Novice XC @ MDHT #3 2019

Y'all ready for some cross country?!? I know I sure am haha! And of course, we all know Charlie was born ready lol.

Anyway, like I mentioned yesterday, I hadn't been particularly impressed with the course map posted online. The jumps looked small and the course looked soft technicality-wise. Luckily, tho, walking it improved my opinion. There was a fair amount of interesting terrain and a lot of time spent in the woods. Plus some jumps in new positions that I quite liked.

brace yo'selves for hella pictures of charlie gallopin loping around

Tho.... There were also a few aspects of the course design that puzzled me. Like some very strange turns and approaches to the fences, and a half coffin that walked in a half stride no matter how many times I walked it.

Overall tho, I figured the course should go pretty well for us and I was resolute in determining that I would ride more forward. To aid in this, I busted out the stabby jabby studs I bought earlier this spring. The ground was super hard and I wanted to give Charlie every opportunity to respond to my aids by giving him enough traction.

cruisin along to the itsy bitsy tootsie roll at jump 2

Initially I had honestly been thinking about skipping studs. After Rachael's accident I didn't bother studding at Shawan, and Charlie was fine. But the ground was soft there - plenty soft enough to dig a toe in for some purchase. With the ground so hard now, it's an entirely different ball game. And ultimately I had zero regrets deciding to stud up.

In fact, Charlie seemed to discover his studs pretty quickly in the xc warm up, and immediately improved his carriage and turning radius. Yessss! That's the ticket, big guy!

Warm up was actually pretty cool too (for fucking once LOL) bc they had this long straight roped off lane leading up to the fences, all going away from the trailers. Since I was the first to go on course, the warm up was empty. So I was able to right off the bat practice our "start box style" by just breaking into gallop up the lane and over the first warm up fence. Perfect.

he actually spooked a little at it LOL

I came around again to jump the larger warm up fence, then basically just chilled until the starter got the go ahead that everyone was in position.

The start box was also pointed into the woods away from the trailers and rings etc, which can traditionally make for a sticky situation with Charlie. This time tho? He was totally clean and clear out of the gates, and jumped the first fence beautifully out of a forward stride. Good boy!!

Jump 2 was kinda an unimpressive tootsie roll jump with a shitty ground line that Charlie sorta spooked at and jumped a little funny when we got to a gap. Nbd tho, he landed cantering forward looking for the next.

we looped down a hillside with some very fun use of terrain, albeit small fences, that you'll have to watch the helmet cam video to see. then came back into view for this simple table

Next up was a little coop that we've seen a bunch. Tho in the past both Isabel and Charlie have seemed to spook a little at it, so I still treated it with a little respect. Again tho, Charlie was easily up and over.

He landed wanting to run, but actually we had to pretty quickly re-balance for a steep descent into this sorta little hollow that we went through in Charlie's season opener last year. Unlike last year tho, Charlie's a damn educated horse now and handled the terrain way better than I expected!

We jumped the little feeder down in the hollow easily, albeit a little close. Again, it's a small jump and didn't really give Charlie any reason to stand off it. Nbd tho. From there, we curved right back up the hill out of the hollow toward the garden gate that Charlie jumped beautifully right out of stride.

stupid turn to the palisade + horse who doesn't turn right = THIS lol. he's a star tho! also.... it makes more sense in the helmet cam haha, but at least we're forward, right?? LOL

Then we caught another little table on our way back toward the start. From the table, we had an option of two right hand lines - the more direct of which led to a palisade shared with BN. The other went to the N palisade we jumped last month. Honestly, walking that line looked so freaking dumb that I figured it didn't even make sense trying to bother. I'd just do the BN version.

Except.... Once we got there I really preferred to do the bigger jump, and Charlie was being extremely rideable. So we went for it. I knew the turn would be hard bc his left shoulder weighs 8,000lbs and we'd be trying to angle late after some trees turning back away from the start box.

Charlie kinda fussed with me about the turn, and didn't really see the fence itself until three strides out. He locked on tho and gave it a huge effort. Good boy!

easy peasy through the first water!

We repeated basically the same thing to the next fence - winding our way through some trees then having another kinda weird right angle to some hanging rail jumps that I kinda don't like. For some reason Loch Moy has started building out all these hanging telephone pole jumps. Probably the jumps are super cheap and easy to build.

But.... I just don't really like them. They're so airy and don't really impress a horse, ya know? Honestly I worry about Charlie hitting one of them... Esp with the stupid turn and him fussing about going right... It was fine tho, he jumped it kinda sideways, but he jumped it. Then cantered on down the hill.

I opted to bring him down to a trot going into the water, just bc it was heading straight back toward the trailers and I wanted to make sure he had enough time to see our next jump. He was foot perfect tho, and actually didn't try to drag me toward home at all! Yasss!

for some reason loch moy has been using a TON of this style fence..... and honestly i actually really don't like them. they don't back charlie off and esp coming out of the half coffin that seemed mis-measured, i would have preferred a more impressive jump

Next up came the half coffin: small ditch to another one of those hanging rail fences. This line..... perplexed me. I've ridden a ton of combinations at this exact ditch over the years, and have never felt so iffy about the distances. It walked in exactly 2.5 strides. Every time. There looked to be a little bit of a left bend, so I tried to walk that, but still got 2.75. Walked it from the shortest most direct edges and still.... 2.5. Idk.

i walked this half coffin no fewer than 8 times.... it rode fine in a show jump canter tho!

Like, realistically, Charlie probably could have done 2 in there. But at present I don't necessarily feel like that's the direction we need to be going in for his training. Like, mayyyyybe if there had been a more substantial fence on the other side, like a big solid rolltop or something. But I definitely didn't want to go balls to the wall to that airy little hanging log thing.

So.... we show jumped it. And it was fine. Whatevskis, right? It seemed a little strange and unfair to put that kind of striding in the middle of the course but presumably they had their reasons.

that's my boy chuck!! his shape now is so much stronger and more adjustable than it used to be!

Next up came a row of fences positioned right at the top of this little hill - a place I don't ever remember seeing fences before. And I actually reeeeeally liked it! Novice had a skinny-ish blue house that Charlie jumped in last month's half coffin, and the landing was immediately down hill again.

i REALLY liked the placement of these houses on the crest of a small hill. also, can we all just agree that charlie is too pure for this world?!? #SWOON

I love jumping Charlie up hill bc it forces me to put my leg on, ya know? Charlie got there beautifully to it and really didn't seem to mind the terrain at all, even the down parts. Thank god for studs tho LOL.

Next up we slowed a bit to approach probably the coolest combo on course - a tiny bank up onto a mound, then back down the other side before reaching a nicely sized roll top. Charlie has very little experience with mound type features, so even tho this bank was very small (it's a BN bank) I was eager to try it.

this combination was super fun too!

Naturally, Charlie was a super star. Gosh I love this horse. He's getting to be so game!! I love feeling like he's thinking about what we're doing too - like he's really focused and looking and processing in real time. And making his own adjustments too -- this horse's eye is legitimately 100% better than my own haha.

charlie was brilliant over the table

From there we took a sweeping turn back around toward the water again. The course again offered Novice the option between the corner or the table. To be honest I would sorta prefer that both fences be on course, instead of having to choose one or the other. Both were on his first N course last year, but this year not so much.

They're both very nice fences and while obviously Charlie's jumped them each a few times now, it still feels like good experience for him.

god i love him tho <3

Anyway, last month I jumped the corner so I figured I might as well jump the table this time. Plus I liked the line a little bit better anyway. Not sure it really would have made any difference, but Charlie jumped that table absolutely perfectly. Such a good boy!

steadying up ahead of the second water

We were basically almost at the end of this course, so I wanted to make sure we didn't have any silly mistakes heading to the second water. Honestly I was a little surprised that there wasn't really anything going on with this water too. Like, there was a jump on the other side but it was small and kinda far away.

lol i love how he's staring directly at the photographer while i'm trying to organize for the water

Since the first water had a jump on the far side, it might have been nice to have a jump going into the water this second time. They've certainly done that before on these courses. But oh well, nobody asked me, so it was just a simple canter through the water.

charlie is just canterin through like a normal horse. emma is apparently doin the shimmy lol...

Charlie actually drifted a bit off his line too, not quite wanting to go straight in. He was fine tho. And just cantered on through happy to be heading home.

ping!! these jumps too smol tho!

The last two fences were definitely a bit small too - the little log roll and the blue brush box, both of which Charlie has jumped easily at the T heights. It didn't matter tho, Charlie jumped them both fine.

Actually, I was super proud of him too bc even tho we were clearly heading back to the trailers and had pretty long runs between the last two fences, he really didn't speed up or start pulling. Actually I probably could have ridden him more forward! But that's a good feeling, ya know? Like Charlie has finally truly figured out that this is *not* a race, and that there are different gears and speeds etc.

so dreamy tho, amirite?? <3

Overall I couldn't be more proud of how this horse handled himself on course and throughout each of the three phases. He's so smart, he definitely understands the game.

This particular course was in some ways kinda strange, and some of the jumps were definitely underwhelming. But it did feel like a proper Novice test, and Charlie felt at every moment and with each hoof fall that he knew the answers and was able to face each obstacle competently and confidently.

helmet cam video here!!

I'm not sure there was much here to "test" or "prepare us" for the next level, but that's totally fine. It's enough to just get through smoothly and free of any drama or moments of unexpected excitement haha.

It's a little disappointing to be so far off the leader board after dressage. Esp knowing that it's not really that unusual for us to have a rail. And, honestly, if at some point we do timed courses I expect we'll get penalties there too. So it would be useful to have stronger dressage scores.

we don't have to be competitive to be having fun <3

All in good time tho. For now I just couldn't be happier with Charlie's attitude and professionalism. Each positive reaffirming event helps me feel that much more confident about the future with him. And that's all that really matters, right?

that moment when you get home exhausted and dump everything on the floor, and the cats are like, "cool - new sleeping spot!"

So another one is in the books. And even tho on paper it doesn't necessarily look like an impressive day, I think this was possibly one of our best runs at N to date across all three phases. The rest will come eventually, right?