MDHT 4/19: Show Jump Time!

Moving right on along through the massive mountains of media from last weekend's season opener at Loch Moy Farm.... Let's talk show jumping!!

This phase has traditionally not been my favorite. Like, at all. Especially with Isabel, I eventually ended up being wayyyyy too influential as the "pilot" despite being somewhat wildly unreliable in that capacity. Actually I'd be hard pressed to find a single show jumping round with Isabel that didn't include at least one cringe-worthy jump haha.

the sweetest pony <3 pc Austen Gage

So it's been kinda strange for me getting used to jumping Charlie in competitions bc it turns out, show jumping is possibly his strongest phase. Like, sure we still often have careless rails or whatever. I'm not saying we're perfect at this phase. And obviously the horse is a cross country machine haha, let's never discount that.

But I guess what I'm saying is: for whatever reason, of the three phases, show jumping tends to be our smoothest and least error-ridden test. Go figure haha, and I'm certainly not complaining! And, uh, I'm also not taking any credit LOL. It's all Charlie: he just goes in there and does the thing. I like it!

first three fences were set on a serpentine. pc Austen Gage

I did make myself be a bit more purposeful about warm up. Often times this is the part of my show day where I'm at peak tension and nerves haha, so we kinda just try to squeak through without dying or going SPLAT!

But again, I was really working my mental game hard, repeating again and again (are you getting sick of this yet?): This is FUN, we are EXCITED to do this! Which then translated to: it will be most fun if we are properly and adequately warmed up, so do your damned job, Emma!

Charlie, for his part, definitely felt good. He knew what we were doing and was definitely puffing up in the atmosphere. My eye was a little iffy in warm up, I kept seeing a deeper spot.... But it was ok. We got through it, did all the jumps, knocked the oxer once, but then aced the vertical for our last effort, then headed down to the in gate for Go Time!

plus all that bonus construction work haha. pc Austen Gage

Realistically speaking, there isn't really a whole lot you can say about a minute and a half of jumping haha, ya know? Like, it's all in the video below -- I don't necessarily need to do a blow by blow of every fence. But then again, I *do* like to evaluate what went well and what didn't, for that whole "reproduceable" thing lol.....

This course honestly looked pretty well suited to our preferred typical way of going. Jumps 1 through 3 created one long serpentine across the arena, with the first loop landing left to an inside or outside turn option.

I figured I would have to be pretty prompt with our simple lead change after Jump 1, something that has occasionally caused issues for us. And also figured the time and space needed for the simple change would necessitate taking the outside turn to Jump 2. Other than that, tho, the course looked perfectly straight forward and all the lines were riding in very consistent striding.

most of the jumps he kinda just cantered bigly, but he did nicely over this oxer! pc GRC Photos

And?? Yup, it all worked out pretty darn well. Charlie declined an invitation to spook at the construction, picked up his best hunter-esque canter, and loped right on along over the first. Was a complete gentleman about his lead change, and honestly really aced it through the whole serpentine.

The outside line rode in a perfect 4 strides for us, tho as is our habit, we were starting to pick up a little speed as we went. Charlie is a bit like a snowball or an avalanche haha, in that he picks up momentum and energy as he goes. The hackamore worked great tho and we were able to stay in a pretty nice balance instead of him dropping his wither and flattening on me.

such a good boy even tho the jumps are kinda small for him haha. pc GRC Photo

Tho we were still a little funny through the bending line across the center. Not terrible tho, but just a bit strung out -- losing that nice hunter-y look haha. 

Then I over-corrected a bit coming down the following line. I put him in a too-quiet canter into what should have been an easy 5 stride line. Instead tho it rode a bit long for us and we kinda had to make big moves to close the gap.

Oops, sorry Charlie!! Sorta a bit like this Wayward Thoughts article Amelia sent me, where I was so busy thinking 'Whoa, dammit!' that I forgot we still had to ride forward through the combinations. 

Oh well, no harm, no foul. We just landed again a bit out of balance and kinda running.... But again, Charlie was able to recover his balance and jumped the final fence actually pretty nicely. Boom, way to go Chuck!! 

Also I hope you appreciate my videographer's giggles too. Apparently Charlie was activating the turbo boosters, toot-tooting his way around the course, tho you can't really hear it from the video.

the most fun! pc Austen Gage

There honestly isn't a whole lot I would change about this jump course, other than continuing to work on being more consistent in our pace. Esp the part where I had him too quiet -- that's really not the greatest mistake to make with Charlie bc it is so counter productive. If he's too quiet, then we get forced to make those big moves that disrupt our balance.

That's a me problem tho, not a Charlie problem. Bc Charlie, for his part, basically just did whatever I asked, for better or worse. Honestly he kinda just does it for fun. These fences weren't really of a size to captivate his attention, but then again I'm pretty sure he'd happily bop around N forever, ya know?

close up view of our stadium round, courtesy of the zoom lens haha

So yea haha. I'm always mildly shell shocked when we have a more or less reasonable stadium round. Bc, again, I'm not sure this phase will EVER be my favorite haha. Honestly of all three phases, in some ways I think stadium gets disproportionately harder with each move up a level.

Like, mistakes that didn't matter at one height suddenly can become game changers when the rails are only a mere 4" higher. Whether it's mistakes that simply topple the rails, or worse sins that create vicious cycles of crashes, refusals, or falls like I had with Izzy.

For now, tho, at least in this moment, I'm just gonna sit back and appreciate that Charlie's got us covered haha. That probably won't always be true, but on a day like this? It's extremely welcome news haha. Good boy, Charlie!!

Up next is the cherry on this tasty little cake: cross country time!!