loch moy PYT / blue ribbon rounds

So! Last we heard, Doozy and I would be embarking on more “bite-sized” adventures, with the simple goals of:

1) Get out and do the things I love doing! But,

2) In such a way as to help Doozy be a little more successful.

At the end of the day, whether you view it as drawing the ‘short stick’ or a ‘winning ticket,’ Doozy’s lot in life is with me. So. We persist lol.

the weird semi-feral barn cats stalked around wondering what i was doing at the barn so early lol

I opted to somewhat impulsively sign up for another one of those “Pick Your Test / Blue Ribbon Jumpers” days at Loch Moy. Recall we went to one of these last September in advance of our little Fall season, wherein Doozy scored a 42% in dressage and had two rails in the 18” class. Well. Two rails and also remember those weird kinda stuck moments she had mid course? 

Anyway, tho, that had been a great day for us to just get out and go through the motions at a big venue but without the BIG atmosphere. And this weekend proved to be more of the same! Sure, there were probably somewhere between 60-80 horses onsite by the time we left, but with our early times (by design!) we were just the third trailer to arrive and shared the giant warm up with maybe 3-4 horses.

my unsuspecting victim, enjoying the good grass from all the rain this spring!

AND! I asked new local 5* trainer to meet us there for basically a glorified lesson in warm up for dressage. A couple benefits from this: 

- Coaching might realistically prevent me from sliding into survival mode, while also keeping me more effective and timely in my approach and application.

- Also, it’d be a good opportunity for her to see what changes vs what stays the same for us in a show environment. 

finally replaced the little pop-in fender lights on my trailer! it felt so naked before lol

Realistically, Doozy is a funny horse to coach, I’m convinced of it. She’s hot and WILD, sparks fly, she whistles and sizzles throughout any given ride when pressure is applied. But — of critical importance — beneath all that is a very good girl who is trying to listen, trying to color inside the lines, and who has never yet pulled a single dirty or disingenuous move.

For as much as I call her a crazy pants psycho… She is NOT mean, and NOT disinclined to… do the things, per se. She just… wants to do everything as fast as possible lol, nbd.

waiting for woodge in the drizzle
(i feel like that sounds like some sort of weird slang phrase my 13yo nephew would say LOL)

She’s a very smart horse, with a very amateur trainer. And as such, she’s maybe kinda learning the rules in a more disjointed manner than is ideal. In dressage, she doesn’t try to leave the ring, she lets me steer her. Goes through the pattern etc. Just ya know. Seems to want to canter the whole thing lol. Almost as if she thinks she can win by getting through it fastest lol.

dressage video: hilariously (and accurately) complete with real time coaching commentary for all of our reviewing pleasure 

(and no, i wasn’t wearing ear buds, it was just for future study purposes lol)

This test was far from our best, and not quite as good as our warm up. Tho, the warm up itself wasn’t our best either. But also far from our worst. It’s all about perspective, y’all. Media is super limited, tho, so I’m plopping the video up first bc we got bare bones from show jumping. 

So go ahead and watch, and draw your own conclusions, and also maybe have a giggle or two at the video commentary — which basically is exactly how the lessons go. 

pictured: a rare shot of us *NOT* cantering during our test

Right off the bat in our warm up, I was relieved that the new trainer’s approach was basically that — this is NOT training at home. We ARE at a show, and there IS a clock ticking. So we need to help the horse be ready for that moment, vs taking however long we’d need to achieve the best results in training. 

I think there’s still room to optimize the approach to prioritize relaxation… But let’s be real, that’s the holy grail today, tomorrow, next week, next year, forever with this mare. She was not relaxed in the warm up, but we did have a few really solid moments, it got better as we went, and the coaching helped me figure out some better techniques for physically guiding Doozy into balance vs just spooling out. 

ok at least we are cantering on purpose here

For me, the most exciting bit was that there was not a *single* little explosion or dance move — the entire day. No running and leaping, no fireworks, and also none of those weird “stuck” moments. Just run of the mill… tension. Still gonna call that progress!

Doozy definitely got a bit away from me in the test itself, and slipped into unintentional canter at least 2-3 times. Then, somewhat hilariously, almost missed our first proper canter depart, on her good lead at that LOL. We got it tho, just in time. 

Down transitions were, uh, slow to develop — at one point we literally went nearly from canter to free walk, tho natch in free walk I always try to make it a big point to chuck the reins at the mare like, “Look I swear! I can let go, she can walk” lol.

the real-time coaching voice over in the video is priceless, not gonna lie

But anyway. It was a test. We got it done. Doozy wasn’t relaxed, but was maybe better than at St Augustine? Idk. We actually talked about whether I should be doing multiple tests in a row on a day like this, but she wasn’t sure… This is kinda just how Doozy goes right now, it’s not going to be better inside the boards than out. Doing a bunch of tests in a row could be likelier to mentally blitz the horse than anything else. Instead, she agreed with the frequent ‘bite-sized’ outings approach for now.

cantering on purpose again! hilarious in the video when she’s like, “oh that was an ok transition! don’t get too excited tho!” lololololol

So. Anyway. The test was done. And for once I gave it the proper attention, preparation and coaching it deserved. Not that it made a difference necessarily in the day itself, but perhaps will serve us better in the future. 

Next up: show jumping! We had about an hour’s wait before our height class went, so we just chilled out at the trailer — plus got to meet up with frequent volunteer and local reader Meredith, who has made various appearances over the years and had an absolutely ADORABLE palomino in the same jumping block. Spoiler for them — they had a great round and it was fun to watch!

mare goes from 60-0 in 3.2sec. just don’t try for like, 60 to 45 — that’s impossible

Y’all might remember last year when I went to this event, I didn’t feel like waiting around for the 2’3 class so we just sidled over to the 18”, got our round done (with two rails and those weird stuck moments) and went home. 

The way this event works is that they schedule time blocks for each height, with a fixed number of entries for each block. Riders are expected to arrive during their jump times, and obvi the whole thing is pretty casual and flexible (as evidenced by me just jumping in the earlier block last time). This time, tho, I was determined to be more patient and see the plan through. 

So we arrived just in time for the last few rounds of the earlier class before they reset the height. This was a nice opportunity for Doozy to just chill in the environment, even as the atmosphere increased around her with more horses arriving and beginning their warm ups. 

“not the worst halt”

Then, when I felt like it was time to start moving and the ring traffic level was favorable, we set off for our warm up. It also wasn’t perfect — but wasn’t far from our ‘normal good,’ tbh. Sure we were fast and rushing at times, but there was none of the inverted bolting to a deer leap like we had at St Augustine. Each warm up jump came up decently. So off we went for our full course!

I had walked the course upon first arriving and decided it was favorable for Doozy. Long bending lines, interesting short turns that weren’t hard but would keep us occupied, and plenty of room to just get out of Doozy’s face and let her find her balance.

helmet cam of our sj round. wasn’t perfect… but WAS completely devoid of the psycho crazy pants deer leaping we experienced at both SAPC + Thornridge. woot woot!

And that’s basically how it rode! I made a couple oopsies along the way — kinda needed too strong of a “whoa!” to jump 2 and got a scrubby distance as a result, tho she jumped it fine. An improvement would have been to use more bend instead of pulling to avoid shortening the neck so much. 

I was also too ambitious in the long straight line from 3-4 after watching Martin Douzant take some giant gorgeous floaty WB thing down in eight strides… We ended up with a flat puke-y 8.5, whoops, I should have just asked her to wait more. 

But, after that, it more or less kinda flowed together. And we had an interesting feeling — esp to jump 7 — where in the last few strides to each fence I actually did feel like I could soften a bit without Doozy accelerating past her distance. Good girl, that’s the feeling we’re after!

“did i win????” — Ms Mondeuse

And holy mother of god — we JUMPED CLEAR!! And not for lack of trying, LOL, we rattled at least half the poles on our way around omg haha. But these are ‘blue ribbon rounds,’ so clear rounds get a blue ribbon. Something we only seem to get in this type class or when we are the only entrant… Ha, haha… But we’ll take it!

just kidding, don’t get too excited y’all — that 4th place ribbon is for our dressage test, scored using the Danish method, if that helps, uh, contextualize. and the blue ribbon was because i’m pretty sure they super-glued the poles into the cups for our jumping round, there is no other explanation for how we got a clear round LOL!

So, overall, a good day with what were hopefully more positive and additive experiences. And all wrapped up and ready to go home by 11am — who doesn’t love that?

Not gonna lie. I’m much happier to write about opportunities for improving overall performance in our outings, vs writing about only barely managing to get through it at all — as in our last couple events. And obvi, much MUCH happier to be at events at all, compared to this past winter of NQRness. 

Here’s hoping for more (and better) to keep coming lol.

trailer talk

Learning to pull a truck and trailer was honestly revolutionary for me. Like, kinda blew my mind that… I was *even allowed* to do this thing. Keep in mind, I grew up as (and remain) a city dweller with efficient little sedans etc. that were easy to parallel park. 

recent representative photo of “Mare At Trailer”

My first horse trailer experiences involved big 6 horse goose necks at the local hunter barn where I rode in college. Complete with saintly lesson ponies and side ramps, natch. 

Everything changed, however, when it dawned on me that — actually — *I* could have a rig of my very own. On the strength of a sentimentally important, but long delayed, inheritance of a whopping $6K, I embarked on procuring the means with which to tow my (leased — hai Isabel!) pony around town! 

for the uninitiated: link to youtube here

Which, naturally, was followed up with the realization that… I knew absolute fuck all about aiding and abetting said pony’s transition *into* said rig. 

And thus, my first lesson in trailer loading, courtesy of a local horsemanship pro that I’ve brought in time and time again with every horse since. His methods are simple, elegant and horse friendly, and I’ll forever be proud of that video above demonstrating two confident horses.

the current chariot itself, at the last barn

Because that’s the ideal, right? A horse that can be sent effortlessly into the trailer by somebody on the ground, without requiring said somebody to actually go with the horse into that vulnerably confined space. Isabel achieved self-loading prowess, and actually eventually so did Charlie too. 

Charlie was a little funny at first, tho bc… Well. He was straight up too big (in every dimension but particularly nose to tail length) for my first trailer, a step-up bumper pull stock trailer. I ended up buying him this current chariot, specifically to fit his dimensions. And even then, he’d still get halfway up the ramp and kinda sputter out. 

doozy’s first time aboard, circa 2023

Fun fact: I sorta sheepishly admitted to my chiro / acupuncturist that I’d been using feed buckets to assist with the trailer loading training for Charlie — but that our progress had stalled since he could reach the bucket without getting all the way on. 

I expected her to chastise me for relying on food vs pure responsiveness to the aids… but instead, she just sorta gave me this dumbfounded look and said, “Emma, just hang the bucket farther back.”

still fine tuning the details with Early Charles

In other words, basically, if the method is working, make the method work for you. Which… was yet another iteration (one of MILLIONS for the average horse person) of learning that… there are so so so SO many “right” way to get a thing done, and honestly not all that many “wrong” ways. 

another early ride, this time on the correct side for single horse transport

Thus, over time, I’ve slowly become a little bit less of a “purist” while still trying to hold true to those horsemanship principles first instilled with Isabel.

Doozy is a fairly straight forward horse to load — especially with two people. With one person, she had become (and is hopefully returning toward) reliable at just walking with me into the trailer, with me staying at her shoulder and then ducking under the chest barn to pop out the side to fix the butt bar and close the ramp.

preparations on the day of  “Doozy’s first time,”
with bonus Goose The Pig cameo

It’s not my ideal method, but it seemed to work. Since Thornridge, however, when the mare was in full meltdown mode, it’s been a little bumpier. 

Truthfully, I didn’t even TRY to load the mare by myself that day to go home. There was a large and capable looking gentleman at the trailer next door, and I put my ego aside and enlisted his help. Natch, with that gentle but strong presence behind her, Doozy did what she always did and walked right on. 

many months actual years now later, still #snackin

Since then, tho, well. I’ve been mostly alone. And have had to really be disciplined in sticking to the horsemanship principles lest I end up in a Battle Of The Wills with a red mare. 

Rule #1: No eye contact, for the love of god. 

Rule The Second: Be Thee Disciplined in The Timing of Thouest Release. Aka. Ask or do not ask. Accept a positive response, and accept not a negative. 

Most Next Importantest: If the horse wants to sniff / investigate / otherwise interact with the interior of her chariot prior to embarking — cool! allow it! Attention straying toward externalities is cause for reinforcing the initial ask. 

Fourth: Don’t be afraid to back up, reset, reapproach. 

the tuna can and doozy’s future are uniquely intertwined, it turns out!

And ya know. Super secret Rule #5 — take advantage of extra help when available. Sure, it’s cool to be able to git‘r done solo… But in the long run, it’s so much better for the horse to just have easy drama-free streamlined experiences. 

So ya know. That’s my personal gospel of loading horses. Subject to change at any time, obviously. And also recognizing that… Just bc my slice of horsey experiences has been somewhat reliable and consistent, doesn’t rule out that I’ve also just kinda been lucky. I KNOW some horses can… Just be challenging. Especially if they’ve been through strongly negative experiences. 

Curious, with that in mind, if there are any other rules or ‘best practices’ you’d add to the list. Or maybe there are particular quirks you’ve had to learn to work around?

summer fun

Ya know. There are a LOT of reasons why I still keep this blog active. 

Number 1: it’s glorified storage for all my photos and videos, with easy-to-search index and archive. 

Number 2: I’ve always been into journaling and documenting all the memories, adventures, and travels, however humble they may be.

and just like that, summer is HERE

But Number 3 is maybe the real unsung hero: it serves as a (relatively) accurate and faithful record of my general emotional state about all the above. 

And that’s…. important…. bc to be totally honest with you, virtually ALL of my general anxieties, neuroses and various personality quirks charms have almost nothing to do with whatever horse I’m riding (successfully or otherwise) and **everything** to do with just…. Who I am as a person.

look who regained tying privileges at the trailer!!

So after a schooling outing like our trip to Shawan last week, when it might have been easy to feel anxious about an apparent lack of progress, or frustrated with myself for not being better or whatever… Well. It takes no time at all to look back at last year’s post about the same outing — reviewing the footage, objectively assessing the Doozy of then to the Doozy of today. 

Or, to take it a step further, it’s just as easy to go back to outings with Charlie where we were quite easily bopping around N stuff with the occasional T jump thrown in. And. Go figure, my attitudes and anxieties and neuroses are almost always exactly the same lol. 

good girl, Dooz. just behave pls!

Which I’m choosing to see as… a good thing LOL. At least when it comes to feeling satisfaction and fulfillment with this particular chapter in the journey with Ms. Mondeuse. It’s not that we actually suck, it’s just that I’m generally inclined to believe so! 

Which, fortunately, is a mental habit I can sorta ‘name+shame’ and put out of mind while I go out and enjoy myself on more horsey adventures lol.

getting back aboard the cross tie train too…. i just wish the ceilings were a little lot higher in these grooming bays!

Like this week! When we went back to another lesson on remedial trotting (and sometimes remedial walking, and occasionally a little canter too!) with new local 5* coach. 

As much as I wish we’d get around to doing some jumping in these lessons, and as firmly as I believe the coach might be a little more inclined to think Doozy CAN be civilized if she sees us doing more than just flat work.. Well. Let’s be real, there’s plenty of work to be done on the fundamentals. So we persist. 

photos not from our lesson, but more or less maybe representative. a barn mate snagged some random footage from our ride the other night <3 <3

Right now we’re basically entirely focused on establishing key rules of the ride: 

1) I have to get my legs onto the horse right away, and keep them on — even and especially when Doozy might have unfavorable opinions. 

2) Shoulder control. Forever. Proactively, and responsive to Doozy’s tendencies to fall in or out relative to wherever the gate is. 

3) True bend. Not just the neck. And not always to the inside, maybe a little counter bend here and there to spice things up. But bend. In response to the aids. 

PROOF that she CAN trot poles haha

Woodge’s philosophy and approach to the training is, in some ways, very similar to my coach of a decade ago, Dan: She believes that establishing and maintaining these rules gets harder with increased speed, and that if we’re having trouble with any of it, to slow down and reorganize again at a lower gait. 

nbd just trying to figure out how to walk and chew gum at the same time…
(me, not the mare)

And in this manner, we essentially did a lesson of transitions. Which, frankly, is very different from my standard sort of ‘ride package,’ which any of you who watched any of those wall-mounted camera videos from this winter will know: I kinda tend to just get into gear and trot around continuously for 4-5 minutes at a time. 

Woodge didn’t necessarily think that was a bad or wrong thing… But she’s not sure it’s really helping me achieve what I want in Doozy’s responsiveness to the aids. Especially if I’m letting her kinda just blow me off (aka ‘settle onto the aids’) for the first few minutes. 

omg doozy it’s reeeeeeally not that exciting girlfriend!

She doesn’t think every single ride needs to be a military drill on precision and promptness or whatever… But, she also thinks that practicing these fundamentals is likelier to get us more bang for our buck at this moment in our journey. 

The lesson was almost entirely focused on small circles — occasionally yielding in or out, not a true spiral but just little feelings of it here and there — with relatively frequent changes of direction. Sometimes by traveling over a line of trot poles in the center of our figure of 8, sometimes not. And when Doozy had trouble with rushing the poles, nbd, just walk before we get to them, pass through, then trot again.

this is why we get demerits in our actual lessons, whoops

In a way, the ride reminded me a fair amount of allllll those ground pole sessions we did last summer. Remember the endless pictures of arrays of ground poles and little X’s with poles on takeoff and landing? And remember how we just rinsed and repeated again and again until it was boring? 

Yea, this ride was in some ways a lot like that. Which was a maybe timely reminder that… Ya know. Maybe I should do more of that again in my rides at home LOL. Hey, it’s worked for us before, right??

houston, we have achieved full** cross ties!!
(**post-ride (when tensions are lower) and still not in The Bay Where it Happened)

Anyway. Lessons like this can feel tedious and tiring and like we don’t have much to show for it… Except honestly I’m *HERE* for it. Doozy can be such a good girl, she WANTS to color inside the lines. The more clear and consistent and disciplined I can be with myself and my approach, the better she will go. 

It’s like how lessons with Dan ten years ago were frequently tagged with my “fail” label lol bc they often felt messy and hard. But that was literally by design, literally the point: these training sessions are supposed to expose the weak spots so that we can work on them, ya know?

perks of frequent volunteerism: at least my ill-conceived plans don’t always have to cost a lot!

And anyway, Doozy proved (yet again) that she benefits from consistent clear direction when she finally just walked onto the trailer like her normal easy self after the lesson, for the first time since our meltdown at Thornridge. 

Not that she’s been bad since then, per se. Obvi, if I’m still able to ship out on schedule and by myself lol… But she has recently required a little more convincing than previously, in a way I don’t love. But after this ride she was completely perfect and just walked right on, good girl!

So ya know. Cool. I can work with those parameters. Hopefully still with the context of getting out and about for fun adventures — of the more ‘bite sized’ variety. Next up: a suuuuuuuper low key trip to Loch Moy this weekend for another one of those “pick your test / clear rounds jumpers” days like we did last summer. This time maybe with some coaching, woohoo! And all for the bargain price of <$20 bc Loch Moy treats their volunteers like royalty. Yes Pls!

Whatever it takes, amirite? 

shawanderful stuff

Happy Friday, y’all. I’m a little late getting this out bc we ended up somewhat impulsively deciding to go school at Shawan yesterday and I was too worn out after to sit down and write anything about it lol… c’est la vie, but I’ll at least get this out before the weekend!

the look of eagles pigeons, from the mare who i am still not quite trusting to tie at the moment….

It’s been a bit of a bumpy season with Doozy, as you are all aware. We seem to have gotten her more reliably comfortable and sound again with some relatively modest tweaks (yay!) but I’m maybe still realizing that… I can’t just pick up where we left off before the winter. 

started the ride with a hack out to the back field + water. brave biscuit went right in!

She’s just not that kind of horse, it turns out lol. Who woulda thunk. But I am who I am, and going out on little horsey adventures — like to Thornridge or the starter trial at St Augustine, ill advised tho both may have been — is a key component to how I derive satisfaction and fulfillment from my horse habit. 

the banks were technically closed (note the white stake) but we played with the edges anyway

So we persist. Tho, hopefully, I’m also wising up a little bit about my expectations. Persist? Yes. But… Maybe start a little smaller LOL. Rather than going straight into another horse trial, MCTA’s Jenny Camp (a beloved event near and dear to my heart, which pains me to miss riding in it…) I opted to settle for just an xc schooling outing instead.

what goes up must come down!

It was supposed to be in a lesson with new local 5* trainer before she left for Bromont, but alas Doozy lost a shoe. Horses, amirite? And then she ended up being kinda a spaz in our rides this week anyway. Which… again, is kinda maybe more a function of me having unrealistic expectations vs the horse being anything other than who she is as a person.

and a trip or two over the fake ditch to round out the ‘holy trinity’ of bebe cross country

With all the prep leading up to and then holding MCTA’s recognized event last week, and then Doozy’s lost shoe, she had about 5 or 6 days straight out of work, and had only been ridden twice before that since the flubbed outing at St Augustine. It should not be a surprise to me that this is not ideal for facilitating a cool calm collected Doozy.

then it was time for warming up over actual little jumps

But ya know. I’m human and I’m not immune from frustration and self pity. I actually ended our ride the night before we were supposed to go schooling somewhat abruptly bc… I was too frustrated with Doozy’s inability to just… trot a circle (good lord are we really back here again?) and threw in the towel, deciding along the way to scrap our schooling plans.

we sessioned over these first two options a few times just to get comfortable and set some ground rules

Fortunately, tho, cooler minds prevailed later that night. Realistically, if Doozy is going to be successful as my riding partner, I need to… get out and ride her. It’s hard, she’s challenging for me, and a lot of the tools and approaches I learned from Charlie need, uh, ahem, **significant recalibration** for Doozy. 

then embarked on our first little loop around the back end of the course!

But… If I don’t at least try to get out and do it, it just ain’t gonna get done, amirite? And I’m still banking pretty heavily (realistically or otherwise) that we learned from last year that Doozy does get better with consistent experiences. So. I sucked it up and shoved the mare onto the trailer for our little solo outing, arriving early enough to basically get the whole of Shawan Downs to ourselves.*

(*Plus obvi the schooling stewards who were aware of my location and armed with emergency contacts as needed. #safety, yo!)

jumping up and down hill ermagerd

And it was amazing! Spectacular! We jumped giant jumps and she was perfect!!!

Ha. Haha. Just kidding. It was good, tho, an important outing and I’m glad we did it. 

not sure i love how i placed this bench lol, but doozy jumped it huge!

It started off maybe not super auspiciously with Doozy really wanting to jig around and bolt hither and yon (where to? nobody knows!). And I was not entirely committed to even really doing any jumping at all if I couldn’t get her to jump in a nice balance and shape (compared to say, the inverted uncomfortable deer hops she sometimes reverts to when super tense). 

after a little breather, we picked up again for a more proper go at the front half of the circuit (starting obvi with the finish line, as one does)

But I kept new trainer’s advice circling around in my head about making each exercise take the time it needs, and not just trying to rush through and ‘get it done,’ as is my habit when I’m feeling unsure. We hacked around for a bit before playing with low/no height activities like the water, baby banks and fake ditch, all of which Doozy was brilliant for, then got to work.

then cruised from the finish line to the start line, past the box and over the itsy log at 1

We did a few circuits over a very small jump, including circling around it when I couldn’t get Doozy straight or in front of the leg or what have you, just patiently waiting her out, then jumping the jump, and then right back to the flat work again. 

past the scary timber fences to #2

After we got that a little more smooth, we rinse-repeated with the next little jump. Cycling around over it until it was boring(ish) and decently consistent in the approach. 

went screeeeeaming down the hill before turning to 3

Doozy really hates when I make her trot everything, especially when she’s this tense… But unfortunately I don’t love the idea of her calling the shots about speed when she’s being a little crazy pants so…. Sorry, mare, you have to play by my rules first before you’re allowed to canter fences.

cruised in a lovely forward balance to 4

That having been achieved, tho, then I was finally able to let her travel a little more forward and canter two little mini course loops, yay! The first was still a little tentative — we just did a loop around the back half of the course, starting with trotting (and circling as needed) and finishing with a lovely big effort over the bench before cantering through the water again - good girl!

easy hop over 5, then finished!

Then one last more ‘proper’ run through the course, this time catching everything in the front field — starting with the finish line, then traveling directly back to the start and catching the first 5 jumps on course in a lovely nice loop, for which Doozy was (finally) perfect(enough).

shorter (ish) video of the two loops of course work

skip to 2:36 if you just wanna see where we pick up for the final loop

full helmet cam video (trimmed of walk breaks etc) that shows our warm up and early practice too

On one hand, sure these are the same jumps we jumped this time last year… But on the other hand, I pretty strongly believe that while Doozy was ready for more of a challenge last fall, and will be again soon, we have to get this fizziness a bit more under control first. I’m trying to avoid that ‘frantic’ feeling, ya know?  And just reestablish that she knows how to do this, it’s not that hard, and the rules are simple and don’t change.

it’s not always easy, but feels worth doing

I’m also somewhat impressed with myself bc at least based on the videos, I sound WAY more positive and patient than I actually felt. It felt like I was riding super tightly and strongly on the mare… Which, well, it feels like she needs at the moment. And real talk. These were Doozy’s first xc jumps since December. It really has been that long, and it’s just gonna take some practice to bounce back again.

all in a day’s work!

But ya know. We got it done. And for that, I’m grateful. It wasn’t perfect, but it was actually a lot better than I expected. And overall I think a valuable experience for both of us. Certainly more valuable than not going at all. 

Which is perhaps my greatest takeaway of all. It’s not gonna go the way I want it to go for me and Doozy if I don’t get out there and try. And for now, maybe breaking things down into smaller, more bite-sized components (vs a full three phase event) is a safer space for us to get those positive experiences. 

We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll spend the weekend volunteering at Jenny Camp instead of competing, and continuing to just keep chippin’ away at things with Doozy! TGIF, y’all!