Wednesday, August 23, 2017

need a giggle? have some fails.

Busy days with limited horsing and even less media had me feeling like I didn't have much to share.

But lo! It dawned on me that as we approach the one year mark with Charlie, it might be fun to look back on some of our more.... uh.... special moments together. 

That's right, y'all. I'm talking bloopers. Funny moments of FAIL. Because damn, we've got a lot. Like, uh, who remembers this glorious first photo ever of me trotting on Charlie???

The horse is nothing short of a character, after all. And I figure, we spend so much time gushing about what a good boy he is that it's only fair to point out that he's kinda a goof too. Like here, where he just.can't.even with the flies.

Or, uh, that time I stuffed him on my old Calico trailer. Homebody did not fit and was not impressed.

And who can forget our first glorious attempts at ground poles? Much grace. Very elegance.

Of course all along I've been somewhat delusional about the future - like when I photoshopped Charlie's face into one of Allison's fox hunting pics with Dino lol. #notcreepyatall

Really tho, we all know the truth: Charlie's been a refined and sophisticated dressage horse since the beginning - including stunning the judge while winning his first show.

Of course, we can't blame the horse for all our fails. Sometimes (let's be real, most of the time), it's me. Like when I got the horse all tangled up trying to unload him from the trailer. He tried to stop - tried to tell me something was wrong. But noooo, I just couldn't listen. Le sigh, his sheet paid the ultimate price.

It's cool tho. Together, we're clearly an unstoppable force in the dressage world, experts of the upper level "imminent death by face planting" movements - a testament to our superior balance. 

Ha, and for further proof of our prowess, let's not forget that time we went to a fancy pants dressage clinic and basically had to be trotted around in hand by the clinician. Womp. 

Poor Charlie. Sometimes he can barely tolerate being seen with me. 

Sometimes, tho. Just sometimes.... The fails come straight from the horse's mouth. Or, uh, in this case, from Charlie's patented 'dinosaur stuck in tar pit' routine.

Pleasant, no?

Gosh, this really was a golden age for us in our partnership. Sometimes I almost miss it!

Definitely do not miss that whole "trying to teach Charlie to actually care even a little bit about where his feet are" thing tho.

All that hard work paid off tho. Suddenly Charlie became REALLY excited about having feet. And putting them EVERYWHERE! Like the above, when we pretended to drop into Head of the Lake over a tiny oxer. 

Which was naturally just practice for the real thing haha. #basicallyrolex

Ok so actually I have so many shots of us leaping hilariously over tiny fences while I desperately try to cling to his back. It's almost embarrassing lol. Almost.

But we're clearly beyond feeling any shame at this point haha.

These days we're more about world domination, one cross country course at a time. Never mind that the power steering barely works well enough to navigate a tiny 18" box from 5 strides out haha.

But what we lack in steering, Charlie clearly makes up with style. Tail style. 

And more exquisite form in leaping at dem fences!

Uh, most of the time haha. Can't fault the clever boy for checking all possible emergency exits every now and then tho!

Ugh but blast it, there's that stuck dinosaur again. When will this thing go extinct already??? Can we just pretend this is like, a pirouette canter or something??? 

Certainly it's better than whatever this graceful dressage brontosaurus is up to haha. 

Oh Charlie. Can we at least get points for creative expression?

Like that time he offered his own interpretive dance at the water - in a new move called "eliminated on refusals" lol.

He's certainly got a unique style!

And obvi much grace. We are, after all, nothing if not graceful.

And so the cycle continues. Forever and ever, amen. Here's for another year full of fantastically fail-ful moments with the big guy lol!

Oh horses. They're humbling sometimes for sure! Anyone else care to share some favorite moments of fail?

43 comments:

  1. omg, this is my favorite post. i love all his jumping pictures. hes like HANG ON, I SEE THE FLYER.

    for all of them.

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    1. all the flyers. all the time. always and forever.

      you'd think i'd be used to it by now LOL!

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  2. I absolutely love "us leaping hilariously over tiny fences while I desperately try to cling to his back". Pretty much sums up all my experiences jumping green horses, ever.

    I loved this post. So much gentle humor. You guys are the best!

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    1. aw thanks girl haha - and yea that's basically all my experiences ever too. uh.... even when they're not green. #backseat4lyfe!!

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  3. i love all the photos. He cracks me up and it is amazing he can be so wonderful then you see the fail photos :) HA great post :) (especially i love the dinosaur ones those make me laugh out loud)!

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    1. omg yea haha, i get so caught up in gushing about how much i luffs him that it's easy to forget that uh... yea for every "amazeballs" moment there are like three more ridiculously goofy moments haha

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  4. Bahaha, this whole post made me laugh out loud! Aren't green OTTBs the best? And I pretty much share fails every blog post :)

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    1. lol i love it - gotta keep that honest balance, right???? sometimes tho it just brings all the warm fuzzies to collect each and every one of those speshul moments into one giant pile of steaming.... funniness.

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  5. A.m.a.z.i.n.g. A great mid week laugh. My entire blog is basically one big fail after another :) I love when horses scratch with their hind legs. I rarely catch ahem doing it but I laugh every single time. Probably why she doesn't do it around me now that I think about it. Mare has a big ego.

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    1. haha isabel was exactly the same - she HATED when i laughed at her, and would get this mortified expression on her face. too bad princess, shit happens sometimes!!

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  6. Hahaha! You seriously need to photoshop that "leaping hilariously over tiny fences" onto a background of some advanced level drop or something!

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    1. ummmmmmmmm so i use MS Paint for all my photo editing haha (exempli gratia: that "photoshopped" pic of charlie fox hunting with Dino hahahaha) but i would LOVE to see a more skilled variation of that pic you describe!!

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  7. LOL we are about to start free jumping in the jump chute and I cannot wait to capture my own fails

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    1. ha excellent - be sure to have a camera ready!!! or, if you're short on hands, you can set the phone in a jump cup on a standard bc that media shouldn't be missed!!! have fun :D

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  8. #freejumpfail is still my fave Charlie moment!

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    1. lol i keep that video handy on my phone for special occasions ;) like when i showed it to his vet last night and she just about died laughing haha

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  9. nothing I love more than a good ol' blooper reel! You guys are super cute together- even when failing.

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    1. lol thanks - he makes it easy, even through the failtacular stuff!

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  10. Fail photos are my absolute favorite 😂 Lord knows I have plenty haha

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    1. ha gotta keep those lasting memories!!!! :D

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  11. I've had a LONG week and it's only Wednesday morning... and this made me smile. Thanks for sharing! LOL <3

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    1. aw yay! i feel kinda similarly, it's been a series of long weeks with mostly good but kinda also nonstop little aggravations. nothing big enough to merit true complaint, but also enough to leave me feeling a little 'bleh' about coming up with a post. turns out tho this did just the trick for me too! :D

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  12. #basicallyrolex and #dressagebrontosaurus are my everything now.
    At least through all the fails Charlie still has style. ;)

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  13. What would you do if he were boring? 😂

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    1. Oh gosh haha who knows! Sometimes boring is a-okay by me tho!

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  14. I think I love Charlie even more now that I see proof he's actually a real horse and not always a perfect unicorn. Those pics are fantastic! :)

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    1. Ha yea definitely full of imperfect moments! Tho in fairness each of these pics has been previously posted in real time, they're all from the archives haha. So sometimes we just gotta look between the good moments to see where I hid the... Less than good moments lol

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  15. Blooper reels are the best! Love it! lol

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  16. This is the best post I've read in a while. Love it!

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    1. ha sometimes we just need to laugh at some funny goofy horses!

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  17. These are great! lol Love all of the fail photos. I like to call them "candids" tho LOLOL. But it's great Charlie can take a laugh! Amber gets so hurt and offended if I laugh at her lol. This was a super great fail post. Absolutely love the bloopers! Those to me are actually the best <3

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    1. lol candids.... i feel that way a lot too! my mare was the same - couldn't take a joke. i'm not sure charlie would appreciate it but he kinda never seems to really notice, go figure lol

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  18. These photos make me love him even more.

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  19. I feel like I should bookmark this for when I need a laugh. He's adorable, even in his less graceful moments!

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  20. aww, I mean the cuteness. It's like his legs were so long it just took him a while to figure out how to use them!

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  21. Lmao love this so much! Have to be able to laugh at ourselves and our ponies :)

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  22. He looks double jointed in that first dressage pic lol

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