Charlie's 1st Novice: Show Jumping

Continuing with the theme of it being brutally hot out, basically every choice I made about our stadium round had more to do with horse/rider heat mgmt than anything else.

I had left Charlie hangin out with fellow big bay Birdie on Rachael's trailer while we all hit the courses to watch Brita's jumping rounds. Which were, again, can't stress this enough, incredible. I'm just so freakin proud of her and what she's been able to do with Bella.

looking ready as we'll ever be for show jumping. pc Austen Gage

Like, for those of you who have been around for a while, you might remember how wonderfully Brita's last lease horse Wick blossomed with her in the irons. It was crushing and demoralizing when she lost the lease on him, and she had to make a lot of hard choices about how to move forward with riding and eventing amid the fallout.

Then new lease horse Bella entered the picture - a small, young, sensitive and opinionated spitfire mare who couldn't possibly be any more different from Wick's classy, easy going, war horse OTTB nature.

they've got such a great rhythm on course! via GIPHY

And like, self doubt is real, ya know? I think any rider can relate to the feeling of wondering whether we just "got lucky" with any past successes, and worrying that maybe we wouldn't actually be able to reproduce them again under different circumstances.

But Brita is nothing if not a hard worker. She's brave and bold, and shows up to work every day ready to do what needs done. The amount of care and thoughtfulness she's poured into literally every aspect of Bella's life - from their never ending searches for the perfect bits, to optimizing Bella's supplements and nutrition, to building the trust necessary for Bella to develop into one of the best jumping horses on the farm.... It's just been incredible to watch. And so so so inspiring.

making this giant log into water (shared with M) look easy. hint: it ain't easy! via GIPHY

So even despite the blazing heat (true story - I actually carried an umbrella to protect me from the sun ahead of my 1pm ride times....) it meant the world for me to dart around the xc course catching snippets of Brita's T course. So so so worth it!

These past few months of riding alongside Brita as she's been preparing for T have had another unexpected benefit: It's made my own N move up look extremely doable in comparison. It helps that I've ridden at this level in the past too. And that Charlie's so casual about height.

as i got positioned here for video, i watched a rider slam into the trakehner and fall into the ditch, where she landed immediately crying out for help. it was scary and a stark reminder that.... these jumps take respect. luckily that rider was ok enough to climb out of the ditch and get into a gator for additional care. but it's safe to say my heart was in my throat as brita galloped down to it! they were fine tho <3 via GIPHY

Mostly tho, seeing a peer handily navigate a level that had always looked so daunting to me was reassuring. I knew Charlie and I would be fine for our rides.

And spoiler: we totally were.

warming up with rachael and birdie was nice! pc Austen Gage

So after Brita's rides (wherein we made a team effort to get Bella's tack pulled so she could be hosed and scraped immediately - she was very very very hot), Rachael and I got our horses pulled off the trailer and began preparing for our rides.

warm up oxer before heading down to the ring. pc Austen Gage

Heat management was going to be a big part of this. The horses got sponged and scraped right away, then Austen helped me out by holding Charlie under the shade of some trees to dry off while I got my stuff ready to tack up.

charlie knew what was up immediately! i like it! pc Austen Gage

Then we made a pit stop at one of the multiple hoses available onsite (thanks Loch Moy!) after I mounted to spray Charlie and Birdie down again.

some deeper distances but he was clever and clean after my mistake at jump 2. pc Austen Gage

Then off to warm up! The steward said she was taking riders as they were ready, so I wasted no time in getting down to business. With the heat I was basically 100% of the mindset that the quicker we could get through things, the better.

knowing we had to get out of this line in 5 helped me get charlie pushed up. pc GRC

So I immediately jogged Charlie a lap in each direction on a floppy rein, cantered half a lap, then trotted him at the cross rail. Cantered around to one vertical, changed directions and cantered the other larger (I suspect above N height) vertical. Charlie knocked that one pretty hard - which would usually be my preferred feeling for him to have going into the ring. But it seemed prudent to take a pass over the warm up oxer first. So we did that, then trotted over to the steward who ushered us down to the ring.

gosh i think he's the cutest tho! pc Austen Gage

The warm up was fine enough for a horse like Charlie who knows his job and is pretty reliable. But the focus on being quick about the warm up vs being very effective meant that I didn't really spend any time trying to put the horse together and get him very connected in the bridle.

a little tight out of the bending line but nbd. pc Austen Gage

Which meant that we kinda met the first few fences on a little bit of a half stride - clobbering jump 2 after a totally whiffed lead change (lol whoops). The line from jumps 3-4 went a little better bc I knew it had to be 5 strides and actually pushed the horse up to it. Again we found somewhat deep distances to the bending line, but it was nbd.

made easy work of the outside line in 6. pc GRC

The next outside line rode pretty well for us in an easy 6, and then Charlie cruised right on around to finish through the 2 stride in and out like the easiest thing in the world. Then poof! we were done!!

felt great going into the in and out. pc Austen Gage

It wasn't our prettiest round to date, tho at least it was relatively smooth. The height was a non factor, Charlie felt comfortable and like he knew what he was doing. And it honestly just felt like if I had worked a little harder as a rider - spent more time putting him together and getting him connected, the jumps would have been better.

what can i say but that the horse loves grids?? pc Austen Gage

Like, missing that lead change between 1 and 2.... Even as I tried for the flying change I *knew* that we should be doing a simple change instead. But.... whatevskis, right? The only thing in my head was "Onward!" and so onward we went, even tho it cost us a rail.

esp bc grids help him carry his own balance. pc Austen Gage

It was an avoidable error that cost us in the final placings, but also one I'd probably make again under similar circumstances lol. #noregrets! And at least Charlie learned something from it haha, considering he nailed his autochange coming out of the next line lol...

anybody remember the first ever pic i have of him in this stance?? #memories. pc Austen Gage

So we left the arena and stuck around to watch Rachael and Birdie come right after us in their own clean and clear round before Austen took advantage of another onsite hose to spray down both horses again before heading out to cross country warm up. That was much appreciated by the ponies whose initial confusion about being hosed while under saddle was quickly replaced by relief lol.

so proud that this horse can basically just go on and do the thing even when i'm not 100% there <3 pc GRC

Seriously tho - Austen was a life saving groom (thank you!!) in that respect and I felt much better about heading out to an almost all-uphill course knowing that Charlie would hopefully be a little more comfortable for the hosing.

show jumping video here

And hint: he was totally fine and felt phenomenal through the course. Details tomorrow!!