returning from whence we came

Or, in other words, returning to a sense of normalcy. 'Tis the season for shifts in routine anyway: the clocks, the weather, and now the barn's turnout schedule. Horses are now out during the day and in over night.

So in a way it's a new routine for us, tho it's nbd considering Charlie hasn't really had anything like a 'routine' beyond "just still sitting in his stall" for quite a few weeks now. And actually, it's maybe kinda nice. Am I the only one who somewhat resignedly appreciates the clock change bc now I can finally just accept the darkness instead of rushing to try to beat it? lol....

excuse the grid lines -- i was trying (and still failing) to true the horizon without actually chopping off his cutey pie ears or toes. so. you get a screen shot of my efforts with the grid lines lol

Anyway, I thought this period of adjustment might serve as a check in on where Charlie is in his life and wellness. He is emerging from his cocoon of stall rest and hopefully easing back into the life of a sport-horse-in-training, with all of winter ahead of us to regroup.

During his first taste of freedom, he struck the above pose -- not exactly a classic conformation shot, but maybe close. Close enough for me, anyway. So naturally I took a screen shot and tried to make it more level-ish, sorta, for the purposes of evaluating.

eye spy with my little eye.... somebody (who shall remain nameless) walkin the fence during turnout

Safe to say: this a FAR CRY from the race horse I met last September who had just run a race four weeks prior. Charlie's now rocking what I fondly refer to as his "Dad Bod."

And? I actually really like it haha!

see that star face staring out from between the boards????

While he lacks any real muscle, most notably along the full length of his topline and that hay beer belly, this is maybe the best he's looked weight-wise since I've owned him.

The angles of that hind end are still just flat planes instead of rounded features, sure. But there's so much more fullness now. No more jutting points, esp in the hips.

clearly he needs more action haha - as he expressively nods his head here as if to say, "Yes plz! I would also like to run and jump like Bella again!"

And hopefully with the reintroduction of "real" work, we'll be able to lift his back up again, tighten up the belly, and generally add muscling in all those hollow places along his topline.

The last few days have been tricky for making the "work" happen, but I've been trying. Charlie got to hack out with Brita and Bella and some other barn mates a couple times this past week - one ride during which I legitimately thought he might really finally kill me (it's just that same sassy move he pulls all the time, but it's a lot of horse to be that sassy!).

bc yea, brita and bella are killin it

And another ride where he was actually pretty freakin good, tho I could feel the sass coursing beneath the surface as Brita and our other companion flitted hither and thither schooling some of the xc fences.

I legitimately cannot wait to get back out there with Charlie - to just be allowed to let him go and RUN! Hopefully the ground is still good by the time he's cleared for takeoff!!!

charlie gets to .... play in his own way tho. back in le dressage tack

For now, tho, we walk. And finally (finally): a little bit of trotting too. Basically reintroducing trotting as if we were rehabbing a soft tissue injury. We won't stay on that same timeline for very long, but the name of this game is "gradual."

So we walk and walk and walk and walk.

And we either do so hacking out all over the property in Charlie's hackamore and jump saddle, in which I care not how he goes so long as he's being generally respectful of any direction I might give. Or we dress all up in dressage tack (complete with snaffle instead of hackamore) and I ask that Charlie goes to work at the walk.

making eyes at himself in the mirror, natch haha

What does "work at the walk" mean, you might ask?

In an ideal world, this would mean working on things like: Schooling three distinct walks - free, collected, and working - and transitions between. Practicing lateral work at the walk, including leg yields, shoulder fore, and maybe even turns on haunches or forehand. Perfecting general figures such as circles of various sizes, spirals, and serpentines. Ya know. Fanceh stuff.

new concept for a shoulder guard for us, instead of his "muscle shirt" from last year that i always worried was maybe also problematic in its own way

The reality is playing out a lot simpler than that tho. Like, sure, those are the ideas that bump around in my head. But. Ya know. Charlie's still green, and now has been off for weeks and has no strength. Plus. Also. Haha, I'm still the same rider I've always been.

So the rides play out a little bit more like: Emma thinks really deeply about her own position and focuses first and foremost on getting Charlie supple and giving to the bit. We don't have three distinct walks at all - we have "Dis How Charlie Go" and "Ok We Can Slow Tempo A Little. But Only Bc You Won't Shut Up About It."

this is just a silky loose bib by Snuggy Hoods

And I still only really have one rein, my right rein. Idk why. It was a major problem with Isabel too, tho both Bali and Velvet were opposite sided so I dunno. Chicken or the egg, it hardly matters at this point. All that matters is: we do not track left the same as we track right.

Since we're limited to the walk tho, we've got the perfect opportunity to really dissect that further, to explore and experiment. It's not like I've got anything else to work on, right?

little loop to keep it fixed in place

Actually, just in general, I'm trying to be really disciplined with myself to take time to focus on all those little nagging imbalances and issues in our combined way of going that I always kinda just rushed past previously.

Practicing counter canter is so much sexier than exploring why we're so uneven from side to side.... But that lateral imbalance won't go away just bc I ignore it. So. No time like the present!

like so

This discipline extends to being super explicit to Charlie about what I want in the walk too. Historically the walk was our "take a break" gait. Typically I would take time to pick him up a few strides before a transition, and ask him to hold himself a few strides in walk after transitioning down... But beyond that, the walk was kinda a.... go-between, an intermediary. It's never a focus in and of itself.

Rehabbing tho? I'm pretty sure Charlie has spent more time walking on the bit in the last week than he has in the entire year I've owned him lol.

also charlie needed a whole new sheet after i wrecked his last one, oops

The amazing thing is how quickly he got on board with this. Like, at first it was really hard. But if I was quick enough with my praise he just.... kept doing it. And now he just knows that I want him on the bit, that pressure on the reins means something and he's developing this whole new softness even at the walk that he never had before.

this is a bigger size than the last one, fits him better too, phew!

The most obvious, yet somehow still unexpected, outcome of all this is that when we do trot? He.... just stays on the bit. Right now we're only really trotting a single lap of the ring at a time. And only a very few laps total for a full ride. And in the interest of full disclosure: Charlie isn't really very correct in his carriage while trotting -- he's much too deep and overbent right now.

Mostly tho I see that as a sign of A) weakness (duh); and B) Charlie knows I want him to put his head down. He doesn't really have the game figured out fully beyond that -- except that he also knows I don't want him leaning on me.

so the charlie monster is free to move about the cabin!

I already know from pre-surgery that this is Charlie's interim step before I can put my leg on and push him out across his back (if we can ever get those shoulders out of the way). We're just.... not there yet. And that's ok. Obviously haha.

But I'm hoping that by taking the time to be super disciplined in my walk work while he rehabs, that we might find ourselves either exactly where we left off training-wise. Or, maybe if we're lucky, Charlie will actually have himself a fuller education on expectations and carriage and lateral balance from all this rehab at the walk and we'll end up not having missed a beat.

while hopefully that shoulder bib will keep things nice and frictionless!

A girl can dream, right? And anyway you might be reading this feeling like, "uh but yea walking forever is still boring as fuck" lol, and.... you're not exactly wrong.

But I can still honestly say that getting back to even some semblance of work is just so refreshing and exciting to me! And those first few trot steps (well, ok, after those first few where he was like "omg but i have so many body parts tho and they're all moving!") were just the freakin BEST.

anything for that goon <3

So yea, winter is coming and it's dark and chilly now when I get there after work. And that's kinda a bummer.  BUT. That's completely outweighed by relief and excitement at Charlie's continued return to regular programming.

This time last year I was getting all excited about even just the possibilities of how Charlie might handle his introduction to the sport. We had only just had our very first jump lesson on Nov. 5th, after all. Now I have the advantage of already knowing that he's basically everything I could hope for as my event horse. Just gotta keep on keepin' on.

What about you? Do you feel winter closing in? Are you already turning your sights inward toward bootcamp for all those little details that get overlooked when there's other fun stuff to do instead? Do you have any big objectives or plans for your down time this winter? Or do you just basically treat it as vacation for the horse during the worst of the weather? Or maybe you're still hoping to squeeze a bit more out of this year before calling it?