MCTA : the running + jomping part

Ok who's ready for some glorious cross country??!!??!?! I know I am! Tho, kinda a funny story. While much of the course was visible for spectators standing up on a hill, the distances were such that made video almost pointless.

And at times during the ride, I actually found myself grateful for that. Like, "thank god nobody is taking pictures right now bc I really don't need to know what we look like!"

Tho, joke's on me bc apparently GRC Photo was on site and will be posting their pics today so... Ya know. Maybe there is documentation haha.

god this horse has great hair

Charlie was very very good for the ride, but also very green. And honestly a little bit impressed by some of the fences, just as he was in stadium. Not necessarily over-faced, per se. And never feeling like he lacked the confidence to do what I asked of him or accomplish these fences. But he showed his inexperience at the level (f*ing duh, Emma, it's his first BN, after all!).

jump 1! i was actually thisclose to planning on cantering to jump 1. we're allllmost there. but i still just like giving charlie that little bit of extra time to get on board with the plan

The course looked great tho - looping between three main fields with varying terrain and some stylish fences. Options galore, and actually quite a few good questions.

the course actually had a lot of brushy type stuff on it - esp on some of the bigger jumps. therefore seeing something of a similar 'look' but on a smaller fence felt like a great intro to the track

Fence 1 took us right out of the start box with a reasonably inviting brush covered split rail type fence, shared with intro. I always kinda look at brush-y type fences a little sideways since Charlie had that silly little stop at his first ever xc schooling at that hay covered box. But I need to just get over that. The horse is clearly fine.

My plan was to trot this jump, tho I would allow canter if he volunteered it. Ever since our first run at Loch Moy, I've gotten the impression that while Charlie is more physically comfortable jumping from canter, he's more emotionally comfortable approaching from a trot when he needs extra processing time. And in this instance, he held his trot right up to the base. Good boy, that's fine!

surprisingly beefy log! i think this was actually shared with N too, but there doesn't appear to be a number on it

Then a quick jaunt up to this somewhat large log that Charlie reached a little awkwardly before cutting through the treeline. Immediately to the left of the treeline is the trailer parking areas, and the novice track had a fence just through that clearing that went straight toward the trailers. Tricky! Luckily BN went through the clearing and turned the other direction for our next fence.

nothing complicated here - tho a fun little approach from within the treeline 

Which was just another log. Totes cool, have at it Charlie! Felt like a reasonable way to get him jumping - with a couple height and width questions coming soon.

first option! that green bench was the final jump at jenny camp, so obvi we did that again

I really appreciated the variation in fence types on this course. And the number of options. For most options, I simply went with the bigger fence. Tho in at least one instance, my decision was colored by style of fence - since this course allowed us to try out a lot of different looking fences as we saw fit.

This bench was a no brainer tho - bigger, but also something we've jumped before. Charlie popped over nbd.

second option - either the left hand cabin or the two middle mulch piles

The next option was kinda strange. On approach just by judging the face, I was leaning towards jumping the brown house type thing - it appeared to be about the same height as the higher mulch pile, but visually looked a little more 'normal xc style' maybe? Idk. But when I got a view of the fences from the side, it was clear that the mulch pile was significantly wider. So. Mulch pile it would be!

Charlie kinda looked a little bit at it tho, and then got right up to the base before popping over. The low sloping profile of the jump made that nbd tho, and he had no problem jumping across it despite getting in so tight.

another option! big ol' rail fence on a slight downhill approach

Here's kinda where we started to see some of Charlie's inexperience begin to shine through tho. And the point in the video where my commentary switches from lots of reassuring and encouraging "Good Boys!" to "Whoas" lol. See, Charlie looked a little bit at the mulch, got a bit underneath it, popped over, and landed very strong and forward.

He repeated that same pattern but to an even greater extent at this next fence - one of the tallest options on course, and also hay-covered, natch. With the downhill approach, I found myself riding a little backward to the fence, but he jumped it pretty well all things considered anyway.

moar optionz! spoooooky pipes. excellent ground lines tho!

Then we rolled back around up the hill to some tiny black pipes. I told Charlie to be brave and put my leg on to ride him up to a pretty good distance, even as he wanted to stand a little bit off from the jump.

another one that needed a side view to determine which was bigger. right side was taller but left side was wider. went left.

He landed strong again and didn't necessarily want to settle ahead of this next fence... But we were still able to reach it from a fairly forward distance instead of backward.

faux ditch - schmo ditch

Then I tried to really sit him down well ahead of the faux ditch, which I didn't anticipate would do anything to slow him down lol. Which it totally didn't - he zoomed over barely even acknowledging it haha and barreled on down to the roll top.

roll top option! actually the roll top looks a little nicer than those barrels anyway lol

I actually really like this style of jump for Charlie (which is funny bc I used to hate them back in the day lol). It's solid and substantial enough to force the horse to read it (and maybe even respect it), but of an inviting and safe enough construction that it's forgiving if the horse makes a little mistake. Which Charlie did, by getting a little bit underneath it again. But nbd, he just had to pick those knees up even higher.

traaaaaain!! left hand side is definitely very beefy, esp in width

Then I actually really did sit him back down and whoa for real. Like, the horse has to learn that this isn't a race, ya know? That we're not just building up to maximum speed as the course wears on - that he can find his show jumping canter even out in the middle of an xc course.

Plus, there was an optional question coming up on course that would specifically require me to adjust Charlie pretty rapidly on landing from a fence, and I needed to know if we could do that.

So going down to this train I really wanted to our canter back. And was honestly uncertain whether the high option was the right choice here or if it would contribute to Charlie's running. But he did in fact settle his canter on approach, so we went for the caboose anyway. It's a pretty good sized jump actually - I jumped it before with Izzy and it's surprisingly wide! Charlie tackled it nbd.

these are almost the same dimensions. we jumped that feeder at jenny camp tho, so i opted for the bench this time. 

Then we cruised around the N corner (that actually looked totally doable) to turn to the next option. Both on the small side relative to some earlier stuff, so it didn't much signify which side we jumped. I chose the bench since I've never jumped that one before.

this fence was purely an option, could be skipped or added at will for BN, with down banks hot on its heels

Next up was what I felt was actually a REALLY cool combo option on this course - a triple bar to down bank. The triple bar was optional but the down bank was not. Charlie jumped this triple bar at Jenny Camp so I wasn't worried about the jump - but I *was* a little bit worried about getting him back in time for the down bank.

down bank had varying heights, all with very steep downhill landings

There's a couple options for riding this: 1) Go straight through - triple to bank - and pray; 2) Jump the triple bar then immediately circle left (thus giving time to regroup) before approaching the bank; 3) Jump the triple bar then aim for the itsiest bitsiest right hand portion of the down bank, but then pull left again to hit the next tier of banks visible on the left hand side of the above picture so we could actually school a proper bank; 4) Skip the triple bar.

from "basically non existent" to "ok i guess that's a bank"

It kinda killed me to do this, but I opted for #4 - skipping the triple bar. In my mind, it was more important that Charlie school the down bank vs tackle a new type of combination. Furthermore, it was important that he be set up to understand and execute the bank safely without issue. Building confidence, not proving confidence.

And I simply did not trust my ability to regroup on the landing from the triple bar quickly enough to give Charlie time to be safe and clear on the bank in front of him. Maybe that's an overly conservative position, but it worked out well enough. He just trotted right on down the bank, and actually landed practically walking lol. I'll take it!

ahhh the water mud puddle. i knew during our walk that we would have trouble here. sigh. 

Anyway, we mostly walked/trotted down the rest of that super steep hill to approach the water, where I was fairly sure we'd have issues. And issues we had. My grand plan was to get up close and personal to the right side red flag. There was more dry ground there, plus Charlie would directly face the warm up area filled with other horses - hopefully enticing him forward.

It was a no go, tho. He incurred at least 1 penalty, up to 2-3 according to the jump judge. So I pulled him around the back side of the flags where the goon walked right into the water, then back around to the front where he again had at least another refusal, or maybe 2-3 per the judge.

"ohhhh noooo not the watttterrrrr" - charlie, probably

You can see the judge coming toward us and speaking to me in the video - a fairly sure sign we were eliminated. She said words of advice or something  (which, uh, no thanks lady! not interested in unsolicited advice, kthxbai!) while I took Charlie back behind the flags into the water again, then back around and this time through the flags. Then right on through to the finish.

Kinda a crappy way to finish a course imo (I much prefer galloping through the finish flags myself lol, and have never actually finished a course with anything other than an actual jump - it just feels weird lol) but c'est la vie!

video here! it's a pretty fun run right up until the end.

gets real boring real fast at the water. sigh. 

The jump judge said she assessed 3 penalties on the ride (tho she told the TD it was more like 4-5), saying any halt of forward progress constitutes a refusal. I disagreed with that, understanding that rule to relate to jumps with height, while jumps without height allow a stop and sideways steps, but not backward steps.

It's admittedly a gray area tho, and Charlie absolutely had refusals (plural). But I wasn't sure there were 3. I can see in the video how she got to her counts... but I can also see how a more generous jump judge may have reached a different outcome.

She also said a recognized show wouldn't allow me to go behind the flags into the water. I disagreed there too, having seen Elisa Wallace do exactly that at training level (skip to 3:20 in the video) without penalty (scores here). So... I felt this judge was kinda wrong on the letter of the law, and kinda probably maybe missing the spirit of the law for starter trials too.

I talked to the TD tho, who stood by the judge's experience and said that, "riders are often so caught up in the moment that they don't actually know what their horses are doing" ... which... idk. Feels kinda insulting to say to a rider. But whatever. I tried!

my handsome new event pony. he'll learn water eventually <3

All's well that ends well tho. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Charlie doesn't know what penalties are. Nor does he know what "E" means. As far as he knows, he put in three solid tests and was a very good boy. Which is really what I want to highlight from this event - rather than the underwhelming finish or my sour grapes haha.

It felt like a really solid introduction to a new level - while also reaffirming that my 'blurred lines' approach to the levels is probably the right fit for Charlie. Height continues to be a non-issue for the horse. Rather, it's the "questions" of xc that he still isn't confirmed in answering yet.

So I'm happy to go back to 2'3 next week at Fair Hill, where we can expect to see more ditches banks and water, each likely to have jumps with related distances. It feels.... very likely that we'll reach a similar fate at the water there too lol (curses!) but them's the breaks. It's all basically schooling anyway, right?