move up reconnaissance: T XC @ MDHT Spring #1

You all don't need me to tell you that I LOVE walking cross country courses. Love it. Whether it's the 4* 5* at Kentucky, or the intro at my local starter trial, I just really enjoy the activity and love visually assessing all the fences as pieces of a whole, rather than as individual entities.

hopefully it won't be too too long before Charlie and i get our own first shot at the start box this year!

Plus, in my experience, walking courses a level up from what I'm currently riding is a great way to help in preparations for any eventual move ups. It's useful bc I can see what scares the dickens out of me, and also which types of combinations look beyond the pale when compared to what Charlie and I have actually practiced in real life.

It can be a little deceiving, however, something I need to keep in mind. Like, realistically, every course always looks 1,000% more doable when you're not actually imminently expecting to have to go ride it yourself lol.

not a particularly long course, with lots of uphill climbing

Obvi, just bc something doesn't *look* like anything to me, doesn't mean Charlie will agree. Case in point: look no further than the N XC course I wrote about at Plantation early last season, compared to a month or two later when we actually set out to do our second N there. That first course I walked (and even the one we actually contested) looked freakin fantastic to me. And yet we crashed and burned horribly. So. Ya know. Shit happens.

But knowledge is power, right? And I am 100% hoping that at some point this season, Charlie and I will take a shot at riding a T course at MDHT. So I was curious to walk their Spring Starter #1 course while there to cheer friends on this past weekend.

jump 1 was just the N log roll. jump 2 is this chunky monkey T table thingy

Overall? This was an extremely inviting course haha. Which like, it's March, ya know? Ground conditions can be questionable, and for most pairs it would be the first outing of the season.

So the course was pretty soft - with only a single combination, at N technicality. Charlie and I have actually already jumped almost everything on this course, and have experience schooling the one question asked. I think, were we to be fit enough, we could actually tackle this exact course at our current level of schooling. Too bad we won't get the chance, since they typically increase technicality throughout the Spring series. Maybe in the fall tho!

Anyway, let's dig in. I didn't get a picture of jump 1, but it was the N log roll top that Charlie's jumped before at T, N and BN heights. I appreciated that the course started with an N jump tho, since leaving the start box still looms as a question mark for me. And the idea of getting to a T fence right out of the gates is.... daunting haha.

Jump 2 was in fact full size T tho. And a jump that I still personally find imposing. Charlie's jumped it a couple times since last summer tho, and never batted an eye. Should be fine, right?

this style of fence will repeat throughout the entire course

Jump 3 comes just after the turn away from the trailers etc -- a notoriously sticky place for me and Chuck. Loch Moy is nice in that they often aim their starting gate and Jump 1 in the direction of warm up, but eventually you have to turn away. And for this course, that happens between jumps 2 and 3. At least the jump itself is friendly, and I'm about 95% sure that Charlie has jumped it before.

we've jumped this coop before

Jump 4 is far enough off at this point that I'd expect Charlie and I would have worked through our stickiness. Presumably lol. Tho ya know. At Plantation we never actually worked through it so who knows. In any case, this jump comes after a moderate uphill cruise, so we should be firmly leg on at this point.

It's a skinny-ish fence, but nestled in the middle of a row of fences, that hardly matters. Plus. Ya know. Charlie has jumped this coop already too. Nbd.

large but inviting palisade ramp

Then a little breather down a slight slope to this gallopy palisade. I personally find it imposing, but suspect that Charlie wouldn't even blink if I rode him to it on a forward uphill stride.

Interestingly, the N palisade visible top left corner actually looked trickier, with some raucously rolling terrain leading up to it. You can see that they ultimately took it off course, however. Probably bc of the inch or so of rain we got a couple nights before, the ground was probably too soft right there.

this ditch has been on BN courses haha, the N option table at left almost seems like a better choice tbh

Anyway, moving on. Next up was a question that I think was actually more interesting for N than it was for T. T had to jump this itsy bitsy ditch (the same as was on Charlie's debut N course last year), but N got the option of the table or the ditch.

Personally, having already jumped that specific ditch, plus the bigger one next to it, plus many others way harder, I think schooling the table would be a better use of my time. Only exception would be if the ditch had a related A or B element, probably. But T jumped the ditch, then moved right on along.

we've jumped this before too, as well as all its smaller counterparts 

Turning back toward the main field and on slightly rising ground sat this table thingy from Charlie's killer school last November. It scared the shit out of me then, and honestly still kinda scares me today. But. Charlie don't care, so this size obstacle is finally starting to look "right sized" to me.

this is technically the N corner

Next up was a series of jumps that was wayyyyyy damped down for all levels. The M jump was actually the easiest of them all, considering I'm like 95% positive that the garden gate on the M course was actually N. Training got an N jump too, tho at least it was this corner. Which, again, Charlie has jumped this fence a few times now.

Actually, just thinking about it, he's seen a number of BN and N corners, and generally does just fine with them. Tho of course the jumpable face of these smaller corners and max width allowed at the lower levels doesn't really make them any different than a table or whatever.

charlie's jumped the N and BN versions of this jump, and the T is similar to the roll top we jumped at home last week

Continuing along, another jump on rising ground. I like that so much of this course is uphill bc again, it forces me to let go and put my leg on. The best recipe for riding my horse haha. This particular ark thingy does indeed scare me. But so does the roll top Charlie jumped at home last week, and Charlie jumped it like the easiest thing in the world.

So. Ya know. I'm hoping that later on in the season I'll feel less squeamish.

another simple log stand fence, leading into the first (and only) combo on course

And, finally, we get to the most interesting part of the course!! Loch Moy as a venue is in a perpetual state of construction. Since my first ever event here, depending on where you look on the property, you can always find signs of new developments. This year, it's expansions to the main stadium ring. Last year? It was installing this baller sunken road complex.

Once the season kicks into gear, T will be aimed to the proper sunken road - dropping down the bank just left of the flagged slope above, then one stride to the up bank. And N will likely come through the opposite direction of this pic above: dropping down the bank. For now, tho, at this early point in the season, T just had a jump leading to the slope, then up the bank and away.

down a slope into the sunken road, then up a bank. M goes to the log out, and many T riders opted to do that too

At least the M got a full A-B-C out of the deal. And actually, at least half (if not more) of the T riders I watched go through this combination opted to hop out over the C as well. Bc why not, right? Might as well get that schooling where ya can!

For my own purposes, Charlie has executed a number of up bank combinations, so I'd also be inclined to try the full A-B-C too. This one has the added technicality of being a turning line, but still. It's worth a shot, right? Personally, it's the down banks that are still a huge weakness for us/me. Something that honestly could still cause issues for us at N, let's be real haha.

boat was set pretty farm back from the water

Anyway, carrying on, T has a nice little lope across the field to the upper water complex. For riders who wanted to get their horse's feet wet before actually facing the flags, there were ample options to actually pass through an earlier water, or get through the above too before approaching this boat.

The boat was pretty far back from the water tho, much farther than the roll top - water combo Charlie just did last week. Considering he's also jumped this boat before, I'd expect this to be a realistic exercise for him.

i've actually seen this fence catch out some riders and horses before, not sure why. maybe the color?

After the water, the track followed a strange squirrely path of wavy terrain to get to this unassuming blue house. I call it "unassuming" but I've seen a TON of horses (esp at BN) have serious objections to this style fence.

Charlie has somehow escaped jumping any variation in size of this house, so I honestly don't know if he would care about it. Probably not, but I'd plan to ride it carefully all the same.

Also of note: these jumps here were nestled right in between all the trakehners on course - with the N down in a hollow to the right, and the T and above to the left. That T trakehner looks straight up terrifying to me, and we honestly had kinda a bad shot at the N when I tried it last summer. So... considering trakehners should realistically be expected at N/T and above, this is a big gap in our schooling.

another raised log in the woods

Anyway, at this point the course takes a turn toward the woods - climbing steeply up a hill before beginning to turn back toward home. This jump doesn't look like anything, but I also remember Charlie being surprisingly uncommitted to a similarly located jump toward the end of our N course last year. So again, it would be something to be ridden with care.

and another raised log haha, this time skinny tho!! and nestled against a much larger brush fence

Assuming it went well tho, the next few jumps all kinda look the same haha. This little skinny thing above would probably make me nervous, to be honest. But at this point Charlie's actually got a fair amount of skinny practice. So assuming nothing else was going terribly wrong, we'd be feeling well on our way to the home stretch after jumping this.

chunky table that should ride well after everything that came before

Again, per my own personal feelings, this T table thingy is intimidating. Eventually, tho, I'm hoping it'll start feeling more "right sized" as we get more experience with schooling T. For the purposes of how it's placed on this particular course, it'd be one you'd expect to ride easily and well off a forward stride.

there's that T corner! tho note, it's actually an option on this course

Ditto the T corner. Esp the way it was placed on the ground, it looks extremely inviting. Plus for this course it's actually an option. Again, a testament to how inviting everything was meant to be haha.

aaaaaand another raised log haha

Penultimate fence was another raised log thingy. Charlie's jumped a couple of these before - and I *think* he jumped this one in particular back in November. The little flower tree thingys could be a little spooky, but probably not at this point on course. If history is any guide, Charlie would be like a heat seeking missile to the trailers dead ahead anyway.

finishing over the swoopy brush that charlie's jumped at basically all levels

 Actual final fence is the swoopy brush table that Charlie's jumped at T, N, BN, and Intro haha. Another friendly effort to close out the course.

Obviously this course is missing some of the big hallmarks of Training level cross country, the questions and facets that distinguishes it in technicality from lower levels. Like a trakehner, down banks, jumps in water (or at least in closer proximity), ditch combinations, and actually most other combinations - including anything bending or offset. Plus a couple of Loch Moy's biggest T fences (like the proper T table) weren't on course.

So just bc I think Charlie and I may have been able to survive the above doesn't mean I think we're actually ready for the full level. Haha. No. Oh hell no. But it's really nice to at least feel like the individual jumps themselves are starting to look better-ish. Compared to, say, this recognized T course at Fair Hill from last year that still feels very, very, very far away.

Of course. It's all conjecture anyway. Charlie and I haven't left the start box in over five months, and haven't run a full course somewhere other than at home since August of last year. So really, I honestly have no idea which horse I'll have once we finally do get out for our planned season opener next month.

I'm excited tho. And that's what really matters, right?