things Charlie can do now

I'm not sure I ever wrote about our last dressage lesson, but it was about six weeks ago. So. Ya know. The trend continues with not getting enough face time with dressage trainer C. Hopefully that'll change in the near future tho!

However we've been working working working away at home, trying to really help Charlie understand what I'm asking him re: carrying himself in a new way.

i seriously love this arena tho!

And remember when I wrote about our lesson with Dan, lamenting that it would be difficult to replicate that work without Dan's constant instruction? Ha! Joke's on me, bc Charlie apparently internalized that lesson beautifully and has been super game to keep chipping away at it.

So when we finally got back to see dressage trainer C this past weekend, I basically had a whole new horse to show her. Well, being realistic, she sees a whole new horse almost every time bc six weeks in Charlie time can be fairly transformative lol. 

charlie is saving those carrot flecks as a snack for later, obvi

But I was able to show her our latest "new normal" this weekend: A horse who is learning to be softer and light in the bridle, who is starting to have a half halt (until he gets tired haha), and is showing the beginning of what will be a very nice rhythm to his trot. We're finally able to slow the tempo down without losing the push from his hind end. And she liked it!!

he still stands funny, but imo he looks pretty good right now!

And decided to really test it out, play with it, see if Charlie will do tricks haha. Essentially: to begin pushing the boundaries on the horse's nascent lateral and longitudinal suppleness.

Things we played with in this lesson:

- Leg yield from wall to quarter line
- Leg yield from quarter line to wall
- 15m trot circles
- Pushing the trot out across the long diagonal
- Trotting across the diagonal, walking after X
- Canter leg yield from quarter line to wall
- Canter across the diagonal, trotting after X
- Canter across diagonal, counter canter half circle to the long side, then trot before corner

he fairly hilariously got very excited about this random mound of untouched grass in the parking lot

Which like.... that's actually a lot of stuff for Sir Charles! The leg yields and 15m circles aren't exactly new, we've been playing with them for a while now. But going both toward and away from the wall was new - tho occasionally we'd throw in just a straight track down the quarter line to keep him from anticipating.

All the work across the diagonals was new tho - both pushing him out and bringing him in for a down transition. He actually had one big trot across the diagonal where he stayed round, but also stayed really balanced as he opened his stride. It's not a medium yet by any stretch of the imagination, but there was a distinct transition both into and out of it. Baby steps, y'all, I'll take it!

"mmmm but it's so good tho!"

The counter canter work was the really exciting part too - bc Charlie just kinda.... did it haha. I was especially pleased with getting to practice it, as I had been struck by just how much counter canter everyone seemed to be doing at Windurra during our tour. Apparently it's an important exercise?

i'm pretty sure it's from some old pile of dirt or whatever that should have been moved ages ago, so charlie is just doing his part to keep the grounds tidy!

Anyway, tho, the biggest takeaways for me to remember from this lesson were that I need to be really purposeful with all my transitions now. Wait for softness, roundness, before asking for the transition. Always. And forever. That I need to continue riding my horse as he feels in that moment even as trainer C is calling out movements.

Charlie needs me to be very present for him right now, especially as he's beginning to understand the game - he needs reaffirmation, reward for good effort, and consistency in what I'm asking.

"dis my special grass!"

Really tho? He was so good! Trainer C was very impressed by how he just kept going, just kept doing whatever. And actually looked pretty pleasant in his expression while doing it. At one point she kinda joked that he looked like he was concentrating so hard haha. Good boy :)

I really need to get some new dressage media bc I'm dying to see what he really looks like. He goes so differently from Isabel that I'm still very much learning my feel for putting all the pieces together. But things are feeling really good.

It feels like Charlie kinda sees what I'm trying to get at now. He's such a thinking horse that once he understands the point, understands what I want, he just kinda does it. Which is obviously helpful haha. I'm actually really eager to see how it all might play out in our next competition too. We're still not quite consistent enough to expect a seismic shift in scores.... but I'm curious.

Anyway. Transformations, yo. They are cool. And it's really cool to feel when something starts to "click" for a horse. It's downright addicting haha, now I just want more and more! I'm feeling greedy haha. Do you ever feel that way? When something finally really starts working and you just want to keep going and going with it?