lesson + a little xc

Happy Monday, y’all — hope any US readers enjoyed a long weekend full of fun activities, horsey or otherwise! We managed to pack in all my faves, including a lesson, some xc, and a reunion vineyard trip with former barn mates, all without feeling overbooked or frazzled. It was nice!

somebody, not naming any names, but somebody finally chewed thru her expensive rubber nathe bit…
she’s wearing the level 1 Myler comfort snaffle in this pic, for those curious

At one point in my blogging life, I would have split everything into individual single-topic posts… But. Eh. There isn’t really enough compelling media for that, and plus… I promise, there aren’t really all that many associated words either. 

sorry to only ever really have pics of the horse at the trailer for these lessons… it is what it is!

The lesson was another good productive session that was still more or less ‘remedial trotting.’ Continuing to lean in to the idea of using bend and lateral flexion to achieve the pace I want. Which, apparently, will be our focus for the foreseeable future LOL!

ooh i took a pic of her in the ring tho!

Basically doing our best to always stay on some sort of circle — even if that means sorta spiraling down a long side to get where we wanna go. Changing bend and being more obvious and guiding with opening reins to really make it super clear what I want from Doozy. And being more intentional about truly round circles, not letting Doozy get pancake-y falling in or out on one side of the circle or the other. 

and a little snapshot of our remedial cross rails lol

Woodge was a fan of the new bit, which we wore for the first time in this lesson. She felt like our reasons for going in the nathe these last few months made sense and it was probably an effective ‘era’ for us, but that Doozy is ready for something a little more sophisticated. And that with this bit we could get more lateral bend, compared to the sort of “elevator music” reaction we sometimes got with the nathe. 

post-lesson goofy faces

And Doozy went pretty quietly in it too — none of the rattley jittery bouncing off feeling we got in the KK, which had a bit more play than this comfort snaffle. Even when we got to the jumping, she stayed pretty quiet in her mouth didn’t throw her ears into my face any more than usual (lol). 

 

another day, another set of gymnasties. this time bounces at home!

The jumping itself was good too, tho still in what I’d consider “remedial” territory. We just focused on trotting a single cross rail with placing poles, halting after. Circling off each rein until quiet and balanced with correct bend, then approaching with a careful focus on straightness. 

A big focus this ride was letting Doozy travel more forward in trot vs holding her back on that itty bitty little restrained trot that kinda gives her no choice but to explode at the jump. But… It’s a balancing act bc the space between “more forward” and “too forward” is very very small lol. 

oooh and lookie, we’re back at the trailer again

All in all, good practice tho, and we carried all of it forward into our schooling ride at home the next day, including continuing to work on our circular circles, true bend, and traveling more forward while still in trot to a fun little bounce exercise. 

xc schooling at tranquillity!

Which, naturally led to the weekend’s most fun aspect — another little xc schooling trip to Tranquillity! Y’all might remember we sorta made a habit of frequent low key visits last fall, and I’ve been eager to get back on the band wagon. 

Tho timing can be a little tricky — most of the nicest jumps travel to Shawan for the MCTA events in June, and as of two weeks ago when we were here for the Mill show, the jumps were still just sitting in piles from coming off the trailers. I figured there would be plenty to jump regardless, but luckily the jumps have since made their way back out into the fields, yay!

the more things change, the more the stay the same lol

It was a good schooling session too. Nothing really new, nothing we haven’t really done before, but that’s also kinda the point. Just keeping it regular and routine. And in this manner we achieved a ride that was productive and efficient. Including starting with a warm up of trotting around in the field that *wouldn’t* put my coach to shame lol! 

(Compared to my normal approach of kinda just surviving a few trot and canter circles before starting to jump things)

wheeee up bank combinations!

The jumps were almost all pretty good efforts, too. No inverted deer leaps, and for the most part I was able to avoid any moments of just pulling straight back on the mare by again working to use turning and lateral bend where possible. 

trying to be civilized on long lines

It’s clear that we don’t get a ton of practice cantering fences, tho. For as much as I understand my coach’s approach in the lessons, I’m also not sure she really realizes how much better Doozy is at cantering jumps vs trotting them. Which, fair, I can totally appreciate why you might think it’d be a hot mess express lol! 

finished with something just ever so slightly bigger lol

But the same thing we worked on in the lesson at trot — traveling more forward than the tightly compressed holding back stride, but not too forward and bolting the fence — we need to practice at canter too. I made a few mistakes about holding for one-too-many (an old habit of mine) but we finished well, and got some nice practice with both single fences and semi - related distances. 

helmet cam video for those inclined

The forecast is calling for something like 3” of rain coming off the Atlantic this week, plus that crazy storm system that just devastated Texas over the weekend… So I’m not sure how much more we’re really going to get done in the coming days.

back at the trailer, yet again, ready to go home lol

I’m glad we made it out this weekend, tho — for once, the weather + timing gods seemed to smile on our plans. And any good routine has to start somewhere, amirite? Doesn’t have to be perfect, we’ll take our positive mileage and enjoy it, and hopefully look forward to the next time!