shawan downs xc - positive mileage

Shawan Downs is a gorgeous historical property in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Throughout the calendar year it hosts all sorts of different horsey activities, from pony club races to steeplechases and timber races, plus an annual USEA recognized event, the MCTA Horse Trials.

When I first started eventing in 2014, MCTA went through Advanced, tho now the full three phases only run through Intermediate and Advanced runs as a CT. Also back when I started eventing, Shawan Downs hosted MCTA's Jenny Camp starter trials in addition to the one sanctioned event. I did my second ever horse trial there (where I fell off at some mud, whoops!) and Charlie had his first full "proper" three phase there.

It's a great venue and I really really love it, but alas they no longer host the starter trials. Maybe one year I'll do their recognized, but for now I stuck to my norm of just volunteering. Fortunately MCTA started offering two days of open schooling on the recognized course after competition in lieu of the starter trial, and conveniently gives free passes to volunteers. Obviously this has to be a staple on the calendar, right?

novice bank combination, same as last year

You might remember last year I walked the full Novice course after volunteering and felt pretty iffy about it, but then went to the schooling and Charlie cruised through handily. And now obviously he's a solidly confirmed N horse. This year I walked the Training course and.... Yea. Still iffy.

Maybe by this time next year I'll be able to look back and say "yup, we're totally cool with all of that." Maybe lol. One thing's for certain tho -- we did not just cruise through and school it all. Actually, we barely schooled any of the T. Which was a bit of a disappointment.

Except. Well, leading up to the ride I had two components of this year's goals at top of mind. First up was my goal to invest in developing my skill set as a rider. Realistically, I looked back through the archives and Charlie and I have had exactly TWO cross country lessons since he moved up to BN in 2017. That's..... woefully inadequate. And it's also not for lack of trying.

training table that normally lives at our own farm anyway

Especially now where we're both in fairly uncharted territory. I had a LOT of really excellent xc lessons with Isabel as I prepared to move us up to Novice in 2015, and that has tied me over well enough to get Charlie to the same level without as much help. But Training? Especially the combinations? Yea, I've never done it. Charlie's never done it. And while I feel like we're ready to work on them, I also feel pretty strongly that I'd like some eyes on the ground for it.

So that was the plan for this schooling session. Unfortunately not enough people signed up for lesson spots and the coach had to cancel at the last minute. Which also meant that, at the last minute, none of my other various tried 'n true coaches were available at the same time.

Dammit lol. There was so much stuff I wanted to try! The trakehner looked like a solid maybe, as did the full coffin! But.... Ugh. I just don't want to get me and Charlie into a bad spot and then not feel committed enough to work through it if we run into trouble.

novice corner from last year too

So knowing that a lesson was off the table.... I had to shift gears a little bit. I'd already promised a barn mate that I'd drive her too, so I still had to go (tho I may or may not have offered Charlie's trailer berth to a few other folks haha). Plus. Ya know, this is our one time of year to play with these jumps, many of which live full time at our own farm, at a different venue.

I decided to just go anyway. Have fun with it. No pressure, see where Charlie's at and see what happens. And remembered another major component of my goals for the year: focus on positive experience and additive mileage.

Right now all the Novice stuff feels easy. Plus we've got tons of it at home, I don't necessarily feel like I need to spend my hard earned volunteer bucks just to go jump some Novice stuff. But, if that's what we'd be doing, then I'd focus on trying to do it well. Polish it up a little bit.

chunky training coop into deep water

I had a good reminder of this after we warmed up and I started working on the bank combinations. I did the BN line first, then the N. And both times they rode a little long. On my giant ass thoroughbred. If a BN line is riding long for us, there can only be one answer: Emma for fucks sake ride that damn horse more forward! Ahem, lol....

So that was useful lol. I came back and did the N line a second time and really stayed committed to the 2 strides, vs kinda just hanging in the back seat waiting to see what would happen. And it was totally fine. Actually, in retrospect, I regret not going back and turning both of those combinations around - jump to down bank. Rats. Yet another reason it would have been useful to have a coach on hand to identify those opportunities haha.

splish splash mother fuckers!

After that, I strung a few things together including popping over the Training log table thingy that we jumped at our own farm for the first time a couple weeks ago. Charlie jumped it great, jumped everything pretty well actually.

Tho I felt like I was having to work a little bit too hard to get him going. I had thought about putting on my spurs and grabbing a stick while we were tacking up at the trailer, but then decided not to bother. That was.... probably a mistake haha.

Charlie's a good boy, but he's also kinda a cerebral thinking horse. If we keep getting to jumps a little long or short bc he's a little behind my leg, he's more likely to be like, "meh, nah" instead of moving up on his own. Unless I can be a little more persuasive. Next time I'll remember to bring my tools lol.

training table - almost identical to the one we have at home (ours was positioned at the water for the modified course)

Anyway, I went from there back to the higher level water to do the A element of the T line. It was just a coop, much like that red N coop that I love so much. Just. Ya know. Bigger lol. And closer to the water. Charlie did great tho, although the water was deep as shit and splashed literally everywhere.

I was fucking soaked haha, as was my helmet camera lens, whoops. A couple later clips ended up getting a bit messed up (including some footage that was lost completely, womp) and I wonder if it's bc the camera got a little damp.

Nbd tho, from there we went to another set of training jumps. The roll top above that's nearly identical to that green-ish blue roll top we jumped at home a couple weeks ago. And another little log table thingy, tho that second table (smaller than the first) didn't get caught on video. Oh well! All you missed out on was much growling and shouting as I literally pony-club kicked Charlie Sir Slug up and over....

novice water, had our own red coop in then a little log out

That "behind the leg" feeling was another big reason I was not very sure about trying any of the T combinations. Charlie's usually either taking me in no uncertain terms to the fences, or I have to work for it a bit. And we learned at Plantation that homeboy will quit if it feels like it's getting too hard. Which like, it does get hard if we're not moving forward enough. So.... Yea.

A lot of that is a "me" problem, which I totally recognize. It's just hard to fix in real time on my own. Bc riding is hard, yo. Who knew lol. Plus, if something scares me a bit, it's just that much harder to really attack it, ya know?

So while there was a ton of T stuff sitting out there begging for a shot... .I decided to just finish the ride focusing on doing all the N combinations nicely and cleanly. Going next to the N water. It was virtually identical to last year, with that red coop set at a generous distance away, then a bending line through the water to a little log.

novice steeplechase 

You might remember last year Charlie had a little trouble holding his line, especially since the banks in and out of this small water are pretty steep. And, uh, like we saw at Loch Moy a few weeks ago, sometimes Charlie enters the water via interpretive dance. But again, the objective on this day was polish.

So I just aimed him at the thing without a lot of prep, and wouldn't you know it, before he even went into the water he was locked fully onto the log. Paid no attention to the steepish banks, just cantered into the water like a 100% normal horse haha, and then easy out over the log. Boom, that's my boy Charlie!

Same story to the Novice steeplechase fence up in the front field. These suckers always look kinda big to me, but we have enough mileage already over N variations that this one ought not to have posed any issues. Charlie still took up a crap ton of leg tho, ugh, #needsmoarstick+spurs....

novice half coffin, same as last year

From there, we went over to the coffin complex to finish up. Again it was really hard to not aim at the T full coffin, since it all looks pretty freakin reasonable. I really do believe we're so close... But again, if something had happened or if I got a little rattled or whatever, I didn't necessarily trust that I'd be able to work us through any hiccups without help. So.... It waits until some future date. C'est la vie!

We did do the N half coffin tho. And unlike last year, where I schooled the ditch first by itself before putting it all together, this time I just aimed Charlie at the full line expecting him to demonstrate his experience. Which he totally did. Good boy <3

quick helmet cam video here

So even tho the ride didn't include some of the stuff I really wanted to do, I'm still proud of a few things. First up, when Charlie was feeling sluggish and behind my leg, I doubled down on my efforts to get him more forward. And instead of backing off or quitting early, I decided to keep pushing on and insisting that Charlie buck up and get the job done.

Charlie doesn't exactly have the best work ethic in the world, so it's up to me to not let him dog me. I can't take the bait of "oh he's tired," or "eh we're not feelin it today." Because that's how we end up in Plantation type situations, right? Instead I need to be firm and say, "Too bad, son. This is literally your job, and it can be as hard or as easy as you make it!" Again, lessons will only help with this, but I was proud of my mentality through the ride.

Another thing I'm proud of is how smoothly we were able to execute the Novice combinations. Obvi the banks took a second try to get it right, but after that I really focused on doing better than just surviving. And being present enough to push Charlie up and forward to make it happen.

"did i do a good job??" - charlie, the happy goober

And I'm also proud of the few T efforts we did try. The log table thing pictured above doesn't look too terribly big to me any more, altho the green roll top still does. But we jumped them both fine. The coop into water also felt a little intimidating to me, and obviously we didn't put the full T line together (there was a bending line to a ramp out of the water). But it was fine.

Again tho, the rest is all for the future. Right now, just making some of these more individual stand-alone type T fences feel "normal" is useful and important. Especially considering it'll make the combinations feel less daunting haha.

yes charlie, you is a good boy

Still tho. Lessons are so so so high on my list right now haha. I have one future date on the books with Dan, and the coach who had to cancel for this particular evening has offered me a free make up lesson. Totally unnecessarily generous IMO, but she also felt bad about a previous miscommunication for a different schooling date at Fair Hill. So. Ya know, I'll take it haha, obviously Yes Please.

So perhaps at some point in the not so distant future, we'll finally be tackling all these things that I'm half hungry for, half terrified of. Hopefully lol. In the meantime, another solid schooling in the books ahead of our next schooling show at the end of the month ;)