almost a year later, and he's basically a pro now

Well. Almost a professional haha.

Last February we introduced Charlie to the concept of "free jumping" as a means to help him better understand how his body operates in space relative to fixed-position objects like jumps. It was.... an interesting experience, and my post documenting that endeavor went by the alternate title of "Big Trees Fall Hard" (among others haha).

his herd moved to their winter field complete with round bale. all the horses are too excited about the rested grass tho to eat the hay, and have been wayyyyy back in the farthest reaches of the pasture every time i go to get charlie. he seems happy!

But he's come a long way in the last year, helped along by the fact that this horse really does seem to like jumping. So when my weekly jump lesson (moved inside from snowy ground conditions, boo) turned into a private, I was actually really excited for us to do some grid work reminiscent of that free jumping exercise all those months ago.

he was very sorry to leave his herd too haha, as evidenced by all his pitiful whinnying. he's got a very special sort of whinny bc of his tie back surgery, and i tried to catch it on video. only got the tail end but it's still kinda funny/cute to hear lol.

also i love how this farm is legit like 35 miles from baltimore city and yet there are still sirens in the background haha.

He warmed up a little blah and lethargic and behind my leg - but no real temper tantrums. My theory that the dressage saddle is a culprit of many of our recent dinosaur moments seems likelier and likelier. The jump saddle fortunately is still apparently in Charlie's good graces. Thank god! Hopefully that'll be confirmed by the fitter soon enough too.

also happy to do the jompies thing again!

And anyway, even without a sour attitude, Charlie's never really able to soften and give his best trot until after a little bit of canter. Which is where we end up in trouble when he's feeling sour - he's got to canter to feel better, but doesn't want to canter. Tricky balance!

But once he canters the world is ok again. As was the case in this particular ride, where he actually just went right on along with his business and warmed up and got to work the best he has in recent memory. Good boy!

not sure i'll ever not love this horse <3

We kept the warm up simple bc gymnastic exercises are taxing enough on their own. We trotted through some ground poles / cavalleti on the center line a few times (wherein Charlie almost got us killed just once by being distracted), then moved on to the skeletons of the grid to be built along the arena's long side.

one of his last trips through. i don't think he'd ever get tired of doing this haha

It started as just ground poles, then the middle element raised to a cavaletti sized vertical, then a second element also raised, then all three. Ridden a couple times in each configuration from both directions. Eventually they were all raised a little more, and the final element became an oxer (maybe around 2'3ish or higher, it's hard to tell lol).

video of the full exercise

Lather, rinse, repeat. We just trucked on through again and again. Little breaks occasionally in between, tho not too many breaks bc Charlie would sometimes forget how to horse if we let him sit too long lol. Like when he jumped through and just clobbered everything. C'mon buddy! Lift them legs!!

As far as I was concerned, this reeeeally felt like the perfect lesson as our second time back jumping things again. Charlie got to remember niceties like holding himself up and compressing his step and keeping a balanced pace.

ooooooh now this is an interesting development! fun fact: there weren't any stirrups on it when i went to hop up after the lesson to try it out. can you visualize me trying to hoist my ass up into a high-cantled dressage saddle on giant brontosaurus charlie from a too-short mounting block, with nothing to help except for a plastic jump riser used for a little extra height on top of the mounting block?? can you see that in your mind's eye? bc.... wow i'm sure it was a sight to behold haha. my hips might never be the same again lol

Meanwhile I got to focus on all those simple fundamentals that often get forgotten when otherwise careening around a course. Like: Keeping my legs down under me, pushing my hands forward, and asking nothing else of the horse other than straightness and forward. Letting the grid do all the rest of the work for me.

And go figure, when I helped with the straightness Charlie was likelier to land on his correct lead. He even landed on and jumped from both leads somewhat regularly, as opposed to avoiding that left lead like the plague. More evidence that the dressage saddle contributed to that issue....

happy tired pony post-ride <3

Much like that ground pole session we did last week, this was the perfect opportunity to just let the exercise kinda school Charlie, instead of me needing to manage every step. Definitely useful for both of us as we knock the rust off!

And anything that helps Charlie remember how to use himself better over fences has gotta be a win, right? Mostly tho I'm just so thrilled with how easy it felt for him (even some of the oopsie moments lol) and how happy he was to just keep on going and going and going.

Even tho he was definitely super duper tired by the end (he practically fell asleep standing in the arena after I hopped off), he never got grumpy about repeating the exercise. And kept trying the whole time. Yessss :D

Gotta love those gymnasties, right? Do you use grids in schooling? Does your horse love them as much as Charlie? Or maybe you're one of those who hates them, or has a horse that's stressed out by all those poles all jammed together? Is your horse super careless like Charlie or a little more... impressed by stuff like this?