forward + back

As someone who has tried somewhat unreasonably hard to lead the lesson-junkie lifestyle, it sure seems like I haven't had many lessons to write about lately! I blame Charlie lol.

all the cross country jumps strewn about our field were vivid in the eerie light preceding a mega storm....

As I've written, tho, Charlie seems fine on this lighter schooling schedule. He really seemed to figure a lot out this past winter, when we first began twice weekly jump lessons - one with trainer P and one with trainer K - and spent basically his entire rehab and reintroduction to jumping post-surgery doing grids.

Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of learning that my own confidence wasn't as deflated as I feared after the time off. And, more so, Charlie's complete nonchalance about everything has really rubbed off on me. Historically I've liked jumping twice a week to keep my confidence up. But... with Charlie it's pretty easy to just shrug, like, "eh he's fine, we'll be fine!"

srsly tho, all these jumps just got plopped into the field after coming home from shawan downs.... no rhyme or reason to it

But. Ya know. I still love lessons. And obviously still have a metric fuck ton to learn about riding in general and eventing in particular. (does it ever end?? i think not...).

So I was happy to finally fit in another ride this week with upper level event rider K for Charlie's and my first time schooling over stadium jumps since our last lesson before Kentucky.

never mind that, uh, our farm is hosting a starter trial this weekend and all these jumps need to, ya know, be on course...

Unfortunately it's been raining and storming nonstop here for the past few days so trainer K felt like the outdoor jump ring would be too sloppy. Nbd, I'm fine with the indoor. And I correctly predicted that this would mean another grid school - which, again, was fine by me.

also nvm that our weather has been all rain all the time, with no end in sight. case in point that giant storm cloud chasing us back to the barn.... i guess i won't have to worry about hard ground!

What I didn't predict tho was how K would dig into our flat work between reps to the fences. She's not usually one for a heavy focus on the flat work in warm up - which is a bit of a departure from trainers I've worked with in the past (like Dan, for instance, who was all flat work all the time). Tho her exercises typically invoke core concepts like adjustability and rideability. So it works out.

that is, if the jumps ever get moved ?? haha maybe we'll just be weaving a maze through one field for our track....

This time tho, it was really all about that half halt. Something that, uh, haha, I've really struggled in installing in Charlie. Well. Let's be real, it's arguable whether I even ever got one on Isabel even tho she and I got much farther along in our work than Charlie has so far.

She had us go about this in a way that was on one hand immediately familiar: a well known exercises of riding the horse forward and back within the gaits to develop that elasticity and sharpness to the aids. On the other hand, tho, she tweaked the exact mechanics of the exercise in a way that made it a little easier for me and more clear for Charlie.

charlie would probably be fine with that, honestly. so long as the buggies can't get to him!

Specifically: I always practice a lot of transitions in any of our schools. Trot walk trot. Trot halt trot. Trot walk canter. Etc etc etc. With the idea being to get a light feeling in the downward, then a spurt forward with horse in front of my leg in the upward.

She had us doing the same thing, but faster. Instead of doing a full trot-walk or trot-halt transition, she wanted me to just get almost there, then immediately ride forward again. Small distinction, but it made a big difference in how I was applying my aids.

because, per usual, sir is quite offended by all the gnats and other nippy bitey bugs lol... via GIPHY

So the idea was: as we would trot around the arena in between grid trips, I would find a spot to do this "3/4 halt" then ride forward again. Rinse repeat once or twice, then approach the grid (which was on the center line per usual - necessitating a half 10m circle to approach).

After a few trips like that, she had me also incorporate canter into this back and forth exercise. Circling the ring once or twice between grid trips and finding spots to do a near-walk transition, or canter transition, and everything in between.

Ultimately looking for Charlie to hold the same shape no matter which transition we were doing. And also incorporating a near "leg yield" feeling during each transition - really taking advantage of corners in particular.

he'll probably live tho, probably ;)

Possibly the most helpful part of this exercise was the fact that there was a grid in there too. Charlie isn't a huge fan of compressing or extending his gaits right now, and often can be fussy when I push him forward (ie, when I ask for that "spurt" forward in front of my leg). But having the grid there really helped out.

He likes jumping, he's always understood to move forward to a ground pole, cavaletti, or jump. Even since his earliest days with me, those types of exercises have always helped change the conversation from 'me driving him forward' to 'him having somewhere to go.' And it was the same for this ride.

Plus - the grid is instructive in its own right. Charlie doesn't need me to tell him if he did well or if he made a mistake through a grid, he can figure that out all for himself. So if my last little half halt before the turn didn't go through, or if he didn't respond to my forward aid after the turn, we wouldn't get the grid quite right and he'd be like, "Oh ok I see now" then get it right the next time.

So it definitely felt really productive. Mostly tho I just appreciate having a trainer there to just keep me on task, keep me focused on those little details in our ride that are hard and therefore easy to ignore.... but so so so worth the practice. That's what lessons are all about, right? lol...