putting it into action

It is straight up insane to me that we're almost  halfway through 2019. Where did the time go? What on earth have I even been doing these last few months?? I feel like I've been super busy, hustling constantly... And yet I also am not entirely sure what we have to show for all that lol.

the bugs and heat are officially bad enough that the horses are voluntarily coming off grass to get to the shed midday

Possibly that's just an effect of getting older?? Maybe?? And I guess we kinda got a late start this year.... Regardless, I'm feeling eager for some action lol.

just look at that goofy lovable face tho <3

I've made so many awesome plans for this month. So many cool things to do. But.... Per usual, not much has come of it. Last year we ended up missing out on all my grand plans (all those clinic and competition entries for instance) because Charlie kept getting injured.

This year tho, the horse feels fabulous. Really really really good. Emotionally he's in a great place. In his schooling with me he's in a good place. He feels like a fully primed and prepared canvas ready for whatever I throw at him.

trying to keep my pledge of reducing water usage.... sometimes a full hose down is needed tho!

But my plans still aren't really panning out. Like, I keep booking these big xc lessons weeks (in some cases, more than a month) out. Organizing all the logistics. Preparing for the travel. Putting together a thoughtful exercise and schooling schedule to build up to these outings. Etc.

The universe is basically like "Wait a sec, hold my beer!" tho, and twice in a row this month the coaches I've booked for xc lessons have backed out less than 12hrs prior to our scheduled lesson slot.

Which like, sucks, right? 12hrs out and nobody else is gonna be available to fill the same time slot. Meanwhile all the rest of my schedule has been booked by that point, with the expectation that we would have had that schooling. So not only do I not get those rides, but it's also near impossible to reschedule quickly.

it's always nice when it's followed by some grazing obvi

Part of me wants to be snarky and be like, Well c'mon now guys, if I cancelled on you 12hrs out you'd still charge me for the full lesson price. What gives?!? Realistically tho, I get it. Horses are a tough business and when push comes to shove for most pros, I'm kinda a low man on the totem pole and am easy to bump. Which sucks, but that's how it goes sometimes I guess.

oooh look at this sweet familiar face i ran into while waiting for an appt at Waredaca!

My big plan for this past week was a show jumping lesson with upper level event rider K (which worked out perfectly, yas, and I wrote about on Monday), then school xc at Windurra in a lesson with Dan, and close out with a much needed dressage lesson with Trainer C at her lovely farm.

Essentially -- all three phases, with three key pros, spread out over a couple days. Then just hold steady as needed until the weekend for our starter trial on Sunday. Nice plan, right?

such a sweet old doggo to keep me company haha

Ah well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad, right? Dan's schedule apparently imploded after his wife (also a talented 5* rider, and a lovely individual) had a nasty fall. She's ok, thankfully, but it was scary and meant Dan had to pick up some of her rides and presumably lessons etc. So again, with their own priorities and schedules, when push came to shove, my little private off-farm xc lesson ended up getting bumped. I continued to be super bummed, but again, I get it. C'est la vie.

also here's a less sweet face haha, but always a welcome sight at the farm! go eat 'dem mice! fun fact: charlie strolled right on past this giant fucking snake without a glance lol....

Especially considering -- those other two lessons both went off without a hitch, and were exactly what I wanted / hoped for / needed. Again, I already wrote about the show jumping lesson, where we worked on staying forward in balance on a 12' even through bending lines, etc.

story time: i was already prepping my truck for the early morning drive to windurra when dan cancelled. feeling sad and discouraged, i went to gas up anyway, but recoiled in horror when i opened the gas cap and nearly palmed this nest and its wasp chillin in there. upon closer inspection, there was a second nest+wasp  inside the driver's side door frame too. bc fuck me, right? fortunately random gas station people are kind. a stranger took my broom to gently swat the nests down, and the wasps all flew away quickly and peacefully... full disclosure tho, i may or may not have had a little cry after that once back on the road.... sigh. 

The second lesson - a dressage ride with Trainer C at her farm - was also exactly what the doctor ordered. Obvi not as exciting as cross country haha, but we'll take what we can get, right?

Again, Charlie's been doing super super well in our rides, and I've been trying to be disciplined in my position and riding style. It's hard tho. I have so so so many bad habits, and at this point I've kinda conditioned Charlie to respond to my pretzel contortions. So when I feel like I need to get something specific from the horse, I revert immediately back to my bad habits. You know how it goes haha.

and speaking of biting stinging murderous beasties.... sorry to post a picture of charlie's junk but the bugs are absolutely savaging his under bits. i try to clean the crusted blood out every day but it's seriously awful, poor guy! :(

Basically, at this point, Charlie feels like a true reflection of me and my riding, for better or worse. He's been very good and very obedient lately. He's getting stronger and stronger, and has really been trying for me. I like it a lot!

But I just don't really know what the next step is. I know that for him to be better, I have to be better. I just don't know how to do that on my own. We just need coaching right now, ya know?

every day he's got fresh blood drops :(

In some ways Trainer C is kinda funny bc I see her so infrequently that she feels like she shouldn't disrupt my style too much in case I'm doing things for specific reasons. Like rein length, she seemed to think I was keeping them longer or looser or whatever bc Charlie wouldn't like it if I shortened them too much.

But like, no. Actually I just have bad hands bc I don't have someone there to tell me repeatedly and often to fix my bad hands LOL. Luckily I didn't need to tell her that twice and she made it her business to remind me every step of the way to fix my god forsaken hands haha. Yassss.

he hasn't let that slow him down tho! good boy has been busy lately!

Particularly, she wants me to pay more attention to my inside hand. I want to let it sorta get low and pull down, but she wanted me to think of actually having it be a little higher than the outside hand. Like in our leg yields, where she was basically like "even if the barn is burning down and everyone is dying, for the love of god stop pulling your inside rein." Or for moves like the 10m half turns. Something we've been practicing a lot lately, mostly to good effect, but that still need improvement.

Overall Charlie was pretty good for everything. No real standout glaring issues or anything, and nothing too too nitty gritty (at least, not that I remember) about changing my ride. Except for the whole clinging and clutching with my lower legs. That's another habit that's going to take a lot of persistent coaching to eradicate.... And maybe a County Epiphany LOL.

so tired but so pleased with himself <3

And for the end of the lesson, we actually opted to do a quick run through 1-1. I've only read the test once or twice, and have never put the whole thing together with Charlie, tho we practice components from it almost every ride.

The purpose of this test ride was more or less just to set a baseline. Kinda see where we're at, what the weak points are, etc. And actually Charlie did WAY better for the whole thing than I expected. He was a little tense and tight in the base of his neck, possibly bc he felt like we shifted gears too quickly from lesson mode to test mode, something I'll need to consider in warm up and maybe schooling too.

But actually he did surprisingly well with the rapid fire (relatively speaking) transitions and figures etc. The trot lengthenings in particular were on fire, literally way better than anything we've ever practiced before. Good boy! The canter work was good too, especially his transitions were also more prompt and crisp than I sometimes see in schooling. And the 10m half circles were adequate.

the juxtaposition between charlie and his spicy little nugget of a trailer mate always makes me LOL

It was certainly rough around the edges (our halts in particular were quite bad) and I'm not sure it'd break a 60% at even a schooling show lol.... But it was a great start. And super reassuring -- I think the construction of that test suits Charlie way more than I expected.

We'll be riding that test, plus the very similar USEA Training A test, at a schooling dressage show in a couple weeks, so at least now I have an idea of how to keep refining. Charlie definitely has all the pieces tho. It's a good test for him. I just need to help it flow more, be more smooth.

And. Ya know. Perhaps try to lesson more than once every 3 months LOL. Details, details. This weekend we're just riding Novice A again anyway. As much as I would love to really put in a solid effort for a test we've been riding for legit a year, it'll probably still be kinda mediocre. That's ok tho, I'm excited anyway.

Just excited to get out and do things!!! Ya know? Looking forward to stuff on my calendar is one of my favorite activities, even when, blargh, they don't quite pan out. Hopefully this weekend will be good tho. We shall see!