that freshly clipped zest!

It's been hard to feel inspired taking pictures lately bc.... well.. Everything is so... brown. The horse. The walls around the horse. The floor below the horse. The mud on the blanket on the horse. Everything. Brown.

skeptical brown face is skeptical

But I swear - for all my moaning and groaning about hoping to one day maybe get to do fun stuff with my horse again, we are in fact actually currently doing stuff too. It's just not super duper amazing exciting stuff, and is barely even made colorful by all these accompanying brown photos.

by jove, that's an open air arena! what on earth happened to the wall?!?

Mostly tho, we've just been schooling the most fundamental of stuff. Like, not even "dressage" fundamentals. Just.... riding horse fundamentals. Walk, trot, canter, steer. And. Uh. Yea I've started riding with the neck strap again bc sometimes the ride gets a tad bumpy.

if you just went by the mirror tho, it wouldn't look any different. just.... brown. 

Charlie's a very communicative horse tho. Which is a double edged sword. Sometimes I just wish he was a little tougher.... but then again it's honestly maybe possibly a little bit preferable sometimes to have a horse who tells you (clearly, so clearly) when something is buggin him.

behind that majestic horse tho, and behind that mirror... yup. that wall done got torn down!

Something is currently clearly buggin Charlie. And it's not just knockin the rust off or the residual creakiness that came from being on stall rest so long. It's not because he's lame. So next on the docket is equipment failures. You may recall this time last year I made the discovery that my oh-so-fancy anatomic leather girth was apparently the thorn (literally) in Charlie's side. And when I switched to a fuzzy girth, many many of our dinosaur-in-tar-pit moments went extinct.

this skeptical brown pony who would like to know wtf i'm doing taking pictures when clearly the wall is gone

My current hope is that we'll alight on some similar discovery this time too. Everything is on the chopping block. I've grown suspicious of the dressage saddle in particular, so that's on an unpaid leave of absence until the fitter can look at it and either deem it fixable for Charlie or a total loss. At this point, I'm actually planning on replacing it either way - unless the fitter reeeeally likes it.

horses outside The Wall proved to be very upsetting. unclear why.... i blame that fresh clip for letting the sillies in

The fitter will also take a looksie at the jump saddle too - which may be more easily adjusted for the horse given it has wool flocking. If she declares that a total loss tho, Charlie will be for sale.
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Lolz just kidding haha. Maybe. Haha. I really like this saddle tho..... But I digress. My point is that everything in Charlie's universe is currently under inspection. Since we already know he's the type of Prince to feel a Pea under 20 Mattresses, nothing is too insignificant during this review!

intermission from the all-brown-all-the-time pictures for a little colorful course diagram. keep in mind this arena is 20x40m, and yes those poles are just as close to the wall as they appear. turns are tight, lemme tell ya.

And in the meantime I just try to keep him working with me as best he can. As in the past, ground poles prove excellent in this regard. He still kinda hates me and thinks I'm terribly unfair to ask for canter like, ever, but can reconcile himself enough to the idea when there are ground poles involved.

This particular arrangement (left behind by lesson kiddos) was particularly useful in it's simplicity. I just did figures of 8 over the diagonal poles again and again and again - which, as you might imagine, necessitated many simple changes of lead. Currently Charlie's bugaboo - but again, once he was in the zone of the exercise, he could maybe concede to just pick up the new lead with minimal drama.

how many shades of brown do you think there are in the world?

The bending line exercise was particularly challenging for us bc it wanted a small enough canter to make the turn to the diagonal rail, and a small enough canter to make that 10m half circle turn at the end. Plus since I continued going in the same direction as I started, that bend in the middle actually hinted slightly at counter canter.

We needed the bend too tho bc the distances (measured undoubtedly for ponies) were tough. The four was probably spot on - but way too big a step for lumbering bronto Charlie to make that 10m half circle immediately after. The five was actually right there for us on the right lead, but nowhere to be found on the left lead. Further evidence that we've lost adjustability on that lead.

charlie doesn't care, so long as i hurry the F up with his treat delivery, plz!

So actually a pretty good exercise for where we are right now in regaining fitness. Just technical enough to call us out when our pace was wrong or we were strung out, but also simple enough that the horse could easily understand when he executed it well.

Little rides like this are honestly mostly what we need at this point. Opportunities for me to sorta sit back and guide the horse, with the walls and ground poles serving as "natural aids" in a way. So the exercise itself is clear enough to the horse that he can just get on with being a good boy without questioning what I'm asking every single step (ugh).

Considering the current icy state of the ground.... I guess this type of ride will have to suffice no matter what lol, so we might as well make the best of it! Tho I did learn on this particular evening that the lonnng driveway between the arena and barn is miiiighty sketchy when it's icy.

Charlie slips exactly as much as you would expect a careless oaf like him to slip. Plus for whatever godforsaken reason, leaving the arena (with me on foot - no death wish here!) he got a major bee up his bonnet upon spying other horses through the torn down wall omg and spent the whole walk spooking and snorting and slipping down the icy driveway.

Oh Charlie. I blame that fresh clip...