Somewhat amazingly, adding a half pad under Doozy’s saddle while we await our fitting appointment (this week!) completely resolved the intermittent feelings of NQRness.
It doesn’t seem like that should be true… and in fact my vet was skeptical when I asked her about it… But here we are lol.
legitimately the sweetest mare, esp when you have pockets full of carrots <3 <3
We’ve been able to stick to a consistent routine again, increasing low impact mileage via trail riding while being thoughtful about more concussive activities. Doozy did her first little canters again at the end of last week, and first little jompies this weekend, eee! And so far, so good — she feels great.
guys i keep buying more saddle pads from Fair Hill Saddlery’s overstock store lol
Honestly does not at all feel like she missed a beat. Which makes me wonder if the saddle issue has been going on for longer than I realized — esp given some of Doozy’s more extreme antics when first coming back from the original bruise in early February. The wool is very compressed in places, which wouldn’t have happened overnight.
So it seems reasonable to think that she was coming back into work and simultaneously feeling uncomfortable in the saddle — thus the fireworks. Definitely something I’ll file away for the next time Doozy seems unreasonably… spicy lol.
this one is by Shires Arma and the color is divine
Anyway. Now that we’re back doing normal things again (knocking on wood), I want to carry on with examining the nitty gritties of our foundational work. With today’s topic being: our ever-evolving warm up routine.
my tack cubby is completely overrun omg
I say “evolving” bc ya know. Situations and conditions are always changing. Right now, the horses have swapped to overnight turnout - meaning my typical ride times (after work on week nights or middday or on weekends) occur when Doozy has been stalled for hours.
Especially with Charlie, who had myriad physical considerations on his high mileage body, the approach to warming him up varied by whether he was coming out of the stall, or out of the field.
anyway. to riding! quick warm up circuit around the close paddocks. it’s a very hilly route, with high spots at the outdoor (far most left) and big indoor (farthest right structure) and low spots at the barn yard and small indoor (center) and farthest right tree line
Charlie obviously was an extremely different sort of animal than Doozy, especially later in his career. Getting him in front of the leg and responsive to forward aids had to be Black & White, always. That was our first and final commandment.
But with his occasional tendency toward dullness, and all those physical considerations, it wasn’t always super fun (or effective) for either of us to arrive into the sandbox and immediately start picking on him. Instead, we’d often go on light hacks or little circuits around the farm or fields first to get him loose and swinging.
heading down the path to that farthest right tree line, and looking back up the hill at the big indoor
And now that the ground is dry again, I’m experimenting with the same approach for Doozy! She can be such an anticipatory type creature that just walking circles in the sandbox for 10min to loosen up can become a tense fussy affair. She’s the kind of horse that… when you get on, your inclination is to pretty much get to work right away.
climbing back up toward the indoor
Not that she can’t simmer down and focus on intentional walk work… But she normally needs to vent a little energy first — have a little trot and maybe a canter first.
So by going on a little farm walk before the ride, I’m able to let her just cruise around - marching happily toward the various horizons. Then when we get to the ring? We’re both ready to get straight to the ‘work,’ which task-oriented Doozy seems to appreciate.
arrived at the outdoor ready to play with jompies yay!! look how straight her foot prints are thru the grid, good biscuit!
And this weekend, that included playing with some little jumps! Fun! This gymnastic has been set up for a couple weeks now and I’ve been jealously eying it while passing from the driveway. But we finally got our chance! And Doozy was so good omg.
We trotted a little X first, and the little green boxes below, then went straight to the grid exactly as it appears above - small X bounces set at 9’ (placing rail at about 7’ for trotting in), then 18’ to the 2’3 vertical. I was tempted to push the vertical back to about 21’, since historically that’s been an easier distance for Doozy… But idk who originally set the gymnastic up and didn’t wanna screw it up for the ponies.
always with the face rubs lol
Doozy was fine for that short distance tho, what a good girl! And straight as an arrow! She touched the rail both times we went through, but didn’t knock it. Which, fine by me. She also landed on both leads for our two trips — perfect!
another day, another trip out to the woods
I did have to remind myself to not completely stop riding once we started jumping and Doozy got excited tho. Like, I have to remember to tell her that she can still trot nicely in between jumps — and that it’s up to **me** to achieve the trot I want before aiming at the next jump. This isn’t a horse show, we are allowed to circle lol.
learning to be civilized about following lol
And Doozy impressed me by actually being able to achieve that nice trot again fairly quickly once I remembered to ask for it. A good lesson for me to learn, since especially at shows I tend to give in a little too quickly and just feed into the frantic excited energy.
do we look like we’re having fun??
All told, it was a relatively short ride with only a few jumps and nothing approximating course work… But was just the ticket for getting a sense for how the mare feels. Verdict? She’s great.
I’m hoping to basically pick up right where we left off last fall for this season, despite the somewhat bumpy winter. And that’ll start hopefully this week with our first jump lesson since…. September with Dom?? We’re trying out a new local pro and I’m very excited. Wish us luck lol.
finishing up with snacks. always with the snacks
And in the meantime, I’m going to continue experimenting with low impact / drama-free ways to improve our warm up routine and general condition.
Anybody else out there have favorite routines, techniques or habits for getting your horse optimally warmed up and ready to work, especially after coming out of the stall?
Everybody super excited for yet another rundown of how Doozy and I are deep into reestablishing the basics through building up gymnastic exercises that reaffirm both technique and relaxation over fences???
for a little visual stimulation, enjoy unrelated pics from doozy's first TWO trips into the proper woods at her new place!! see the river to the right side of the trail?? #gorgeous
Lol... For real, I know it might sound repetitive and redundant... But, eh, it's where we are in the training. There are many many roads to Rome, sure, but I'd argue that few (if any) entirely bypass boring, consistent and progressive practice.
Lucky for me (if not for you LOL), I live for the day in, day out, nitty gritty practice. Which, come to think of it, probably explains why I like making my own horses, even if I'm slower and less effective than the typical professional. Ymmv!
Anyway. When last we checked in with the intrepid red critter, she was learning the ins and outs of the 9' distance. Primarily with 3 ground poles in a line spaced at that distance. Learning to not rush, fling, launch, swan dive, or otherwise plummet / bomb / cannonball through said configuration.
Then we started adding in the same 3-element exercise, but now with the middle element raised into an actual jump, albeit very small. Doozy got a bit frantic about jumps since Jenny Camp, so the whoooooole idea is to prove that... it's not a big deal! You don't need speed!
doozy had the #WorldsBest chaperones <3 <3 <3
That practice has continued through basically almost every ride, aside from the occasional trail ride or suuuper basic low pressure flat school. Aiming for at least twice weekly practice with actual jumps.
This past week, we hit a new milestone too! I decided we needed bigger X's in our lives. Two main reasons: 1) to do a better job of capturing Doozy's attention than tiny speed bumps, and 2) to passively encourage straightness and form.
anyway, tho, the beat goes on. and what we're really talking about are gymnastic exercises to help doozy both improve her jumping technique AND get a little more relaxed about it all. here we have a big medium X, with flower fill, and 9' takeoff / landing poles
And it worked! She was still a bit frantic her first time through, but then really nailed it the second time! Then we changed directions and knocked the rail a couple times --- which is annoying bc I have to dismount and reset each time... It was my own fault tho bc I only used one flower box under the center of the X**. See below pics for future efforts where I wised up and used flower boxes on BOTH sides for a ground line.
Eventually, tho, she really figured out the footwork, and was able to trot all the way up to the first pole and bounce through. Good girl!
**Obvi in the pic above it's not centered but instead was placed on one specific side, bc I was tired of knocking the rail and moved it out to be more of a ground line so we could execute successfully and be done. Ideally, it's a bi-directional exercise tho, so a box on each side is better.
different ride, same idea. big medium X, **two** flower boxes as bi-drectional ground lines, 9' takeoff and landing. plus our "flat" version of the same exercise right along side. repetition, yo, it's a helluva drug
After that nice little breakthrough, our next ride was a lovely hack through the woods, then a very vanilla flat school amidst an active lesson group (with zero fireworks!), and then right back to the jumping exercises again!
It's nice that the ring is right next to the driveway, bc I can basically scope out the traffic / occupancy situation on my way in, and stop to set my stuff up if the coast is clear! For this last ride, I replicated the ground poles and X, and also set up takeoff / landing poles for a vertical.
some variation within the structure tho: a small vertical, still with a lot of fill and 9' takeoff and landing poles
And guys --- Doozy got the memo, in no uncertain terms! She was incredible this ride!! And the thing is --- it's not just the exercises where she feels good, it's everything in between too.
For example, a week ago she could canter cleanly through the 3 ground poles, but might kinda careen off afterward, requiring some work to regain balance. It felt like I was sorta "holding her together" through the exercise, basically only delaying the explosion vs avoiding it entirely.
And now? Guys --- she's holding her own self together, omg! She can canter away from the ground poles in almost exactly the same balance she had going in. Or, at least, it takes very little work or time to find that balance again, with almost no sacrifice on 'line of travel.'
aaaaaaand back to those cool pleasant and neon green woods!
And for the actual jumps?? Ugh I was so proud of her <3 <3 She still had moments of getting excitable and breaking into canter before reaching the first placing pole (I'm still trotting into everything except for the flat ground poles at this point), but even then still understood the footwork and could bounce through nicely!
We knocked the X once, but it was just a normal run of the mill mistake for a big horse being asked to compress through an exercise --- vs a frantic horse flatly rushing through. Nbd, just dismount, reset, and jump it again!
lots of pets for a good girl, even if she was a bit suspicious of the ferns!
Doozy finally gave me the feeling again of really lifting her wither and jumping around the fence, rather than launching over it. Finally!!
And it was reproducible too, we had like 5 good efforts in a row, and I broke my own habit of quitting too early and said, Let's go one more time! And so Doozy went right on ahead and executed the vertical again perfectly. What a mare!
power walking up the big hill!
I really love these exercises and this practice.... Bc other than me using my voice and some gentle cues, it's mostly just Doozy figuring out the exercise construction on her own. Which, ya know, since she's Queen Of Jompies, Knower Of Everything, she much prefers that style of learning vs me manhandling her around.
My only real job is to keep my hands soft (aka -- hold the neck strap!), and go with her.
and obvi, a bonus charles <3 <3 here he is standing right in the middle of the aisle, the better to greet everybody as they walk in the barn
So I think we're about ready for the next step --- reintroducing jumps without the placing poles. Or perhaps, if I get cold feet about that (which... y'all know me LOL!), just increasing the distance. Instead of bounce poles, let's bring back the 18' short one stride and see where that gets us. Or ya know, maybe a little bit of both, right?
Like, I still expect Doozy to bolt the occasional fence. My hope, however, is that the gymnastic exercises and practice will help her better figure out what to do if she runs past a distance, or ends up at a less than ideal takeoff point. That, instead of being uncomfortable and punishing and, thus, frantic, we now have options and technique.
he also just likes the view <3
Or at least, that's the idea haha! In the meantime, it's fun practicing and seeing progress <3
There were glimmers in our ride yesterday where I thought to myself, "holy shit, are you actually becoming schooled??!?" not to mention the many MANY moments where I had to remind myself to soften and let go, bc the mare is starting to maintain her own carriage now, thankyouverymuch.
Tho, as with Newton's third law of motion, so it is with Dooz: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction lol. There's always more to come, I'm sure!
The nice thing about not having anything pressing on the agenda is that.... Eh, we can focus on emphasizing balance and enjoyment in 'getting going.'
Right now, all our 'real' riding happens inside the indoor arena. Which is small and dusty and not the most inspirational place. But it's where Doozy (/me, let's be real) feels secure enough to go about the basics of walk-trot-canter.
look who didn't get anybody killed in the outdoor dressage ring!!
I'm hoping that pairing this routine with regular (ideally weekly, but we'll see after the time changes) extended walks out into the fields or along the driveway or bridle paths, or even other outdoor arenas will help Doozy understand that expectations don't really change even when the venue is different.
pretty girl <3
We made some nice progress last week, too, when Doozy accompanied a friend up to the dressage ring and didn't totally melt down! Actually, she was pretty solid except for a few little outbursts like when friend's horse had a noisy stumble while trotting behind us, or when a rattle trap car cruised by in the driveway.
She wasn't perfect, and I didn't try to trot or anything like that... But she was good. And, when I dismounted in the center of the ring in a moment of soft relaxation, she seemed like, 'wow, that was all?' and was happy to stand relaxed for getting the girth loosened and a few pictures (above). Considering last time she was in this arena, she couldn't even hand walk successfully... We'll take it.
Small steps, y'all!
lolz none of charlie's boots fit her
It does mean, tho, that for the rides when we ARE working, we need to keep developing the tools I'll need to help keep her focused and with me during those outside moments. Like, getting serious about introducing bend etc so that Doozy can't keep using her neck against me.
this weekend's homework: Turning!!! diagonals have "honesty blocks" in the corners (foreground of picture), and that semi-circular bending line of 3 can go in both directions. spacing is generous on everything (including the corner blocks)
So for our next two schooling sessions, I rearranged all the various exercises we've worked on to focus more on turning and corners. Everything was intended to be smooth sweeping turns, and gentle corners --- basically relatively easy to accomplish even if we weren't super supple, but at least introducing the concepts.
photos + videos are from our second day riding these exercises, when we (obvi) had company in the ring
And it was a SUPER useful ride for me. Bc Doozy is still kinda just a tense horse, ya know? We were alone for our first ride (Saturday), and she wanted to be rushing and tight in the trot. Tho, notably, she could always come back to a relaxed walk.
I had to keep reminding myself that our whole intent right now is: rhythm + relaxation. That I had to guide Doozy through the exercises and into the pace I want, that she's not just gonna figure it out herself if I don't tell her. And I also tried to channel lessons from a million years ago with Dan C: when he told me that, 'if what you're doing isn't working, slow it down.'
had some seriously good feelings in this ride's canters, even if i don't necessarily look it lol
So if we would come across the diagonal into the corners with the blocks, and felt like we were kinda motorcycling in trot... Just bring it back down to walk and get the bend I'm looking for, then try to recreate at trot.
I also tried to be more disciplined in my own positioning, steering, and balance through the bending line of 3 poles. As in, ride them as if I was in a lesson and would be told to repeat it again if I didn't ride as well as I could. Like, it's ok for Doozy to make mistakes -- but this is my chance to set her up as well as I can for each exercise.
mare is werkin it!
Her canter was pretty solid, tho a bit more porpoising than I'd totally expect at this point. Which we tried to address with a different half pad in Sunday's ride. Regardless, we cantered a few more circles than normal -- AND, Doozy even cantered her first ground poles!! One off each lead :D
The pole was in the short end so we had a nice bending approach, and they came nicely out of stride without much consideration on her part. That could change on a long straight approach, but I was obvi pretty pleased with her. And obvi we repeated again in our second ride of the weekend so there's video yas!
pretty happy with this picture, not gonna lie (even tho obvi we can always find things to improve!)
Our second day of riding all these exercises was even better. We had another horse in the ring, which is now officially A Good Thing for Doozy. It's hard to tell if the difference in our execution is bc we were doing it all for the second time in a row, or if it was just bc we weren't alone. Honestly, not sure I really care at this point haha!
Doozy seemed to understand in this ride that I wanted a slower trot, and actually a couple times went a bit too far in that direction -- getting a little stuck in place. Like, not stuck stuck, but enough where I had to put on a lot of leg.
yasss mare, go get it!!! (and hold mane, emma!!!)
All the same, she went about and did all the exercises easy as pie. Which, good lol. It should be easy, and should be nbd. That's a big reason why I'm so ground pole-centric in these early rides with her: to make them feel easy and normal, and also bc.... ground poles don't lie.
Like, you either traveled over the center, or you didn't. They're like built in fact checkers haha -- did that feel nice? Balanced? Easy? Cool! Or did you miss your turn, scramble across, have to yank around the corner halfway through? Ok, nbd, but see what you can change next time to make it better.
finishing the ride like a princess
Probably the biggest stand out for this ride was the canter --- Doozy had some really nice moments in canter where I felt like I was actually riding her in a balance. Like, sure sure my position still kinda sucks and I'm still way too defensive with my hands, plus obvi we do still motorcycle around a little bit...
But the good moments are happening, and more frequently. And natch, Doozy repeated her new skill of cantering ground poles <3 <3 Good girl!
So, overall, a very productive collection of recent rides. Biggest takeaways are:
1. It really is my job to ride Doozy where I want her, and not just endlessly lap around waiting for her to somehow just magically figure it out. Key mantra: "Make a difference."
2. Lessons will help with this! And esp will help with continuing to untangle some of my terrible position habits that are made worse by nerves/defensiveness.
sweaty girl after some real 'work,' considering it was 80*F on saturday (oof)
3. We need to continue experimenting on riding with and without company to better understand Doozy's nervous tension. I think she was happier this ride bc we weren't alone. But I also used a different half pad -- was that part of the difference too? Lots to play with!
4. It's pretty remarkable how consistent Doozy is with her walk. Even when the trot is really tense, or after cantering, or when she's worked up, the walk is basically always free, fluid, and four beats. This is definitely something worth preserving!
post-bath grazing
I'm obviously super grateful for the video my friend snagged yesterday, esp after our more tense ride on Saturday. While I naturally kinda want to zero in on all the things that need work, there's a lot in the video that, to me, feels validating.
Hope you all had a nice weekend full of ponies too!
Amy and I packed up our dear creatures Charlie and Punky this weekend to ship out for a cavaletti clinic at Thornridge! And, naturally, proceeded to have our best 'jumping' lesson in a long time at this traditionally dressage barn. Guys. It was incredible!
the scene of the crime
Apparently this is a newer thing they do with boarders, and we kinda just invited ourselves to come along too. Trainer C led the group sessions, and used a selection of ground pole exercises adapted from the book highlighted below.
exercise inspired by Pole Work for Dressage Riders, by Ann Katrin Querbach notes: thick black lines indicate raised poles. everything is bi-directional. purple = trot; blue = canter.
AND! We are super lucky that one of the boarders who rode in an earlier group was able to snap some footage for us, yesssssss! Tho -- sadly, she missed the beginning of our ride so you are robbed of any visual representation of Charlie confronting the existential crisis of hyper-short raised trot poles.
no footage of charlie thru the trot poles, so enjoy this gif of Punky #slaying
He was so good, tho. A little fresh and frisky, and a bit 'up' at finding this familiar arena transformed for the clinic.... But so good.
We started with walking, then trotting around the full ring as a group (5 of us), spaced enough so that we could each trot thru the line of poles you see above with enough room that Trainer C could reset anything that got knocked along the way.
This exercise was HARD. Charlie really really struggled with the raised red/white poles at trot -- often trying to skip sections or just sorta obliterating the thing (even tho he was trying so hard). Then something sorta clicked: tracking left (so, starting with the white poles), he got to the red and white poles and broke to walk then crept thru cleanly. Then the next time -- really sat and managed it at trot.
charles himself, thinking very hard
We changed directions, which I expected to be harder (bc now I wouldn't have the mirror to stare into and keep myself straight), but Charlie actually finally really aced the exercise. Sad to not have that on video.
He still knocked it a couple more times, of course, bc it's legit a very hard (and tiring) exercise for him. But it was exciting to feel him so collected and 'sitting' even briefly.
"would be easier if you stopped pulling the inside rein tho, just sayin!" - charles, probably
Next up was the leg yield exercise, which we again did as a group going all at once. I actually really liked this configuration. It's a pattern we practice at home anyway (coming off the rail then yielding back again), but having the trot poles there as an actual physical landmark really helped Charlie understand.
It's like he saw the poles, and understood what I was asking, but also understood the urgency of having to "get there," and thus made it happen. Our leg yields aren't like, super correct or whatever. But they don't have to be for where we are. As far as Charlie is concerned, he's a genius lol.
final boss: a modified circle of death
Last exercise of the day was a cancer circle, with four poles kinda strewn at random along the circle. Not sure they measured for anything in particular, but we ended up getting pretty consistent striding more or less along the way. One set was far enough apart to be 'basically unrelated' (6 or 7 strides, probably), then it was 4 to 4 to 2 (tracking left).
interpretive dance step #1
This is obvi a very familiar type of exercise for Charlie, but one that bears repeating -- and often. Plus it was obviously so helpful to have Trainer C there, not just bc we needed frequent clean up from knocked poles LOL.
interpretive dance step #2
She reminded me to think more about my outside aids, and probably wanted me to be a little more "dressage-y" vs "jumper-y" in my position (everybody other than me and Amy did the clinic in their dressage tack). But eh. I'm sticking with the "we are weak" excuse for now LOL.
And guys, omg, Charlie was SO TIRED by this point. This was, without a doubt, the most intense and taxing ride we've had since.... Hm, probably the Molly days. Not even just because he was out of work for so long, but bc heavily tactical technical instruction is hard to find, apparently.
what a good boy tho
He persevered, tho. Which was a good reminder to me. Honestly, in our schooling at home, I'm pretty quick to reward a good effort and quit while we're ahead -- before he gets tired. And Charlie, for his part, is usually pretty good about stepping up when it counts -- like at shows when he goes into pure professional mode.
not sure my position met any expectations, but this horse 100% blew me away with his effort!
But it IS good to test the limits of our capacity every now and again. Both to help us expand in our fitness and strength, and also to give us a little practice in digging deep when we might otherwise call it a day.
finishing strong!
And so in this ride, as Charlie became more fatigued in the circle and thus increasingly likelier to break to trot if the distance was wonky, we really had to find our determination to get one fully clean circle to finish on each lead.
It reminded me of the first lesson Charlie had with Dan, where Dan basically scolded me. We were working on trot-canter transitions, where we were only allowed to canter when the trot was where Dan wanted it. And Dan reminded me: "This is hard for him. The longer you take to get there, the harder it'll be to keep going. Get the trot now, don't just go around and around and around working on it." (paraphrased).
So. Anyway. After everybody had sessioned each individual exercise, they put it together into a complete little pattern. As much fun as that looked (and it did look FUN -- and challenging, omg), I opted to skip it. Charlie was SPENT omg.
I also suspect that the horse's sleep patterns have been disturbed lately by changes in his herd... But that's a topic for another day. Suffice it to say -- Charlie had nothing to prove, and had been an excellent pony for a very demanding lesson. Good enough!
so so so so SO TIRED by the end <3
We really loved this lesson, guys. Amy and Punky were super stars too -- tho we already knew Punky is basically a gymnastics savant haha. It's so good to see him back in action, sound, and looking good.
Charlie is looking really good too. All the dressage queens in our group kinda put our fitness to shame LOL, but eh, again, I have excuses and I'm sticking to them. We'll get there eventually!
Anybody else really love lessons or clinics like this? Planning to steal any of these exercises (or all of them??) for your own schooling???
I was expecting to have about six weeks between our last CT and the next show.... But some scheduling got shifted around and a new opportunity presented itself... Plus with volunteer credits it looks like I'll actually have another totally free entry to one of our favorite local venues. Who can say no to that?
kinda looks like we're making progress, but mostly bc a single exercise might turn up in multiple categories
It means, tho, that I'm grateful for having already been on this cavalletti / ground pole kick lately. Up until literally this weekend, it's been abysmally dry and hard out, and I've been reluctant to do a ton of jumping. So Margaret Rizzo McKelvy's Grid Pro Quobook is filling a pretttty important gap for us right now.
ah yes, the circle of death (and yessss it rained!!!!)
Plus ya know. There's honestly something relieving about having specific things to *do* in any given ride. Sure, deciding on and setting up an exercise might seem a bit arduous, but then once you're actually in the ride, it's nice to be just kinda mindless in determining what to do when.
ok so i didn't actually set the exercise up myself so the measurements aren't an exact match. nbd tho!
This week I was actually even luckier bc somebody else had already set up the Circle of Death, it wasn't even particularly intentional on my part. Which is probably for the best bc I honestly don't love this exercise and likely wouldn't have chosen it myself. But if it's there, we'll do it!
for those interested, here's maybe the Version 2.0 of the same exercise -- but with the bonus of now having the longer outside lines where you can open the canter up and force the adjustability test
The hardest thing about this ride was really insisting on forward first, then attempting the exercise. One thing I'm learning with Charlie is that... Well at this point he has a pretty easy time slugging along under paced. He can successfully execute shorter distances and compressed strides not necessarily bc he's increased his engagement and collection, but bc he's just... sluggin, ya know?
switching gears slightly to a very professional course diagram that i had the pleasure of building while volunteering at Loch Moy last week
And that's No Bueno for me bc it kinda gives me a false sense of security, but then we canter up to an actual bigger jump with no impulsion and.... yea, turns out that's not a great feeling.
So for this ride, I insisted on establishing forward immediately, then progressively put the pieces of the circle together.
here's a link to youtube if you wanna see the course ridden!
just fyi: the video is oriented opposite of the diagram -- the camera would have been placed basically right under the words "horse trials" in the diagram, facing the in/out gates
We started by trotting single poles during our warm up, and ditto cantering single poles. We cantered early in this ride anyway just as part of the whole "Go Forth, Son!" idea... Plus it started raining on us and I was eager to be efficient lol...
unrelated loch moy observances: anybody familiar with this brand? i'd never heard of them before impulsively placing a possibly-questionable order last week. then this week saw these bridle tags for sale at a show... maybe it's a newer company?
Once the horse felt good and snappy, tho, we worked on trotting multiple poles in a row. First 2 at a time, then using individual poles as part of a figure-8 or serpentine, then eventually getting half the circle, then the whole circle.
more loch moy observances: is it weird that i have such serious jump number storage envy???? just look how tidy! much organized!!
From there we moved to transitions -- another feature in many of our rides lately. Trotting the whole circle, then exiting on a tangent to pick up canter around the whole ring, then picking up pieces of the circle in canter. First just one pole, then two together, then half a circle, etc etc.
anyway. in case you were curious, here is said professional jump course designer, author of the above diagram. this is his decidedly feline reaction when i asked him to show the camera his beautiful eyes <3
We could consistently get 3 strides in canter between most of the poles, tho one segment we almost always chopped in a 4th. Idk if that was bc of imprecise steering on my part, or just bc the spacing was a little off. In any case, that 4th stride fit and I didn't let it bother me.
It was more important that I felt Charlie really try to find each pole in canter. When the distance is awkward and he's not super engaged or impulsive, he's likelier to break to trot to make it work out. Which is fine in its own right, it's still an effective footwork solution... But it's also good for him to try to work it out within canter.
ooooh but you can sorta see them peepers here! what a sweetie!
It's hard for him sometimes, esp on the left lead -- I'm finding that while he's generally strong in canter on both leads, we still tend to have fewer options with the left lead, if that makes sense. But our last pass through it felt like he really really tried the whole way thru, for which he naturally earned a carrot bite, some scritches, and an end to the ride lol. Good boy, sir, let's get out of the rain now!
So. Another exercise attempted lol. Undoubtedly more to come, too. But... Hopefully the next you'll hear from us will involve actually full size jumps haha, now that we got a little rain!
