lessons gypsy-style

We had our second lesson with our new trainer-on-trial this weekend, and this time there's MEDIA OMG --- bc yay, I was able to convince a barn mate to come along with me!! 

two intrepid TBs awaiting their chariot!

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Charlie is a much happier horse when he has company on the trailer. He's always a good boy, sure, but the difference in his demeanor is pretty apparent. So.... A big piece of the puzzle in testing out new coaches is that.... the new program has to work for my riding friends too. 

charlie was so happy to have a fren!! obvi me too ;) 

Luckily -- all of my riding buddies have therefore become quite accustomed to the gypsy style of lesson taking haha. All our horses travel well and are aces around the trailer, and have exactly zero problems going from unloading at a new facility, to speed tacking, to starting the lesson in about 15min flat. 

jumpin my big pony over tiny jumps in bad lighting. YUP, it must be winter!! lol

Of course, it helps when the venue du jour is Oldfields School, lol. This indoor might actually be one of my favorites -- mostly bc it's just so wide, wow. Plus so bright and airy, with lovely footing. 

I guess the program directors there must be pretty easy to work with, too, since tons of people rent the indoor out. You might remember I rode here with Sally back in 2019, and then again in pre-covid 2020 at a jumper show when I was working hard on the 3'3 move up.... Gosh what a lifetime ago lol.

sliiiiightly different configuration from the last time we saw this jump.... 

And I'm not gonna lie, looking back at those posts from 2019 and 2020, where we were legit competing at 3'3...., compared to this lesson where we dinked around fences that were mayyybe 2'3.... It would be easy to feel frustrated. 

evidence of details that need fixing: charlie really REALLY believed we'd turn left here, even kept his left lead for it too (almost always lands right). sorry buddy, that was my bad! 

But.... I don't feel frustrated. Honestly. Charlie and I have been doing our homework on the flat and I see big differences in how we go now compared to, say, that jumper round from 2020. 

I also know that we'll jump that height again. Maybe even sooner than I think. But... height just isn't our priority right now. We've been blasting around enjoying ourselves at 2'11 all year, without a whole heckuva lot of accountability about the details. 

he recovered fine for the tight rollback tho, good boy!

It's time to get serious about the details, again, tho. Time to get more consistent about practice. And.... Actually, rather than frustrated, I feel pretty optimistic. Honestly! 

actually, lots and lots of fun turns in this ride! 

This new trainer-on-trial is still very much getting a feel for us. This was legit her second time seeing us go, ya know? Time will tell where things lead, but my impression is that I like her vision for how she wants us to go.

such a good boy even when i get him so close <3

If you're curious about what I mean there, definitely watch the video bc it's pretty easy to hear her instruction as we go around. 

Basically, tho, she's not really asking for anything new or ground breaking -- but maybe she's describing it in a way that works for me. She basically wants us to have a nice shape as we go around -- contact into the bridle, hind legs up underneath the horse. A shorter frame from nose to tail, but with lots of energy. 

well done, buddy, that's the outline we're lookin for! 

And this is a way of going that I think works really well for Charlie. The difficulty is that it's a very very fine line between thinking about riding him "shorter from nose to tail," and letting him slip behind my leg. You can see a couple places in the video too where I let that happen too. 

So that's where we need the more "bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, energy into the bridle" feeling that she she keeps coaching us on. 

video of our last little course here

A couple details really stuck out to me about the ride, too: 

First, I feel like our turns before and after fences are lightyears better than they used to be --- 100% thanks to our work with Molly. Charlie has so much more education in lifting his inside shoulder and flexing now. In fact you can see a couple places where he ended up misdirecting on landing (ie, he was positive we'd turn the opposite way than I intended) bc I'm still a little ham-fisted in flexion and counter-flexion efforts, while Charlie has (as usual) learned the lesson more quickly and completely than I have, and could therefore take a more subtle aid. 

you're a good boy, sir

Second, and possibly most telling -- Charlie did all his auto-changes for me by the end of the ride, off both leads. That isn't exactly super unusual. But... Normally it tends to happen simultaneously with Charlie getting really strong as we roll along, when I start to get more run away with and sloppy in our corners. 

In this ride, Charlie stayed rideable, stayed flexing for me, but because he had all his feet right under him, the changes were still right there. I like it! 

So. It was a good lesson. I'm pretty happy about it. Megan and Royal had fun too, I think. So we'll keep rolling with it, see where this path leads lol.