taking a page out of Ryan's book

Happy Hump Day, everybody! I don't usually write much about our day to day schooling sessions any more bc.... At a certain point, it kinda feels like I've already written everything there is to say, ya know? 

It's not like back when Charlie was all shiny and new (well, ok he's still shiny) and everything we did was like some big exciting milestone...

FINALLY getting more rain! which means more rainbows, yay!

And especially since we backed off trying to move up, it's really just a sort of steady cadence of doing what needs done to keep Charlie feeling fresh: Keep us active, keep the joints articulating, and keep *me* calm by making everything feeling nice and familiar and routine. 

new book! with excellent table of contents organized first by style of exercise, then by exercise author

But! Lest that sound terribly boring... Well, it isn't. This -- to me -- is the stuff. It's the WHY behind my habit. Like, yea I like having stuff on the calendar to create more scaffolding and structure around that week-in, week-out cadence... But I do truly enjoy the process itself. 

PLUS! Back when Charlie first got injured, an exciting new book arrived in the mail -- Margaret Rizzo McKelvy's Grid Pro Quo, a slam dunk compilation of bite-sized exercises from a whole slew of eventing's most talented riders and trainers. Each exercise is complete with two type written pages from the expert on what the exercise is good for, and how to approach and scale it for riders / horses of different training levels. Plus the normal diagrams etc. 

not gonna lie -- i specifically wanted to start with something pretty simple

Now that Charlie is back in work (and I have something on the calendar that's making me feel a certain kind of way, if you know what I mean), I figured it'd be a good time to put the book to use! 

Our test subjects for the ride included Charlie, obvi, but also friends Megan and Royal, and Katie and Avi -- all of whom should be at least passingly familiar for anybody whose been around much this past year. And our test exercise was chosen specifically for it's simplicity: a line of 4 ground poles, spaced 18'-21' apart, with guide rails making a "chute" at either end.

what you see ahead of us is mirrored behind us too. also, good lord our jump arena still has not recovered from the covid lockdowns...

Instructions indicated that horses schooled to 3' plus could work over the shorter distances (18' between poles), whereas greener horses should get a longer distance (21'). For my purposes tho.... Charlie actually has a TON of experience working over compressed distances -- but we have a real weakness with staying balanced and organized as his stride gets longer. 

charlie likes growing things tho <3

So we decided to use the 21' distance (which is about 7 of my "big" course walking steps), and I'm actually pretty glad we did. 

It proved to be a really comfortable trotting distance -- each horse, regardless of training level, got nicely even trot steps between the poles without a lot of tripping or knocking rails. And yet the line was long enough to really encourage them to hold a nice posture and balance the whole way thru. In other words, poles far enough apart to not create rushing or frantic steps -- but close enough and regular enough to influence the horse's self carriage. Bingo.

unrelated pic from hangin out at the hunter pace a couple weeks ago, with OMG PUNKY!!

Canter was a little trickier. Not gonna lie, 21' for ground poles is kinda a long distance. And to be honest, the instructions did call for making the poles into cavaletti vs zero height. But again, for my selfish purposes, I found it quite enlightening. 

punky hasn't really been out and about for around a year at this point tho, and was.... ehhh a little wild. plus he couldn't wouldn't tolerate being anywhere but in front, which meant he set the pace. a very very fast pace. look at Charlie at the finish tho, he obvi loved it lol
"Did we win?? Can we go again????" -- Charlie

Our first trip or two off each lead felt like we were reaching and getting a bit flat to the poles. Then we went too far in the other direction and got a little too fast (but still flat). Then I tried to add a little more "sit" and "collection" (ish) to that more gallopy stride, and ended up taking too much away again, especially tracking L vs tracking R (L being our weaker lead, generally). 

back to more civilized places.... this pic was from our first proper jump school back (last weekend, prior to the ground poles session of this post). it ended up being a really solid school, but our first couple jumps had those sorta not-forward-thinking moments of hesitation at the base of a jump that i HATE, thus creating the inspiration for grid / gymnastic style ground poles

Which, ya know, was really cool to feel all that. Each trip through the line kinda gave me new and interesting impressions. Like when I'd have to goose the horse by the end to just reach the last pole. Or when I could feel myself curling or dropping my hands when we were too fast. 

lots of nice open lines for the add or the step -- with a variety of oxer to vertical (as above, ridden toward the camera) or vertical to oxer (as below, ridden away from camera ((tho technically could have gone both ways with the swedish except i only had ground lines in one direction, and emma is very attached to her ground lines, kthxbai))

It was also really cool to feel the influence the exercise had on Charlie. We've known from his very earliest days with me that.... Charlie much prefers to learn his lessons from actual physical exercises like ground poles. Adding a ground pole to the mix changes the conversation from "emma nags charlie for more forward" to "wow there it is let's go there!" 

possibly the most aggressive line of the bunch, set on a proper 3 strides and set to full N height. obvi charlie was aces

After kinda trying to find the right balance of getting to the poles on that forward (but uphill!) stride --- meaning, in other words, still ride the horse, emma! --- we went back to trot for another trip. 

And OMG this horse was strutting. In the hackamore, completely round, in the bridle, big bouncing steps with absolutely distinct moments of suspension... And not even approaching the exercise yet --- just motoring down the long side, trotting like the spanish stallion he thinks he is. 

final post script: there's just a tiny wound left from the skin flap. otherwise we're basically all cleared up!

Which, naturally, the first time doing that I was too giddy with the trot to do my own job, and he ended up losing the power out the front, fell into canter by the 3rd pole, and then almost face planted in the corner.... whooops, my bad, Charlie! 

We did it again, tho, then halted straight in the corner after the line, then stepped into canter -- cantered the line foot-perfect. Changed directions. Trotted the line again, (did my job while we were at it), halt, step into canter, once more through the line, and boom, complete. 

Now. It is entirely possible that after this school that got Charlie so sharp and forward thinking.... Ehhhh I *might* get a bit run away with in our next jump school. Idk. We will see. But that's the pendulum swinging, right? We can be sluggish and weak, or we can be wild and gung ho. 

Mayyyybe there's a middle ground in there somewhere... But, eh, maybe not LOL. 

In the meantime, I hope to test out more exercises from this book. Presumably some of them will focus on control and accuracy, others on sharpness and forward reliability. Some will call for height, others for turning, etc etc etc. Is that something of interest to any of you? Or maybe you have your own go-to setups that you know get your horse tuned exactly the way you like?