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!