exposure: creeks + gates

So Charlie's new barn has trails. And like, REAL trails - not just deer paths or people-trails that are questionably too steep/narrow for horses.

pictured: not a technical trail master lol

He's gone out through the grounds quite a bit in the past year - whether cross country schooling or just going on purposeful hacks with Brita since she boards here. In fact, Charlie's first ever trail ride was on this property last winter.

i can't be the only one who finds this view intensely refreshing!

We've gone out a couple times since moving in - mostly hacking through the fields. Usually with friends but sometimes alone. Recently tho I heard tell of a trail that goes across a little creek. Obviously very exciting bc Charlie's never actually seen a creek before!!! Clearly we had to go!!

look at all these easy fence lines for cruisin!

Lucky for me, Brita happened to be hankerin' for a hack ride just as Charlie came sound again from his abscess and was ready to get back at it. Poor guy, I tried counting out and he's been ridden something like 4-5 times in the past three weeks. That's wildly insufficient for our purposes but.... it is what it is.

familiar water element is old news to charlie

A long, low-impact walk-trot hack ride across variable terrain seemed like the perfect way to bring him back into work. Charlie seemed to agree too! He's such a pleasant horse to hack out - happy to plod off in any direction (even if he remains, as ever, slightly casual about foot placement).

this pic hardly does them justice but brita and bella just cruised right on around schooling various xc elements. benefits of living on the premises!

Charlie is happy to lead or follow on the trails but usually ends up in the lead just bc of his stride length. Tho, despite not being a 'spooky' horse, his greenness often necessitates getting a lead over the more challenging or technical obstacles that cross his path. As was the case with the creek on this trail.

It wasn't a particularly big creek, in fact it was smaller than most of the crossings on the trails at Izzy's barn. But it was deep-ish and too broad to jump, and by far bigger than anything Charlie's seen before.

see the goldfish in the trough????

So he just halted, snorted and looked at the creek a little funny. Watched as Bella came past us and splashed through with no problem. Snorted a little more. Then with much trepidation, just stepped right on in and made the crossing. Gooooood boy.

the trough was only spooky for a moment tho - then he realized that cute mare maybe needed some gentlemanly company!

He's such a funny horse - he's so quiet and so easy going and so down to earth, it's very easy to forget how green he is.

It's also very easy to forget one of the first lessons he taught me: That, actually, he's not great at handling pressure. Charlie's tendency is to get upset and defensive when he's confused or thinks he's in trouble.

charlie hopes to follow in bella's footsteps!

I kinda ran headfirst into this issue last week while just hacking out by myself after getting home from San Diego. Most of the fields are used for turn out so gates are a way of life. And most latches are too low to reach when you ride a 17h giant.

After jumping off and remounting repeatedly (and thanking my lucky stars that Charlie stands way better than Isabel ever did) we came upon the below gate that looked like something I could handle from the saddle. Charlie was able to do the footwork necessary to open the gate - but unfortunately was not able to get it shut.

true story: gates r hard.

Mostly it boiled down to rider error - I was so focused on the gate: going forward, backward, whoa boy, now sideways, wait forward, forward now! That I wasn't focusing enough on Charlie. Considering... ya know... he's proven to be a pressure averse horse and has previously shown distinct resistance to being driven forward (hellloooo dinosaur stuck in tar pit!).

Brita has a #concern for us lol

So we ended up having a moment. Charlie's biggest meltdown in recent memory. Lots of running backward and mini-rearspins.

Fortunately, Charlie is also a forgiving horse. And a thinking horse. And we've spent a LOT of time working on building trust. So he was able to pause, take a breath, hear me out, and walk back up to the gate. At which point I promptly hopped off to close the thing from the ground and just move right on along with our lives.

he'll figure it out eventually tho!

So this weekend we could take full advantage of hacking out with friends whose horses are gate experts. Charlie got to open some gates (the easy part), and even attempt to close a couple. Slowly. Steadily. Not a big fuss if he couldn't do it, bc our trail companions could step in and finish the job at any moment.

My favorite thing about this horse is he actually seems to enjoy challenges and puzzles and whatnot - he just needs to know he can get the answer correct, or at least that he won't get in trouble for getting it wrong. So gates will just have to be added to the list of things he needs to learn the rules about. That it's a game of very small steps and incremental lateral maneuvers.

poor soul also finally made his grand return to the dressage court for purposeful schooling!

And for me, it's so useful to remember that even tho the horse has had so much exposure on the track and in the past year with me, there's still so much that he hasn't seen. Like.... a creek. Or being expected to have a gate closed from his back.

One of these things isn't really something horses do naturally in the wild. And the other isn't one that is always present for the domesticated horse. Go figure, Charlie still struggles with both lol. Has your horse ever caught you off guard with a surprising or unexpected hole in his education?