Monday, July 3, 2017

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!!

35 comments:

  1. it sounds like a fabulous day.

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  2. WHAT A DAY. I am still exhausted. LOL But so much fun and Charlie is looking so great. And great job on Satin guys. (I think I ended up 7th but didnt even check LOL) I was so tired I didnt even care :) It was a fabulous day though!! YAY I was so excited he got thru the water. Great job!

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    1. ha admittedly i'm still a little tired too lol. and yes you did end up 7th - you could have stayed to grab your pretty brown ribbon, they're so long! maybe FH will mail it to you ;)

      anyway - congrats again on a good ride! so fun showing with you!!

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    2. Denise will keep it for me (She used to ride Remus in lessons) she works in the office. I thought about it then forgot :) HA it was great fun. None the least the blog reading done by you in the back of a pickup truck :)

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    3. haha yea.... apparently i gotta practice my 'presidential' voice ;)

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  3. Congrats!!!! Good friends and pretty satin make for a great day. I much prefer Saturday outings to Sunday. Something about having that extra day to recoup before the work week grind begins again.

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    1. yea the day after is definitely nice.... usually tho the value of seeing my trainer on saturdays outweighs the convenience of having a day off to chill. the occasional saturday show is nice tho ;)

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  4. Satin! And omg am I the only one giggling at the photo of Charlie and Dino tied to the trailers? The height difference 😂 I can't wait to read everyone's in depth recaps!

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    1. haha yea we had a little bit of a chuckle at that too - charlie definitely, uh, stands tall lol. and thanks - i can't wait to read allison and michele's recaps too!!

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  5. OMG THIS DAY! So many ups and downs, so much fun, so much success for EVERYONE!! I am still recovering! I LOVED getting to finally meet Charlie in person, he is the actual sweetest. You guys put in such solid efforts in all 3 phases and were duly rewarded! GO TEAM! :D Can't wait to do it all again!!

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    1. thanks girl i can't wait to do it again too - this day was WAY overdue!!! it's always so good to see you and even better to see you and Dino together absolutely KILLIN IT!!! woo congrats on some awesome rides!! go team!!!

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  6. It sounds like it went fantastic! I agree about BN A, I much prefer BN B...plus the super long free walk down the full diagonal=more time to get distracted. Will stay tuned for full recaps!

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    1. it's funny bc when i first started riding these dressage tests, bn b kinda annoyed me bc it was sooooooo much unjudged trotting. like, trotting forever just to get from one movement to the next haha. now tho i seriously appreciate that extra time! also bn b turned out to be a great test for izzy bc her trot was so cute that it benefited us to have so much time to show it off - esp across those diagonals. our collectives in that test were always much better too. the test isn't good for charlie for the same reasons (obvi haha, charlie is no izzy in that regard), but it's still easier for him lol

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  7. This sounds like so much fun!! I'm jealous that you have multiple blogger friends in your area :)

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    1. we're super lucky to be in such a dense area horse-wise, and esp blogger-wise. i've really enjoyed getting to meet so many bloggers! this was the first time i actively showed WITH blogger friends, tho i've attended their shows before. it's definitely super fun!

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  8. Congratulations! All the work is paying off!

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  9. That sounds like such a fun time! And YAY satin!! Honest to god I laughed out loud when you wrote covfefe in your last post :D That was the best. I'm so glad Charlie did the water! Can't wait to hear all about it :)

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    1. lol we gotta have some covfefe in there, right? and thanks - charlie was great in the water. it's really a very nice complex, but also i did what i've been neglecting to do previously and actually took time to *school* it properly. bc. ya know. he's green and there's only one way to learn!

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    2. Awww good! I know what you mean! I've already been brainstorming on "water" ideas because, well, desert lol. Not really areas bursting with water around here lol

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    3. yea that's tricky. tho when you start looking for schooling venues for teaching Amber the ropes of cross country, you can probably look around for venues that have complexes (a lot of places actually line the water and have a pump to fill it, so it's really actually like a little pool) and make sure they're currently full when you go.

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  10. Wahoo satin!!! Yay clear! Making water great again, bahaha. And I would have booked it out of there too, that storm looks nasty!

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    1. that storm WAS nasty. in a way we were lucky bc we drove straight through it going south as it went north. so we went through the fiercest part of it, but pretty quickly. whereas i'm pretty sure it hounded Allison the entire way home, womp. but yea, thanks it was a great day and i'm so glad charlie made it through the water!

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  11. Replies
    1. it's entirely possible that i bought charlie for his hair ;)

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  12. ahh! so fun! So jealous you get to meet up with other bloggers!
    Also, that storm looks NASTY! I hope you didn't have to drive in it!!

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    1. we're so lucky to have so many bloggers around here - it's like horse mecca!! and yea that storm was pretty intense. we got to basically zip right through it going home, but it more or less hitched a ride with allison for her whole drive.

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  13. Congrats on the placings!! Gotta say, that storm photo definitely has a Four Horsemen (Horsewomen?) of the Apocalypse feel.

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    1. it was *definitely* apocalyptic. that's just kinda how fair hill rolls, i guess - it's almost always rainy when we're there!

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  14. LOOOOVE! I am so sad I couldn't hang out with you guys. You'd have made Saturday the best. :)

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    1. we missssssssed you! hope you're feeling better soon ;)

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