tokyo 2020 or bust

Believe it or not, I really truly get more sick and tired of writing about Charlie being lame from some or another ding probably even more quickly than you get sick and tired of reading about it. I swear, it's true.

charlie thought this downed tree was a little spooky. clearly lol

I will never ever get tired of writing about this horse being a goddamn champion tho. And perhaps I haven't mentioned that recently enough -- but guys, this horse. He's just such a good boy. He makes me so friggin happy.

but he came in to investigate further after i showed him it was ok. good boy charlie.

And best of all? We appear to be over the latest abscess of doom. Who's to say whether there won't be yet another phase of gloom headed our way - undoubtedly there will be eventually, bc it's Charlie after all. For now tho? Our proverbial skies are clear.

he's also grown fond of water obstacles bc he likes to drink from them. the leaves in this one were a little strange to him tho

Which is convenient, bc it turns out the actual sky is pretty clear right now too. It's been windy and breezy for enough days in a row to have substantially dried out all but the most low-lying ground. Plus it's been sunny and a brisk 40s-50s. Not bad!

surprise, you're on candid camera!

Charlie's been out of work for the better part of four weeks now. First for puncturing his hoof stepping on that nail, and then the subsequent abscess. And then another abscess in his other hind hoof that had to compensate and lost a shoe in the process. Poor Charlie. It was an ordeal for him, I'm sure.

charlie likes hacking with riley dog too

But? I figured I'd test him out, kick the tires a little bit on Saturday. Didn't bother jogging him or assessing soundness or whatever - he had seemed maybe ok for a couple days by this point. And I just planned to hack out through the fields with Brita (source of all these pictures). Certainly wouldn't hurt him even if there was still any drama going on inside the hoof, and might even help a little bit.

oooooh this cut-through downed tree was also spooooky

He was foot perfect for that relaxing hack of long slow miles tho, so the next day we came out armed and ready for a solid school on the flat. And I intended to really put him through his paces too. Nothing too intense considering he hasn't done anything for almost a month - but certainly enough push to make him sore or lame again if there were still any lingering issues in the hoof.

No lingering issues tho - he was great! Lots of work on simple things like square turns, the occasional step in or out in leg yield, a few symmetrical movements of diagonals and circles incorporating simple changes of lead at X, counter canter loops, and serpentines. All good stuff, and while Charlie is definitely lacking in strength and is rusty at the whole "having a job" thing, he was very good.

but i told him it was ok, so he was like, 'oh ok i guess it's fine then!'

Leading us to our third day in a row (ah how happy that makes me!) when I got to skip out of work early to enjoy some sunshine! Charlie got his teeth done earlier in the day (he's on a basically ~6 month schedule) so I figured we'd pop the hackamore back on and hit the cross country fields for some more low-intensity conditioning.

the actual handsomest tho

A little trot set later (about half of what Brita and I normally would do on a conditioning ride) and I decided to linger around the water complex for a little while - taking a couple passes over the ditches up the hill.

First the baby intro one (it *is* a ditch, but barely), then over the next level up - an actual open ditch but still quite inviting. I knew Charlie would be great even tho it's been almost six months since he's seen a ditch. I just looped a finger through my trusty neck strap and let him at it. Good boy, Charlie.

even if i dress him up in brown and black tack at the same time, the horror

Next we hit up the water itself - first to let him tank up with his requisite drink (who else remembers when he stopped mid-course at Fair Hill last fall to actually drink from the water complex?? lol...) before aiming him up the little bank out of the water a few times from a trot. We had a couple splattier moments with this but he just clambered on up every time, while I again basically just pointed him at it with a finger hooked through the neck strap. Easy peasy.

Aiming him down the bank was harder for me, personally, for unknown reasons. Isabel was a freakin dream to ride down banks - just sit back, cross your legs, and sip your tea, and she would take care of the rest. Charlie's..... a slightly different story. I don't have any reason to expect him to be bad, per se. But it's not unthinkable that he might do something.... awkward haha.

and even if he never will stand still for pictures unless there's food involved

But I walked him down it first -- no hesitation -- then trotted him down a smaller bank all on dry ground, before aiming him down the bank into water at a trot. No hesitation here, either. Just leapt on down like the easiest thing in the world, plus plenty of splashing lol. Goooood boy, Charlie.

After that, I wanted to aim him at something with height, just to say we did it. But nothing giant obviously bc the horse has been out of work for literally almost a month and I'm a pansy. So I chose a very simple fence we've done before -- it's just a raised telephone pole, technically a starter level height. But positioned in the water jumping out, technically more of a novice type element.

Perfect for my purposes of feeling like I was adding to my horse's education without actually having to really exert ourselves much lol. #icanrationalizeanything

"fuck yea tho, this some good grass!" - charlie, probably

And Charlie was just so good. Just trotted right up and over, even tho I discovered shortly after that one of his boots was actually all the way down around his hoof. Uh, whoops, sorry buddy! Got that fixed and climbed up on a nearby jump to hop back on, then walked back to the barn on the buckle, with Charlie strutting in his perkiest flat walk like the champion he knows he is.

He just makes me so happy. Makes it so easy to trust him, and believe in him, which eventually makes it easier to believe in *us* as a partnership. I'm always going to be a naturally conservative, bordering on nervous rider. Even going out there on this night knowing I intended to aim him at things, I could just feel that nervous fluttering inside, ya know?

But that's ok. There's never any rush with Charlie. He's always just putting one foot in front of the next (albeit sometimes clumsily) and I don't ever have to take things faster than one step at a time. But if you put enough steps together in a row, suddenly you start going places, ending up somewhere.

And I know that if I just keep setting out with him, and let those steps happen, and keep aiming at the small but important details (like the holy trinity of cross country: ditches banks and water), the rest will sorta take care of itself along the way. That's the plan, at least!