when xc is way harder than expected....

Alternate title: "Turns out, Boyd doesn't stake down all the fences at Windurra.... Whoops!"

Ahem, cough cough. Anyway.

I wrote yesterday about feeling just overwhelmingly tired with life lately, and how that manifested in a somewhat insidious feeling of the "I don't wannas" when it came to all things high pressure with horses.

assembling the crew. that dog was charlie's spirit animal

But... Then, sorta out of nowhere, a barn mate told me she had impulsively signed up for a lesson with Sally at Windurra the following day, and did I want to tag along too? And much to my surprise, my knee jerk reaction was a totally refreshing "Heck yes, let's do it!"

Which like... If you've ever gone through a phase where you only want to say "No" to anything and everything, even the things that would normally top the list of exciting happenings.... Well. It's a very good feeling when something crops up that makes you definitely want to get out there again. And not just because you feel like you should do it, but bc you actually honest to god truly want to. Does that make sense?

as evidence of my own dysfunction during this ride, try to figure out which element was intended to be next in this line.... (hint, we were a little crooked lol)

So I didn't really think too deeply about it, or worry too much about our slightly sub-optimal preparation. Realistically, I figured it probably wouldn't be a mindblowingly phenomenal ride.

But I also more or less expected that the lesson format with Sally would provide a perfect recipe for getting my and Charlie's good juju flowing again.

got better coming back the other way down the little bank

Which... was accurate. And also basically exactly what the doctor ordered. Charlie and I were.... not on the same page. Even for our earliest warm up jumps, Charlie wasn't really taking me to the fences and had a bit of a non-committal feeling about things.

Unlike past rides at Windurra where we progressed relatively quickly through the warm up to full size training level fences, this time we just worked on repeating the first few lines trying to get a rhythm together.

a couple jumps charlie did very nicely

Sally observed that Charlie really needed me to be his rock, needed me to be really strong and stable in my position. I needed WAY more leg on, firmly. But also more firm contact. No wishy washy, no just sitting there expecting him to drag me to the fences.

Maybe some days that kind of ride works well enough with Charlie, but that was definitely not the ride we were having on this day, for whatever reason. Well. Ahem, not "whatever" reason -- it's the same old story I told yesterday.

And actually the same story as unfolded after Plantation last year: If I don't do my homework in schooling rides, if I don't stay consistently clear about the rules with Charlie -- that he must always be in front of the leg and going forward -- Charlie won't exactly police his own self on the matter. And then I can't just snap my fingers and expect Charlie to suddenly understand that "this ride is different" and that he has to listen now.

this line scared the ever loving shit out of me, even tho each individual jump is small

In a way, tho, I'm honestly kinda glad that this was the horse I had in the lesson. All summer long we've been working on getting a better canter to the fences, but that became even more important in this lesson where Charlie wasn't really participating as much as normal.

And Charlie is such an honest horse -- when I got my feeling right (way more leg and WAY more contact -- but forward contact -- than I expected) Charlie more or less responded in kind. Like he did through this crazy ass line haha.

bless him, tho, charlie is SUCH an honest horse

The wide angle lens of the helmet cam really does a disservice to any sort of terrain - everything is so much more flattened. But you can kinda sorta see Sally standing next to the mound in the gif above as evidence that.... the mound was TALL. And the skinny little jump on the back side was completely invisible until you were already jumping the pipe.

I've never ever ridden anything like that before, and honestly really biffed it the first time. Charlie would have been blameless for running out, but he jumped it - good boy! And then was even better the second time (above), even tho I thought we were tempting fate by trying it again.

these banks are our bitch now haha

So yea, I don't want to give the impression that Charlie was bad, per se, during this ride, because he wasn't lol. Obviously, he is the best boy, always and forever.

But.... He just wasn't particularly keen. Didn't have his normal zip or his typical gusto. Part of me thought that maybe it was bc we stuck with the small jumps that didn't inspire him to greatness... But then again, with the way he was jumping them (or, uh, clobbering them, as the case may be) it definitely did *not* seem prudent to size up, ya know??

this giant drop still scares me but charlie was aces

Plus, Charlie was getting kinda emotional. The kind of weird stuck feeling that he gets as a ride like this progresses, where he gets really fussy about the transition into canter, or only wants to pick up the incorrect lead but then is offended when you bring him back to ask again.

That's exactly the type of progressively escalating nonsense that I need to be quicker to end, vs sorta trying to tip toe around it. Bc.... Well. If you watch the helmet cam video you'll see why LOL.

nothing about this house into water should have caused an issue for us

Anyway, the ride was mostly a bit uneven. We had a few weird instances of Charlie just sorta failing to adjust and clobbering the fences. But we also had some really good moments - notably, the keyhole line above, the ditches, and actually every single bank we did, including that giant down bank that scares the pants off me.

All that to say... The meltdown at the water definitely took me by surprise.

and yet..... issues we had. charlie rolled the mother fucker completely over. excuse me, sir, wat?

In Charlie's defense, the little house into water was positioned on somewhat uneven ground and I think the last step caught Charlie a bit off guard. But.... Well. Charlie responded by literally climbing over the fence, rolling it over in the process (thus the alternate title about Boyd apparently not staking down his jumps.....).

This was obviously... very unexpected. I tried to talk through how I rode it, to see if I made a mistake, but Sally was legit incredulous, saying, "He shouldn't have done that. What the fuck."

Her point being, this is not a new exercise for Charlie. We've practiced it, actually in way harder configurations. He's got a good eye and knows how to adjust, but just.... didn't. Which like, I can't protect him from that. That's 100% his responsibility.

and then, naturally, he wanted nothing to do with it. much application of voice cues ensued.

Things..... Devolved from there. While Sally and a lesson mate fixed the jump, I got Charlie cantering through the water on its own. Then approached the house from the opposite direction - water to land. Which.... Arguably may have been harder, but Charlie cruised over easily.

Then went to approach again and Charlie went into full blown dinosaur-stuck-in-tar-pit mode like we haven't seen in ages. In that situation, the whip doesn't work. The spurs don't work. Basically the only solution is unleashing the full force of my lungs in a primal scream growl lol. Which, go figure, got Charlie unstuck pronto haha.

He still didn't want to go near the house tho, so we kept cantering and just went directly to the rolltop in the water instead. Again, a jump that is generally understood to be substantially harder (and, uh, objectively larger) than the house. And Charlie jumped it like aces.

the whole saga is recorded in the video below... but eventually we managed to put the line together. jusssst in time for boyd to pull up in his water truck, womp. 

At which point we came back to put the full line back together. It took substantially more scream growling -- and you'll note that Charlie wasn't even CLOSE to being straight upon reaching the house. But, good boy, he did in fact jump it. Then was an even better boy and covered the ground extremely nicely to jump the roll top too. Yessir. We will take it.

Holy shit tho, that was way harder than it needed to be. Christ almighty.

Oooh. Also, I didn't really notice that truck driving up until after I got over the last jump. But yea. Totes Boyd coming up to top off the water level I guess, or something. Just in time to witness me having to holler like a madwoman to get my horse over a BN house. Bc I am so gud at riding, guys. Sigh....

first jump in the water tho, and it was no issue!

So.... Yea haha. It was a little bit of a tough ride. But honestly I'm not sorry that it went the way it did. Charlie is an extremely good horse. He's generally very easy and uncomplicated, and beyond generous.

But ya know. He's a horse haha, not a machine. And the biggest uncertainty we have in pushing for bigger badder fences is whether I can pick up the slack when Charlie isn't operating at 110%. While that remains a big question mark, I feel like this lesson gave me a lot more tools and a much better feel for the type of ride I need to give.

full helmet cam video here. last 2ish minutes are the whole water fiasco

Sally, for her part, was a little concerned since she'd never seen this side of Charlie. She's only ever really seen him on his A-Game, actually, and felt like I should do a little digging on the physical side of things to make sure he's ok.

Her recommendation was a Lyme test, which is basically always in the Top 3 boxes to check whenever a horse in this region seems a bit off kilter. I personally didn't feel that a positive result was likely, but since I pay the woman for her opinion I went ahead and did the test anyway. It was negative, as expected.

I'm also treating for ulcers. Again, I am not convinced that Charlie is actually in distress here, but it's a good box to check off. And if we see any major obvious changes during the course of treatment, that'll indicate whether we should scope too just to be sure.

To me, Charlie's behavior in this ride wasn't really beyond the pale in terms of what we've seen of his development over the last few years. But then again I've never regretted taking a few extra precautions. So we'll see.

In the meantime, it felt really valuable to be reminded of that post I wrote last year after a similar feeling from the horse at Plantation. It's funny how that works, tho, right? Like we're always going into these lessons hoping for some amazing magical experience. But actually, sometimes it's the rougher rides that give us more tools in moving forward lol. Have you ever felt that way too?