our bread and butter

If there's one thing that's been more or less constant in my riding life these past few years, it's the Saturday afternoon jump lesson at OF. Long before Charlie lived at this farm -- and in fact, before Charlie was even mine -- this lesson has been a fixture. 

charlie's herd finally moved to their winter pasture

And fun fact: Actually my first ever proper riding recap here at 'Fraidy Cat Eventing was from one of these lessons --- that time we conquered the astroturf-bedecked Jump of Doom. Ahh memories!

slightly comical that each of these horses is wearing the same face lol

For a few different reasons over the past year, tho, I kinda stepped away from the weekly group rides. I guess I wanted a little more individualized focus, esp as we were so intent on moving up to Training level. 

At this point, tho, all I want is to have as much fun as possible with my horse. And group lessons have always been my favorite. So -- we finally made it back!

just love this horse's face <3

I wrote last week about Charlie's time off from jumping, and and that we're starting back with very basic exercises. Including joining a crossrail lesson. This week was more of the same --- except back with my normal group mates. Which meant the jumps were a little bigger, and everyone got in more reps since adults tend to be better at following directions than 8yos lol...

eeeeee look at this fierce little nugget!

It was a cool little exercise too -- the same configuration as last week. Which goes to show that it works equally well as ground poles or cavaletti, not only actual jumps. It's basically three lines of three jumps each, but with each line sharing the same square oxer as a central element.

simple exercise gives a lot of options!

Each line can be ridden from each direction, and while every line is ridden straight (vs bending), depending on which line you're doing you must jump the oxer on an angle. 

The distances in our set up were all fairly similar -- mostly ~4 strides, altho one diagonal was about 6' shorter than the other I think. Just enough of a difference to keep you adjusting as you cycle through, but not really a big deal. Probably could set at whatever distances you want.

lol i love it when charlie jumps all cute. also you can see how there's a line from each of those three background jumps to the pink and teal oxer

And guys -- Charlie was so good!! It felt so good to be going along and working through exercises like this with him again. He's just.... wow, he's so consistent and steady now. Like.... seriously, you have to watch the video to see him loping around like a hunter -- giving every jump a cute little effort even tho the heights all stayed pretty small <3 <3

when your brontosaurus shows off his inner velociraptor <3 <3

We also had a little line of bounces to incorporate into the pattern, and Charlie was aces even tho he hasn't seen a bounce since probably last February lol. Tho --- I will admit, we did mess it up pretty badly one time, but didn't catch it on video lol. 

d'aww charles

Had already gone through twice when it was three elements, then went to go again after the fourth element was added. And idk if Charlie was off in la la land or not paying attention, but he straight up missed at the first jump and we kinda clobbered and careened through it. 

And oh my goodness, he was SO MAD lol! But... Sorry buddy, can't blame that one on me! He nailed the 4 next time, tho, and again once we put the whole course together (in the video below).

"that was very fluid, except for that last step...." - runner up* for the understatement of the year from Trainer P lol (*second only to "It is what it is")

Honestly, tho, it was a pretty simple ride. All the jumps were right around the 2'-2'6 range and we trotted into everything except the final course, and mostly did the steady add strides. Altho haha -- you can see in the image above there were probably a couple places where a bigger stride would have done better LOL.... Whoops.... 

For real tho, obvi that still image above is pretty awkward, but.... it really doesn't look like much in the video. And was also kinda our only real oopsie (aside from the one calamitous bounce attempt). 

charlie is such a tank haha

I was really pleased that Charlie just came out and executed everything very easily. He felt almost like a lazy school master haha. Bounces, angled fences, related distances, lead changes.... It's all old hat for him at this point. 

omg guys there's video!!

He feels like he knows exactly what we're doing. And like.... The one line where we got pretty close to the final jump (that awkward shot above), the next line through Charlie really picked up to do the more forward step -- and then absolutely nailed his final lead change going into the slippery mud-slick corner (where I was sure we'd either get the change or probably die haha). 

So, ya know, it was nice that he got the change LOL! And also nice that he was able to adjust into that more forward canter we worked on all last year (turns out, tho, I still have to ask for it haha)...

he looks happy to be at it again, no?

Another huge benefit of riding in a group is that it's much easier to get video lol. I haven't had any jumping footage since our disastrous last show attempt where.... Well, Charlie was an entirely different creature on that particular day. So ya know. Always grateful to have that video to help connect what I'm feeling with what it looks like. 

All in all, it was great getting to ride around with my friends in a lesson again -- and I think Charlie enjoyed it too... Anyone else prefer riding with groups vs alone? Or does it depend on what you're doing -- like dressage vs jumping, etc?