SJ clinic with Sally

It's actually almost exactly one year ago that Charlie and I had our first lesson with the renowned 5* event rider Sally Cousins, who just so happens to be based most of the year on the Route 1 corridor in Pennsylvania.

such a treat to ride in a large bright indoor with dry footing!

Sally is extremely well known throughout this region as a talented and insightful coach and clinician. As such, she maintains a regular teaching schedule at various venues in PA, MD, and even down in SC where she's based during the winters.

Charlie lives fairly close to the Route 1 corridor, so we've been able to get in on Sally's schedule quite a few times over the last year. Including a couple lessons up at Boyd Martin's legendary Windurra facility. And also, now for a second time, show jumping lessons at the small private Kealani Farm in West Grove.

very few straight lines in this course aside from this outside gymnastic 2-to-2

Kealani is drop dead gorgeous - a compact but extremely well thought-out property that maximizes every inch of available space. The overall feeling is one of luxurious proportions, especially in the middle of mud season haha.

I swear it took basically our entire warm up on the flat, and even our first few jumps, to get used to dry predictable footing again LOL!

measured at 32'-32', vertical oxer vertical. measured short, but didn't ride short considering we were in an indoor

Anyway, tho. Due to our mild winter, Charlie and I have stayed in fairly consistent work. Especially with drilling into the technical nitty gritties with resident upper level event rider K lately, I'm feeling better than ever about the quality of Charlie's overall way of going.

You might remember that last year in our first lesson with Sally, she really zeroed in on my inability to corral Charlie's outside shoulder in turns. Well. Ever since then we've been working on it haha!

And I'm pleased to report she didn't breathe a word about "outside aids" during this entire ride. Yessss lol.

Obviously, tho, that's not to say that she didn't find other deficiencies haha.... Hahahaha.

there were two lines that looked like diagonals set on the inside. actually rode in bending lines, scribing the outline of an hourglass

Overall, Charlie was an absolute rock star for this ride. I legit could not be more pleased with how he behaved. He was so squarely plugged into "work mode" that literally every time it was our turn, I could barely pick up my reins before he'd step immediately into canter, and always on the correct lead.

That's..... not a degree of push-button responsiveness I'm used to in this animal haha. And certainly not in any sort of sustainable fashion. And yet, he kept it up the whole ride. Never once soured or sucked back. Just always stepped up and went. Was extremely responsive, and did every single thing I asked, whether I knew I was asking or not haha.

the most cleverest horse through the bounce!

The course was fairly basic: an outside grid set for a 2-to-2 gymnastic. Two inside bending lines both measured for 4. One of which ended in a simple bounce. And a single oxer on the other outside. None of the jumps were particularly large either.

The other three members of my group were regular Sally students, and as such we sorta fell into a well-oiled rhythm. Each rider was quick to take her turn, and nobody had any real issues. So we moved quickly through all the warm up exercises of getting through each individual element, and then each set of lines, before finally finishing with the full course.

it's my impression that charlie dislikes jumps with eyes LOL

Sally's biggest points of feedback to me were:
- Moar canter (obvi)
- Sit up
- Bring him back into shape sooner after each jump

This last point was possibly her biggest issue. I have a habit of letting Charlie spool out into his little "victory gallops" at the conclusion of each go, but Sally said it was time to cut that out. She wanted me bringing him back immediately, asking me what I thought would happen if we jumped a big table but then had to turn immediately to a corner?

So. Ya know. Noted, haha. Charlie will certainly come back after a fence. If I ask him. And... I haven't really been asking at the conclusion of a course. Now I will. Good feedback, thanks lol.

took a few efforts to clean up this bending line but charlie was so good!

Her other overall takeaway was a little less easily actionable. She basically said, in a somewhat abruptly blunt fashion, that I'm not going to be able to do what I want to do with Charlie if I continue to let him travel in his current way of going.

In other words, she said he has a very pleasant way of cantering on along. But that he's very horizontal or level in his way of going (think: nose to tail), bordering at times on being almost downhill. And that this is why we often can find ourselves being a little off in our distances at fences.

We can be a little long here, a little short there, again and again and again. We can be cantering on along very pleasantly in what feels like a good rhythm and impulsion and ground cover and connection, and all the things. But then we get to the jump and it's like, "oooh, now what?" And it's because sometimes we get to the jump with Charlie being just a bit too nose-heavy. Which limits our options in terms of adjustability.

finished with a long straight shot at the oxer (with fox cutouts as filler!!)

This all makes perfect sense to me, conceptually, tho I admit to being a bit frustrated that the commentary came after the lesson was over and I'd explicitly asked for a summary "takeaway" from the day. Like. Ok. So our balance is all wrong. Great. What the ever loving fuck am I supposed to do about it????

It was especially frustrating bc I felt like we've been working so hard on Charlie's canter these last few months, and he feels better today in his adjustability and responsiveness and agility than he's literally ever felt... ever. So like, to hear that it's still not good enough was a bit gut wrenching.

video of the last course

Luckily tho, this was an early win for the year in feeling like my quest for "mentorship" was the right call. Because instead of spiraling into an existential crisis about this feedback, I simply relayed it back to trainer K. Who was like, "Oh ok, that's a good outside perspective. We haven't specifically focused on that element of balance in our canter work, but can begin to bake it in."

Whew! Lol...

So. Yea. It was a really great lesson for a few reasons: Charlie was a star and easily handled every single aspect of this lesson. Plus obvi riding in nice dry footing this time of year is an absolute luxury. It was also a clear demonstration to me that we are, in fact, in a different and improved place of our training from this time last year. Especially vis-a-vis straightness in turning. Hell yes!

The blunt after-the-fact feedback of, "oh by the way you won't meet your goals going the way you are now," sucked more than a little bit of oxygen out of the moment for me.... but again. After checking in with K and a few friends, it's now feeling like more of a well-timed temperature check so that we can start making adjustments now. Theoretically lol.... Hopefully?

In the meantime. You'll find me furiously googling all the forums on how to improve uphill balance in a horse's canter lol. C'mon, Charlie! It's time to tuck that butt and start pushing!