haha. Bummer about the elimination, but getting out for some schooling sounds like a good way to get him more confident about water.
ReplyDeletehahah i'm not sure i quiiiiiite reached your level there lol, but i've got some pretty solid t-shirt sleeve burns goin on. it.... ain't cute! and yea we definitely have a lot of schooling in our future. not sure it'll happen before our next event unfortunately, but that's ok too!
DeleteA total bummer about the elimination but at least you know what you need to work on now. But xc schooling is the best so win win?
ReplyDeletedefinitely! and i've kinda known all along that the height isn't the issue with charlie - it's the xc "questions." which is why we did the 18" at fair hill last time, bc i didn't think he was ready for ditches / banks / water. he's now seen two faux ditches and an up and down bank and been fine with them all, but the water continues to be a sticking point. that's fine tho - it'll work out eventually!
DeletePersonally I'd love to be able to come out of an event feeling like we rocked stadium. I wouldn't even care about anything else at this point! ...but maybe not everyone sucks there as much as me lol
ReplyDeleteya know, i'm right there with ya. stadium was the phase that worried me the most coming into this event. i've just got so much freakin baggage for show jumping lol. i'm kinda zen about our current dressage suckage, and have kinda felt like cross country is easier to ride charlie in (tho that actually wasn't the case this weekend). but stadium had me concerned. go figure, stadium ended up being the easiest phase! so yea. i'm definitely pumped about that!
DeleteSorry about the elimination, but at the end of the day, it's nice you got to finish. Also, Revisionist History is my favorite podcast!
ReplyDeleteha awesome! and yea it was very nice getting to finish - tho that may have been a function of the water being the last obstacle on course right before the finish flags (which struck me as quite odd, actually). i'm honestly not sure how they would have handled my situation had water been on the middle of the course, whether they would have pulled me up or not. idk.
DeleteNailed stadium?! Way to go Charlie!! Can't wait to hear all the details :)
ReplyDeletethanks! i was thrilled with the stadium! details coming soon!
DeleteYay!! Who cares about being eliminated at something you can fix (like you said, you can school water) when the rest was great!? :-)
ReplyDeleteyea definitely! like, my pride stings a little bit about the E.... but that hardly matters in comparison to the rest!
DeleteYeah, I hear you! My first time BN with my now retired Standardbred (who I started myself) we ended up REFUSING the final XC fence because I totally gave up riding I was so excited. I celebrated too soon like a moron and knocked our placing WAAAAY down the board haha. It keeps us humble, right?!? ;-)
DeleteIf farmer's tans are cool, then I am SUPER COOL! That E really sucks, but sounds like you had a positive outing even so! Proud of you and Charles for rocking the stadium! <3
ReplyDeleteha farmer's tans unite!!!!! and thanks - it really was a very positive day for him!
DeleteCongrats on a good weekend! That sucks about the E, but at least it felt good, as you've said before, Charlie doesn't know he didn't win!
ReplyDeletethanks - and that's exactly it, charlie has no conception of scoring yet since he's still got so much to learn about just going through the motions of three tests in one day. he thinks he's pretty good at it tho! :D
DeleteCongrats on killing it in stadium. Charlie has no clue he got a letter or that it even matters. I'm sure he still felt like king of the world at the end of it all.
ReplyDeletethanks!!! and you're so right, charlie really did feel very good. i kinda wish the course had at least some sort of final jump after water - it felt very bizarre to finish on that style of obstacle without at least like, a log or roll top or something afterward. it's always nice to finish over an actual jump so the horse can run through the finish, ya know? all's well that ends well tho!
DeleteYour stadium round looked fantastic! Way to go Charlie! And Emma of course :D. So, I was thinking you went outside the flags 2x which would be 40, but then did Charlie back or something for the jump judge to count that as 3 therefore an E? In which case for something like BN I would've just given someone a number.... I know there are times when people showing at our small local shows will go off pattern. It should be a DQ but the judges just put them at the bottom and give them a score. They tell the people they performed the pattern wrong, but they still get a score. But I digress. I agree that he looked like a total baller on XC! He did fantastic!
ReplyDeletethanks! and i haven't actually written out my full thoughts on the cross country course (or stadium, for that matter) bc.... well.. those post haven't been written yet haha, even tho the videos are uploaded. so you're getting a little ahead of the blog there. but anyway - no i was not assessed the refusals for going outside of the flags. all that matters in cross country is that you go through the flags in the correct order without crossing your line in combinations flagged a-b, and without having variations of disturbances in forward progress relating to fences with and without height (which is where the refusals actually came from, tho i disagreed with the jump judge's interpretation of that rule vis-a-vis how it applied to this non-height obstacle). anyway, if you're curious about the actual details, that post should be published on wednesday.
DeleteOh I did get ahead of the blog. Sorry lol. I was thinking about the run outs but it makes sense. And yeah, you're right. The obstacle didn't have height... But I look forward to the Wednesday post! And again, Charlie looked so happy and excited <3
Deleteyea, except those weren't run outs ;)
DeleteSorry you ended with a letter and not a number, its all a part of that process and knowing how reflective and thoughtful you are I'm sure you've already incorporated all that brilliant feedback into your plan.
ReplyDeletethanks girl. as much as i would love to stew and ferment in my sour grapes forever (and ever, and ever), forward is always the only option. and i <3 plans.... so yea. just gotta keep taking each piece of input data (welcome or unwelcome lol) into consideration as i continue trying to build a better mousetrap!
DeleteCongrats on a good weekend! :)
ReplyDeleteYay Charlie for stepping up like a boss! Vispera Productions actually got some shots of you guys. Saw the post on my FB and thought it wouldn't hurt to take a gander :)
ReplyDeletehttp://gallery.visperaproductions.com/gallery/4637780/album/3361352
Sounds like an amazing experience even if you did get an E to finish. Also, his hair looks like he's rocking the comb over look, or maybe he's going for a hipster thing. Either way it's so adorable :)
ReplyDeleteYay Charlie! But boo hiss about the elimination
ReplyDelete