Fair Hill: a good day with friends!

Happy Monday, y'all! I'm actually feeling surprisingly rested after a horse show weekend - there's definitely something to be said for Saturday shows! (And, ya know, the impending US holiday... lol)

Most of our schooling shows are on Sundays, meaning we get to do our normal jump lesson at OF in preparation the day before. That schedule has worked well for me in the past, but this was pretty good too.

EPIC HORSE BLOGGER MEET UP!!!!!!

The thing that made the day the most special tho?? Showing with equestrian blogger friends Allison and Michele!!!! Such cool ladies, with really wonderful horses Dino and Remus!

I first met Alli at Fair Hill back in 2015, and we've been friends ever since. Then Michele and I met at Fair Hill's 3* last year (Allison, Austen, Megan, and Amanda were there too! - but I guess I still haven't blogged about that event, wtf Emma) and then again at Charlie's first Fair Hill earlier this year.

shiny ponies with luxurious tails!! also, matching trailers!! fun fact: i fell in love with Allison's trailer way back during our last epic blogger xc school, and ended up buying nearly the same model

So we've been looking forward to this day for a while now, since Fair Hill is a fairly central location for all of us. And it was GREAT!

We already know that showing with friends is basically the best thing ever, but it definitely bears repeating. There's something about the friendly group aspect that helps reduce stress, ease anxiety, and breed excitement and more of a 'rah rah,' supportive kind of feeling. And it definitely makes for more fun course walks ;)

WEEEEEEEEMUS!!!!! so fun meeting this guy!!

Anyway I'm sure Alli and Michele will each have plenty to share about their days. But I really enjoyed getting to watch them ride! Both put down some very impressive rounds in the dressage and jumping phases and have a lot to be proud about from their rides!!

video skills level = expert, as i shot Allison and Janelle's concurrent tests in side-by-side dressage courts. thank god Charlie is happy to just chill with his grass! also Remus was taking notes in preparation for his own lovely test!
photo shamelessly downloaded form Fair Hill's facebook album here

My day with Charlie was pretty darn good too. I continue to be very happy with how the horse is going! And again - per usual, I'll break down the full details for each phase in posts coming out later this week. But for now let's just get a high level overview, shall we?

tho Charlie's go-to move is to basically run me over. we r so gud at groundwerk! Remus is amused lol
pc: Fair Hill's facebook

Charlie continues to develop on the flat, and I continue to be happy with the feeling he's giving me. He actually had some very lovely moments in the warm up too, tho they were harder to find during the test itself. And we still really don't have a half halt, or, ahem, much of a halt haha (he knows to halt at X more by association than bc I'm cuing for it lol).

So while my feeling from Charlie is improving and improving, it's still not something that is reflected much in our scores. Plus BN A is legitimately a difficult test for Charlie bc even tho it's just circles and straight lines at all 3 gaits... it all comes up a little quickly for us. It was a good enough test tho, putting us 7th of 10, we just need more work.

plenty of time for pony pets while getting ready at the trailer <3

The jumping was another phase that looks a bit different on paper than it felt in reality. Sometimes, for us, we use that terminology to say that the jumping was quite good even tho we had penalties. For this day, tho, I'm saying that to mean that the jumping was actually quite poor tho we went clear.

Not "poor" in a bad way, really, just very green. Bc let's be real, Charlie spent 4 years as a race horse and ran over 30+ times. He's starting to figure out this running + jumping eventing thing - but is naturally still very influenced by his lengthy history on the track.

whooooooooo satin!!!!! go team!
(also yea, we basically booked it to the trailers after this pic bc that storm in the distance was COMING lol)

It's nothing some schooling can't fix tho. I'm legitimately thrilled with him. Charlie's got a fairly solid foundation, all things considered, and has all the raw material I need to work with. And it feels a lot like we have complementary strengths and weaknesses as a horse/rider pair.

For the most part, I can fill in the gaps of his schooling while we're on course. And he can also pick up the slack in areas where I'm more likely to make mistakes. So it works out.

Plus, clear jumping is nothing to sniff at anyway, even if the efforts themselves were occasionally a little iffy lol. And, as you might have guessed, "clear" = we got through the water!!! Making water great again!!!! Woooo!!!!

Finishing on our dressage score moved us up to 4th in our split, just like last time at Fair Hill!! A trend I'm quite happy to continue lol. Anyway. Details coming soon, so stay tuned. And definitely check out Alli's and Michele's blogs for their own updates!!