evening xc school

Sunset arrives earlier and earlier each night, and soon enough it'll be daylight savings time -- wherein we're confined to lighted spaces on weeknight evenings for the foreseeable future. 

But. That's not here yet. And fall *is* my favorite!

cantering this horse around is basically my favorite

The lingering daylight combined with cooler temps and softer ground meant it was primetime last night to get out for an easy breezy romp around our home xc fields with a friend. 

friendly roll top that charlie jumped in his first ever xc school, d'aww memories. i like to think we've come a long way since then, but really it's mostly me who has learned to ride the horse better LOL. he's always been a good boy....

Originally we had thought to maybe ship out somewhere close... But eh, traffic and work and not wanting to rush, etc etc etc, and we decided to just hang out at home. Which proved to be a good call since my friend's horse had actually lost a shoe, whoops. 

gratuitous shots of cantering around bc i wanna -- plus, lol at the peanut gallery of geldings behind us

So we headed out for a relaxing evening stroll around all the xc fields while I eyed up where all the jumps had moved to since we last schooled out here. 

warm up fence #2 -- friendly split rails

Y'all already know I like to keep things surgically efficient with Charlie when schooling at home. He really doesn't need (or want) a lot of repetition.... And he can get a little surly and barn sour if he feels like I'm picking on him. 

slightly larger split rails to get us more to height (ish)

Plus, Charlie has always had a tendency to want to get things right the first time around. Call it anthropomorphizing if you want, but sometimes I think he resents being asked to repeat a task when he's already done it once well. This.... obvi can create challenges when yours truly requires more practice, mileage or repetition lol... 

But, eh. Oh well. I like it when Charlie's happy. Happy Charlie makes for a confident Emma. So we make it work.

can't stop won't stop

And on this ride, I knew we'd likely log a very limited number of efforts. Honestly I expected the number to be in the single digits, but after counting it all up (and including non-height efforts like the ditches), we hit 10 jumps on the dot. Not bad!

charlie's face <3 i think he likes it too!

To be honest, I have a pretty conservative routine. But I like it and it works for us, so it's what I keep going back to. We start with an intro jump or two. Then maybe a BN jump or two. Then a Novice jump. Then hit up some more technical stuff, like the holy trinity of ditches / banks / water. Plus I like to try to get in a related distance if possible. Then finish with something "big."

remember when i fell off at the ditch at fair hill a couple weeks ago? me either

So ya know. That's exactly what we did lol. I'm still trying so so so hard to keep my god forsaken hands forward, as a means to help my whole position commit to a more forward ride. And naturally I continue to always keep a finger looped through the neck strap as a part of that. 

handsome horse in the fading dusk <3

It's helping a lot in our approach and takeoff to fences, and I'm finally feeling more consistent -- esp when it comes to slightly longer takeoff spots. Long time readers might recall I have a very unattractive habit of "clutching my pearls" at gappier jumps.... And I don't even wanna admit how many videos and pictures I've cringed at for that exact reason. 

wheeeeeee banks!!

Finally, tho, I feel like consistent progress is happening. Slowly, so slowly. But ain't that always the way. And, as is also always the way, I'm now developing more new and interesting bad habits. Like, the whole goal here -- the big objective -- is to have independent and following hands. 

Step 1 has been to not impede the horse on takeoff. Step 2, tho, our next frontier, will be to not impede the horse on landing. It's always something lol, and now that something is not keeping my hands so anchored on his neck that they don't allow Charlie to "finish" his jump. Baby steps, yo. 

i didn't tell our videographer that we'd continue to the yellow after the bank, so the clip ends here, tho charlie jumped it beautifully. fun fact -- that yellow roll is just fresh paint on our old green friend from my and Izzy's first ever HT from wayyyyy back in the day <3 <3

Anyway, tho, I was also super proud of Charlie at multiple points in the ride. He's somewhat notoriously drawn as if by magnets toward "home." And, conveniently for him, basically all roads lead home out in our xc fields. There are gates in basically every and any direction that we have used hundreds of times to return to the barn. 

But aside from one little "victory gallop," Charlie never really sped up or tried to pull off our lines. Also, on multiple occasions through the whole ride, he showed a willingness to balance and collect in turns and approaches to fences that practically caught me off guard. In a good way!

obvi every great ride ends with a little scope check lol

Honestly, we all know the old saw about how "dressage helps with the jumping," but I'd like to point out that's not exactly true if you're riding bad dressage LOL. Something has clicked for us this year tho. Sure, I don't ride Charlie very round in our flat work -- but I'm not stuffing him behind my leg anymore either. 

Plus, with the help from our recent Molly Clinic, it feels like I'm really getting the hang of nagging less with my legs -- and, therefore, preserving the meaning of my leg, seat and weight aids when I *do* use them. 

And guys -- Charlie is noticing. I legit think he likes it, and is a happier riding horse for it. Like, even his earliest canters in the video below when we're first just warming up look so good to me. 

quick clips from the ride here

All in all, it felt like a pretty productive ride. A good temperature check. Also a nice reminder that Charlie really doesn't need to jump all height all the time, bc when we're working well together he never blinks when we go immediately from an Intro roll top to the fun N open oxer you see above. He knows his job, he's good at it, and I really think he kinda likes it lol. 

Which.... Are good happy thoughts I'll continue to cycle through my mind again and again bc, um, well this may be tempting the fates, but I did actually send in an entry for a full HT this year. And I really truly believe it might be worth forcing myself through it, even if I kinda get a repeat of the sensations and feelings that made me withdraw at Shawan this past spring. 

So. Lol. Cross your fingers for me, all good juju is appreciated!!