last jumps of july

Possibly the biggest issue I'm confronting at the moment is that.... Well, everything always seems to feel like sunshine and rainbows and soft fuzzy kittens when Charlie and I are schooling or doing lessons. But then when the rubber meets the road at a horse show, for instance, we kinda come apart a little bit.

gosh i love this horse tho <3

I feel like I'm working really hard, like we're doing our homework. We're putting in the time, I'm consulting with all the various professionals and trainers and practitioners etc. But then I'm not delivering when it really counts. I'm pretty sure this is a "me" problem, more than anything else, but it's something I'm thinking about a lot lately.

meanwhile we've kinda had some crazy weather - which rachael captured in this perfectly timed shot haha. summer thunderstorms, y'all!

Probably it's mostly in my head, tho. I mean, we've completed exactly two horse trials this year (both of which were AWESOME), and one dressage show (decidedly NOT awesome lol). Then had to withdraw from Seneca at the last possible moment bc Charlie was footsore. And, of course, y'all already know what happened at Full Moon (tho there's a reminder in the video below anyway haha... hahaha).

So... Ya know, that's probably more a reflection of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances than anything else. Still, tho, I think about this stuff.

turns out that staring at his neck doesn't make it any less bronto-y

On the other hand, tho, things have really really come together for us on the "training" front. One of my goals this year was to invest in my skill set as a rider, and to broaden our horizons with "extracurricular" educational experiences outside of my normal lesson program.

To this end, we're starting to get something approaching a "regular routine" with Sally lessons. And even the serious butt-kicking from our last Hilltop dressage lesson wasn't quite enough to discourage me from signing up for more.

takin my pone for a quick flight

And the lessons feel like they're sticking. Like I wrote last week, none of the takeaways are "news" exactly, none of it is groundbreaking new information. But the fresh perspectives, fresh voices and approaches, have really helped me improve my feel and understanding of what I need to do, how, when and why, etc.

Which theoretically should make reproducing those good results easier even when I don't have a coach in my ear. Like, say, at competitions.

so proud of his effort here - got him in a bit deep and he jumped the SHIT out of it!

This, combined with my vet's feedback last month about shaking up Charlie's fitness and conditioning schedule, have helped me feel more empowered about really testing our training. Especially since I still have to keep reminding myself to not let too much time slip away between jump schools, per the vet's recommendation.

Like when I realized that it had already been a week since my last lesson with Sally and that we'd just been puttering around in the dressage ring or doing trot sets out in the field. So. What better time to head back up to the jump ring one night after work and bump up some fences to see if I couldn't recreate the same feelings from that lesson?

i love his face tho <3

This session wasn't so much about maximizing intensity or impact -- actually it was pretty short (well, aside from the ages we spent hanging around chatting with our friends lol). What I really wanted was to focus on correctness and style over appropriately sized fences. Could I put the jumps up, develop my appropriate canter, and control our straightness through the turns?

wheeee charlie go flyin!

And the answer? Mostly, yes. Mostly. Haha. It was SUPER helpful tho having a couple friends in the ring with me, esp bc it meant getting video. In the video, it's a lot more clear how we kinda lose some balance on the back side of fences - esp in the turns. Charlie hollows out and then I take a pull with my leg off.

Tho on the flip side, I'm getting better about correcting this in the turn to the next fence and being more forward to the base. I'm also getting more conscious about squaring Charlie's shoulders to the fence, tho obvi ideally I shouldn't lose the shoulders in the first place haha. #goals, yo.

good boy, sir

Obviously the jumps in the course we did were pretty simple. Mostly plain singles (I took out some other related distances bc they were set at lesson pony strides, bleh) just crisscrossing the ring. But that's fine, right? Perfect for testing out whether we could maintain the canter over that distance.

And it felt really good, too. Really reassuring. And you'll see in the video, but Charlie just cruises around happily and easily. Even when we got to the fences at not-quite-perfect distances, we still had options bc our canter was better.

video here. 

footage from this ride starts at around the minute mark if you wanna skip the talking parts haha

Also, regarding the video -- I've noticed over time that there are two distinct audiences for the riding videos I make. One group includes the folks on youtube who don't read the blog (like my mom! and my cousin!) and thus don't get all the backstory or context to the video. And then there's you all, who probably sometimes feel like you get too much detail and backstory haha.

It's kinda tough to edit a single video for both these audiences, but I tried with this one. The first minute has sorta more narrative for those folks who don't read up on the story here. Then I tried to get the talking finished up around the 1min mark so that y'all could watch the fresh footage in peace (tho, ya know, I suppose you could also just mute if you don't want the talking too...).

So, uh, maybe lmk how that works out for you, or if you actually like more narrative style in the videos too, vs just having them be visual accompaniments to these written posts. Or if you're one of those who never watches the videos anyway, plz disregard!! ;)

getting in our conditioning miles out in the fields. everything looked so good leading up to this past weekend's big event!!

So anyway. For me, it's just so so so critical to feel like I can reproduce results while riding on my own. Obviously a low key schooling at home is a different can of worms than laying down a solid stadium round in the atmosphere of a horse show. But you know what I mean. Gotta start somewhere, right?

It's so easy to look back at things we've accomplished and wonder if maybe it was a fluke, or if we just got lucky. Or if really it's my amazing horse who is getting all this shit done while I kinda just hang on for the ride... (Ok, let's be real, that's totally true LOL!)

i love the pretty dusk lighting haha

But ya know. Maybe that's ok haha. Because hey, even tho it's true that the work I'm putting into my ride right now revolves in large part around future goals, it's also true that this work is itself fun and rewarding.

Like, what's not to love about finishing up a long day of work in order to ride around with a bunch of friends, having a fun relaxing time jumping our horses?? For me, it's so so important to remember that haha. Even if I never win another ribbon, or move up, or even ever horse show again... I'll still be doing this <3