under my umbrella

As promised, I'm still working through mountains of media from the last couple weeks.... including actual lesson video from before our ill-fated show!!!

Resident trainer K often tries to snag a few clips, but it's tricky since she generally has her hands full haha. Obviously Charlie and I like to knock a lot of rails, which keeps her busy when doing coursework where the same jump gets repeated... Ooh, and also, ya know, the baby and baby accessories lol. Which, for this lesson, included an umbrella since it was raining.

basically a bombproofing clinic, amirite?

She managed to get a fair number of efforts this time around tho, and I'm super grateful. There's lots to learn watching the footage too - from both the good moments and the misses honestly. It helps me connect a feeling I have in the saddle with what it actually looks like from the ground.

Plus, watching a video on repeat helps me identify trends or patterns, or precursors to a mistake. Like, usually the "mistake" that leads to a bad fence happens somewhat earlier in the preceding moments -- the quality of the canter, balance in a turn, picking in the "preparation zone,"a moment where I hold instead of adding leg. You know how it goes haha.

the V poles kinda mess with my eye, but they're so good for charlie!! definitely need more of this

We mostly stuck with some basics for the lesson -- starting with a figure 8 ridden over a vertical with "V" poles. The exercise is progressive in that you start with just the plain vertical, then introduce the arms of the "V."

For a spooky, very careful, or green horse, you might even start with these poles as "guide rails" on the ground. Charlie's not any of those things tho, lol, so we started with them resting one end on the jump, spread out with a wide-ish gap instead of a point at the end of the "V."

After repetitions off each lead, the jump is progressively raised with the gap between the poles closed to form the point you see in the picture above. The whole point here (lol, puns) is to help the horse improve his form and technique over the fences -- specifically with encouraging a tidier and tighter front end.

my goodness but i love him

We've also seen the "V" poles used a lot in grids, where the spacing and formation of the gymnastic exercise helps the horse keep his whole body and striding in a better shape and balance, with the "V" poles keeping the horse straight and careful.

This is great for a horse like Charlie, who can be a little blasé about the fences haha. He's a massively capable horse, but his boldness cuts both ways. On one hand, he's very forgiving of my mistakes (and thus, an excellent horse to learn with). But... on the other hand, he finds these fences sliiiiiightly unimpressive lol -- and thus not always worth much effort or care.

believe it or not, this is a different effort than the shot above. points for consistency?

Case in point about Charlie being somewhat unruffled and carefree about the whole thing: at one point as we were circling back to the "V" pole, I noticed trainer K take off running toward her baby and was like, "Hm, that's odd?" as we proceeded through the exercise.

It wasn't until after we'd finished the cycle (quite nicely -- it's in the video!! as is K's oopsie moment, which you should listen to with volume on lol) that she said the umbrella went flying off the stroller right as we approached the jump. Like... presumably Charlie saw the umbrella haha, but he apparently didn't care at all. I didn't even see it -- like I noticed K running, but nothing else. So, uh, thanks Chuck haha, we appreciate your bravery!

#KeepingHim

Anyway, tho, the "V" pole exercise was pretty useful, as was the figure 8 pattern. Lately in lessons, Charlie's really figured out how to turn well without losing the canter. Like.... It actually kinda blows my mind haha.

This lesson wasn't even the best example of that compared to other recent lessons, but you can sorta tell in how we approached the fence and also particularly in the short turn after the fence (a la Doug Payne) how catty (sorta) Charlie's becoming!! Not that we were able to demonstrate that in an actual competition environment, womp, but it really is happening!

The video is helpful here too tho bc you can definitely see how I lost my eye a little when the vertical and "V" poles went up past T height. There's a couple spots where you can pretty clearly see that I needed to add leg rather than wait. At least the canter itself was good enough that while the waiting stride wasn't the prettiest, Charlie could still jump cleanly and in a good shape.

video here. tbh, whiffed it a few times to the V pole, but a couple bright spots in the line

After finishing that cycle with the figure 8 "V" pole, we just did two passes down a simple 60' line, vertical to square oxer somewhere north of 3'3. This specific distance is a really great exercise for me and Charlie bc 60' is generally hard to mess up too badly, but still a pretty good gauge for where you're at with your canter.

Which..... Our first time down the line we had a gorgeous shot in, then were jusssssssst a little bit tight getting out of it, whoops. And, haha, in retrospect, that proved to be a fairly accurate preview of what was to come in our stadium jumping round at the show.

We went back right away, tho, and fixed it pretty darn well imho, with Charlie showing off just how nicely he can skip over the fence from a balanced 12' stride.

Exhibit A: bright spot. god i freakin live for this feeling <3 <3 

It's funny tho, thinking back on this lesson with the memory from the show still fresh. After this lesson, I'd have said the biggest takeaway was from those moments in the turn to the "V" pole where I waited instead of adding leg -- and how I needed to trust the forward canter in the turn and keep riding the hind legs to the fence.

Because horse shows generally amplify and expose any soft squishy weak spots in your training, right? But, lol, turns out it isn't always exactly in the ways we expect... In this case, it was actually the example of jumping into a line with too much canter that proved to be our issue at the show, rather than not enough canter.

So... Ya know.... the signs were there, lol, I just missed them. It's taken me so so so long to let Charlie be more forward that I'm still kinda fixated on all the issues we had from not being forward enough. I guess it's sorta like a pendulum tho? Or like L Williams would say, today's solutions become tomorrow's problems. We have achieved foward lol. Now time to figure out how to temper it...

the clown show

This has obviously been a crazy year for goal setting and horse showing and basically all levels of expectations and reality. You don't need me to tell you that, lol. And like so many of you, I basically swept everything I thought 2020 would be right out the window months ago.

At this point, my only real focus with riding is to continue doing the things that are exciting to me - that sound like fun, positive opportunities. One such idea popped into my head a couple weeks ago: maybe Charlie and I could enter our annual home show?

cherry picked pretty hard to find even this mediocre shot lol

After talking through the pros and cons etc with various friends and trusted professionals etc, we decided to go for it! There seemed to be a lot of advantages for showing at home too, ya know? 

Like Charlie could chill in his stall all day... And obvi we're super familiar with all the grounds and jumps etc, had plenty of opportunities to walk the courses multiple times, and obvi skipped all the packing and driving. Plus I even managed to pick up a discounted entry from another local rider who couldn't use it!

idk we did the things so that's good 'nuff!

I was also super SUPER grateful to have a few friends on hand to help out with all the things (mostly relating to moral support lol bc y'all already know I can be a hot mess). Shout out to Austen, Rachael and Jay for that lol!

Things started off well enough in dressage too. Our ride was late enough that there was plenty of time for stuff like braids and studs (since riding in grass ring), and Charlie had done me the favor of staying clean overnight lol.

glad it's over

He was pretty darn good for the test too, at least, when measured against my own personal yard stick. He was responsive, not pulling on me, going when I said go, and whoa-ing when I said whoa. And ya know.... that's basically it haha. 

Which is another way of saying.... Well, it ain't much lol. I kinda sorta gave up on dressage a few months ago and.... it definitely shows. We need to be rounder in general, and needed a little bit more of everything in this particular test too. 

I never picked up the test so idk what it actually scored, but probably some combinations of 6s and 6.5s, for a final score of 38%. Which.... was about what I expected after finishing the ride lol. 

our combined expressions here lol... we both know some shit's about to go down

Honestly, for my purposes, the day was always going to be about the jumping. Which meant I was more than a little surprised when my trainer mentioned a few days prior that she wouldn't be available for coaching. I had kinda just assumed by our conversations that coaching was a given, but you know what they say about assumptions. 

And esp in this covid-era, volunteers are increasingly hard to get so running the show was basically an 'all hands on deck' situation. It just hadn't occurred to me that she'd be busy.... esp considering how coaching was kiiiiiiinda a critical part of my game plan lol. 

So, uh, lesson learned: maybe next time I should use my words instead of just making assumptions?

annoyed that charlie punched this one out with a front

Because it was pretty much immediately apparent when we arrived at warm up that.... things were not getting off to a great start haha. Charlie was AMPED omg. 

I'm not sure exactly what set him off -- he's competed successfully in this exact same field set up multiple times (including that one time we won at N....). But whatever the case, Charlie was lit. And very barn sour. Just getting through our warm up was.... challenging. 

The warm up jumps were well arranged (sometimes they get placed in a more sloping part of the hill that I distinctly do not like haha) but we had issues with going toward/away from the barn, and with rating speed and balance. 

OOOH, and. Haha, And. Tack issues.... Turns out my fancy new soft grip Nunn Finer reins are slippery as fuck and I straight up could not hold on to them. 

charlie 'n emma: terrifying innocent bystanders since 2016

Actually, to be perfectly honest, I had the wrong bridle on altogether. Should have had a flash strap on, 100%, and possibly a different bit. As it was, Charlie was basically yanking the reins right out of my hands, singing "La la la la, I can't hear you!!!" as he merrily dragged my ass around warm up. It was embarrassing. 

The jumps were ok, tho. Actually, the warm up jumps were fine. Just.... Everything in between was no good. So idk. I guess I hoped for the best and went in for our round determined to stay active as a rider. 

emma: "charlie i swear this is a 6, buddy -- plz wait for it!!!"

Which... Eh. I feel like I was semi-successful in that endeavor, at least to start. Like, cantering around to the first jump I actually had this moment of being like, "Emma. Sit the fuck down in that saddle and ride this horse in a balance to the first fence."

And actually, jump 1 kinda went ok. Altho Charlie just punched it the fuck out of the cups bc obviously. Jump 2 had a slightly fussy turn but Charlie got himself organized and jumped the crap out of it. Sadly my video is from the wrong angle to see it, but the pro got a nice shot. Maybe I'll suck it up and buy that but... Eh, maybe not lol.

The next jumps were set on a 6 stride line (pictured above and below) with a little downhill dip in the middle, and I knew from watching other riders that it would ride short for us. 

ping!!!

Somehow tho we made it through that alive, and then over the next end jump too. Tho you can see in the video that we were definitely losing it. 

Next up came the triple, measured at 24' to 72' on the dot. Which we naturally did in 1.5 (taking the middle element) to 4. All with me practically standing up and back in my stirrups trying desperately to get those slippery reins back. 

pictured: what it looks like after doing 4 in 72'

And like. Side note. This is what's so annoying about Charlie on video. He makes the 4 strides look almost reasonable. Practically like I'm just holding him back from getting the right distance. His 14' stride looks natural and proportionate for his big body and long legs. 

But ya know. The combinations are set for a 12' stride. And at this point we really don't have any excuse for getting that strung out in show jumping. 

wheels firmly off the bus

So ok. We made it through the triple after leaving a stride out, with 2 rails already on the card. We took the next rail after whiffing it to the two stride too, then landed in a heap and circled. During which circle I literally wrapped the reins around my fist in a desperate attempt to find grip. 

20 penalties later tho and we did indeed finish the damn thing

Made it over that jump then circled again. I had already decided in the first circle that we'd be withdrawing, but was determined to finish the round. So looking at the video makes me think I maybe kinda gave up a little bit tho with the second circle. 

But eh.... At that point I preferred to take the penalty in exchange for a better final jump since none of it really mattered anyway. And we did indeed get a pretty good shot at the final fence, go figure.

oh sir. you are so extra.

So. Lol. Finally through the finish flags. I eventually was able to pull the horse up, too lol. I let the judge know on my way out that we'd be withdrawing, to which she replied "Good." haha... Sigh.

Talk about a mortifying spectacle. And I fully admit to being more than a little disappointed. Mostly in myself (and also those slippery fucking reins which are now #forsale). But also a little with Charlie. 

I just straight up don't get to ride this side of him very often -- and virtually never in lessons (where we go in a simple loose ring snaffle and can adjust and half halt and all the things...). So it catches me totally off guard when he's wild like this. And considering we've been schooling 3'3 for two years at this point, I can't rely on the jumps to back him off any more either.

 

combined dressage + sj video here

So. Yea. 'Twas a clown show haha. I have exactly zero regrets about withdrawing before cross country, tho. There's just no way in hell it could have gone well.

Even if Charlie had somehow by the grace of god settled into a rhythm, it's almost guaranteed that I would have still ridden too defensively and not trusted the forward when we needed it.

On one hand I'm sorta proud of myself for giving it a shot at all, but eh. I don't feel particularly inclined to repeat that experience any time soon either LOL. Ugh. Horses, man. 

holding my line

I wrote last week about finally getting some rain after a few weeks of drought-like conditions. AND -- we got even more after that!! Yessssss, large horses on small feet everywhere rejoice!!

just charlie being cute

Which worked out fairly perfectly for getting in another jump lesson. Bc ya know... That's basically where we're at this summer, stalking the weather forecast to plan our weekly riding schedule lol.

charlie and a goose!!

The lesson went fairly well, too. Trainer K even tried to grab some video for us, tho.... considering we kept knocking down rails on jumps that were repeated in courses, it meant the footage didn't quite work out. Still got enough for some screen grabs tho! It's not much, but I'll take it.

US show jumper Rich Fellers' approach to flatwork.
source: Noelle Floyd youtube channel

In terms of flatwork, I'm continuing focusing on how we go as it relates to being successful in jumping courses. Right now, as far as I can tell, our biggest regression since quarantine is in the "straightness" department.

Which... obviously also has some serious implications in jumping haha. Like when we jumped through the triple a couple times from each direction -- laying down two completely distinct tracks equally distant from center haha, womp.

lol @ charlie's 'smile'.......

So... Yea. Probably need to work on that some more too. I also think addressing our straightness will help Charlie jump in a better form -- which should also theoretically make it a little easier for him to jump more cleanly.

see the jomp!!

Biggest takeaway from the lesson tho, other than straightness (and straightness in turns too, we were pretty bulge-y in places...) related to me sorta 'giving up' at times.

Specifically -- Charlie became very forward (which I like!!) but instead of keeping his hind end up under him even as he went forward, I sorta just surrendered to it and let him drag me along. This showed up especially in the bending lines we did -- 3 and 4 stride lines off both leads.

be the jomp!!

Somewhat amazingly, the right bending lines went wayyyy worse for us than the left bending lines, even tho they were the same lines just ridden opposite directions haha. I would have expected the left to be harder bc of our drift and lack of straightness, so this was maybe a good wake-up call.

Bc what was happening was that we'd get to the in jump in a little bit of disarray since Charlie was kinda running on his forehand, but then we'd land in a heap and not be able to make the turns effectively.

me thinks we need to tighten up and improve straightness with some gymnastics again....

After messing up two courses in a row in this way, I managed to sit down and bring Charlie's hind end back up underneath him again. Tho, actually, it was really interesting the feeling in the connection at that moment bc I still felt like I could have a softer contact and Charlie still made the adjustment. That's definitely a feeling I need to remember...

And anyway, when I rode the canter more appropriately, go figure, Charlie jumped much better and had way more options when it came to getting to the fence from different distances or approaches.

gotta love his enthusiasm tho!

On one hand the lesson was kinda annoying bc it followed what seems to be an all-too-predictable pattern: warm up was amazing, almost like we should have just finished with that (fwiw, warm up was a twisty turny cycle through a couple single verticals and oxers, and Charlie turned and burned!!). But... No, bc it's a lesson and we want to do the actual exercises. 

But then the exercises ended up exposing quite a few weaknesses, which meant maybe more repetitions than I want in my head. BUT.... Isn't that actually kinda the whole point of the lesson anyway? Get into a rhythm, then tackle a challenge. Figure out the weak spots, then address them, and smooth it out.

we luv left

Emotionally haha, sometimes I wish I could do the beginning and end of that cycle -- skipping the whole "exposing the weaknesses" bit in the middle. But then, would we ever really learn?

For me, the feeling I need to remember was how well Charlie came back to me when I asked, and how it actually wasn't nearly as "high volume" an ask as I expected. Maybe I'm still kinda expecting him to pull like a freight train... But he really just isn't. Like he still gets strong and forward (and hopefully always will!) but his education means that he "hears" me make a quieter request now.

So my biggest takeaway is to make sure that I make that request, that I react and recover quickly, instead of letting myself get pulled out of position and then just kinda surrendering to it. Bc it turns out, Charlie will do it haha. Not the worst lesson to learn, honestly!

Thornridge CT @ T

Happy Monday, everyone!! This weekend Charlie and I finally finally got to complete an actual two-phase CT at training level!! Sure, it was just a very small local schooling thing haha... BUT! In my book, it totally counts to have to sign up at a level, show up that day, and do the things (ideally while not dying)!

Previously, we've done a handful of 3'3 jumper rounds, plus a few fix-a-test events for the dressage portion. But our actual fledgling attempts at any sort of multi-phase event have not exactly been fruitful lol (*ahem* falling in the N/T division at Full Moon Farm's Aloha trials... entering a schooling HT at T this past spring only to have it cancelled bc of covid...).

basically champions <3 <3 <3 just don't ask how many riders were actually in the class LOL....

Obviously, coronavirus has really turned my whole plans for the year upside down -- and honestly made me rethink some of my goals altogether. So at this point, in this year 2020, I'm trying to make all my decisions at a little bit more of a "gut" level, if that makes sense.

In other words, when I hear about any sort of upcoming outing, event, or adventure, I try to figure out if I feel kinda "meh" about it, or if I have a full blown "Hell Yes!" feeling.

our crew! L to R is Charlie, Punky, Austin and Royal!!

This CT was 100% in the "Hell Yes!" category haha, for me and for a few barn mates too. So obviously we made a little party out of it!

You might remember I went to an event at this farm last summer soon after falling off at Full Moon. At that point, tho, we just did a couple jumper rounds and skipped out on the dressage test altogether. Bc I figured, eh. I already knew our dressage is shitty, and at that moment it felt more important to focus on show jumping.

warm up in the lovely dream magic footing of the indoor

This time, tho, we were ready to put the pieces together. Like.... Not necessarily bc our dressage is any better (hint: it isn't LOL), but bc I was so much less stressed out about it all and felt like I could mentally juggle a little better.

Charlie, for his sake, was extremely good in the dressage. This horse, he probably thought he was showing up for the Grand Prix. No joke. In warm up he was alllllll business -- nice and forward, soft on the contact, steering and transitioning and generally being a Very Good Boy.

test in the absolutely gorgeous outdoor

He carried that feeling right on into the test itself too. We put together what felt like a very reasonable test. Everything happened just about where it was supposed to, with just a few little blips.

I straight up forgot about the whole lengthening part of our first canter circle, Charlie jigged a little in anticipation in our medium walk, and somehow my second canter-trot transition caught me a littttttttle off guard lol.

Otherwise, tho, it was a pretty accurate reflection of where we're at on the flat. The 10m half turns were fine for us (meaning: the judge didn't think the horse was lame lol), our first canter-trot transition I thought was pretty nice, the stretchy circle felt good to me even if it didn't look like much, and I was actually quite pleased with the horse's effort at a lengthened trot (below!).

d'awwww Charles!! sure, the judge's comment was "more reach" but i still appreciate how far he's come!!

Some real talk tho: It wouldn't be totally accurate to say I've given up on dressage with Charlie but.... Well, I've definitely changed my attitude about it. For my level of skills as a dressage rider, and Charlie's typical way of going, it just really does not come easy and is also honestly not that enjoyable.

Or at least, it wasn't before I kinda shifted how I thought about it.

omg guys i actually have a video of our dressage test! 

believe it or not, i haven't seen a filmed test of us since OCTOBER 2018

For a while, it felt like my slightly ham-handed attempts at getting Charlie more dressage-y were actually counterproductive to my real goals: jumping.

Bc the thing is, the horse is a LOT to get put together, but he'll fake it if you let him poke around behind the leg. But poking around behind the leg is 1,000% not at all EVER where I want to be with this animal especially while we're trying to jump bigger things.

So in my head, I've kinda broken down the flatwork into components as they relate to jumping specifically -- rather than how they relate to any particular dressage levels or tests. Things like: adjustability in the gait, balance in turns, promptness in transitions, reliability in the connection.

the test scored a 36.9% / 63.1%

Maybe that sounds like... dumb, or "duh" or whatever. Or misguided or a cop out... I honestly don't really care. Because I'm just so happy with the feeling I'm getting right now from Charlie, both on the flat and over fences. We'll keep trying for more and better, but for now I'm pretty happy with the way he goes.

Naturally tho, lol, not a whole many dressage judges agree with my assessment haha, and that's ok too. Our score was 6% points off the leader -- in a class of two. Oh well!

I certainly wasn't gonna sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, bc we had the jomping to do!! AND, I'm continuing the trend from last spring with finally bringing coaching to our warm up ring.

lol if you ignore the flying rail it's a lovely shot of charles!!

And honestly it really is helpful. I tend to be pretty economical in the warm up, not really jumping much more than I think I have to...

But also when things start to get a little rough -- like let's say Charlie is getting strong and running, or we're having a couple bad jumps in a row -- I start feeling like, "shit I'm already fucking this up, might as well just get into the ring right away before it gets any worse!"

homeboy was very careful after our first few oopsies haha

Luckily, tho, with a coach there (who could also set fences for me -- major bonus) we were able to break the pattern. First few jumps were great, as they often are, then we had a couple decidedly not great jumps.

But -- and I know this will shock you -- we worked through it and fixed the issue, then went into the ring lol. Crazy stuff, guys haha....

jumped the SHIT out of this oxer!

And the round itself?? Honestly? It was fine haha. Not our greatest, but also pretty reasonable. The poles are all PVC which means they fall pretty easily, so I didn't exactly expect to go clear. Which... we definitely did not.

First rail at the first fence was definitely my fault too -- it was a bending line and you'll see in the video I tried to turn him too early (maybe was worried he'd try to lock onto the wrong fence?) and caused his hind end to drop too soon.

Second rail at the second fence (whoops) I think was just a lazy accident. Nbd tho.

ugh i wish the higher quality camcorder i bought for this exact reason actually, ya know, worked..... sigh

After that, tho, Charlie actually grew a little bit of a conscience and started jumping much higher and more carefully!! Good boy!!

We did the next two related lines pretty reasonably, tho the last line got a little tight after losing some balance at an end jump. To be honest, tho, I was super impressed with how hard Charlie tried even when we got so close to the last. Probably should have put a little more bend in that line, but it worked out.

hang in there, buddy, we're almost done!

Of everything about it, honestly I'm happiest about how more or less relaxed I was. Case in point: as we're making the turn after fence 2 to the first related line, I had the presence of mind to notice my videographer friend had the camera oriented the wrong way and asked him to fix it as we cantered on by to the next jump LOL.

Which... ok, admittedly that's pretty silly. But dammit! I get so few videos of us these days, and have especially few of us jumping at this height. So... Ya know. #priorities lol

video of our round!!

Obviously the rails were sorta a bummer, even tho I expected them. Turns out tho, while the other rider in the T division had a rail too, she still would have had it in the bag even if we'd gone clear. Bc.... yeeaahhh dressage lol.

all the happy bay boys after the ride! hilariously, none of these horses are herd mates, but they've been in lessons and trailers together for so many years they're all good friends haha

Mostly I was just happy to have done it. And felt almost like we were getting away with murder by being totally finished before 9:30am, omg.

Obviously we had to stick around to cheer on the rest of our group through their classes too -- and I'm happy to report that everyone did really really well! Everyone did nicely in the dressage and had pretty excellent jumping! A couple rails here and there, but again it's to be expected with PVC poles.

lol the best thing about a brontosaurus neck is that you can reach across the entire width of a trailer to get dat cookie!

It also felt really good to go through the whole competition procedure for the first time since last fall. All the bathing and packing, having a group set up at the trailer, remembering how to deal with my horse's studs.... And letting the horses remember the whole atmosphere and rhythm too.

Here's hoping we'll get a few more chances before whatever 2020 wants to throw at us next!

signal v. noise

One of my biggest struggles with Charlie is keeping up with him as he adapts and evolves. Sure, he's a very consistent, predictable and reliable horse -- but he's also sensitive and learns quickly.

I sometimes get so caught up with "planning" and "expectations" that I end up riding yesterday's horse instead of Charlie's today. Does that make any sense? 

check out this beautiful shot from charlie's super groom!

Anyway. Wayyy back in February 2017, just a few months after Charlie came home to me, I wrote an entire litany on all the small adjustments and modifications, the incremental changes we were making in Charlie's training. Including everything from tack and equipment adjustments to what external tools I use as a rider.

Obviously a lot has changed since then, but most relevant to this post is the point about when and why I choose to carry a crop or whip, or wear spurs.

my elegant beastie <3 <3 <3

For a while with Charlie, I carried a dressage whip and wore spurs for every single ride. But.... Over time, began to believe we had become over-reliant on those tools and that Charlie was actually deadening to them.

So I nixed them, or would do one or the other. Riiiiight up until our disastrous second attempt at Novice, where Charlie had a completely uncharacteristic performance at Plantation. He was stuck behind my leg and stopping at fences, and I reeeeeeally could have used more backup.

three months without lessons left some bloat in the budget. hellloooooo fancy new ecogold saddle pad!!

Basically since then, I've taken the approach of always always carrying all my tools with me in competition. And usually in lessons too. I figure, in a lesson the trainer will let me know if I'm using the whip or spur like a crutch. Plus, we're typically pushing ourselves hardest in lessons so I want to be sure to have all my power when called for - esp if it means avoiding a sticky or unpleasant moment.

Then, in just every day schooling, I typically ride "unarmed" so to speak. No whip, crop or spurs. And ya know, this has been pretty much fine for a long while now.

ah horses. so humbling.
went from congratulating myself for beating the rain to literally eating dirt in the snap of a finger... was still finding sand in my ears for days wtf....

Lately tho.... Charlie's reminding me that... Ya know.... All my philosophizing and conceptualization and rationalization of how I approach riding doesn't really mean jack shit to Charlie if he's not on the same page haha.

Like a couple weeks ago when we were soooo sluggish omg in our dressage school... I kept pleading with him to please maybe consider picking himself up, but he just could. not. And as we were cantering and stumbling along, I finally growled out 'ugh Charlie, buddy, c'mon!'

Which... well.... He certainly did, by basically stumbling into an unstoppable avalanche at the canter, in what must have looked like his best "wheelbarrow" impression haha. The hind end was still cantering, but the front end was just... Idk, it was basically a simultaneous horse + rider face plant, let's be real. Massively unpleasant, so much sand everywhere omg. Charlie had sand up his nose and a skinned knee, and well... you can see from the above what I looked like. Ugh. So so so unnecessary, tho!

charlie 100% prefers spectating vs actually having to derpsage himself

I hate that sometimes it takes such a big mistake like that for me to remember that it's really not ok to just plod around, ya know? And with any horse but especially Charlie, the more clear I can be in expectations, the better. Spending an entire ride nudging and nagging, begging and pleading for more zip is.... not particularly effective haha.

So our next ride or two included either carrying a whip, wearing spurs, or both. And guess what? The horse has actually been fantastic. Goooooo figure haha.

And actually, that's kinda the other big revelation in adjusting and modifying my approach to riding and training Charlie. Since coming back from quarantine, this horse has been.... straight up phenomenal. Like, obvi set aside the face plant and his unfortunate bout of anaplasmosis, bc ignoring all that it's hard to think of a comparable period of just straight up goodness.

oooooh charlie got to meet trainer K's new bebe!! he's such a weirdo about small beings and creatures haha, but it's cute. every time she made any noises he'd stare intently, probably wishing he could shove his big squishy nose right into the stroller to snuffle all over her lol....

Our first few jumping sessions back from quarantine have all been pretty wonderful -- and obviously we had a grand old time at the hunter pace a couple weeks ago. Compared to this time last year, Charlie feels like an entirely different horse. Sound, happy, relaxed and willingly forward (again just ignore the face plant incident LOL).

And this impression was only strengthened after finally having our first jump lesson since March!!! Heck yes!!!

triple across the diagonal was a 1 to 1 grid
recommended to begin the exercise off L lead for the sake of symmetry

While I've been pretty pleased with our efforts muddling along outside of lessons.... The timing just felt right. Not least because we have a little low key schooling CT this weekend (wish us luck lol...). I figured it might be nice to run through a couple grids to tune everything up, ya know?

Which, obviously trainer K was happy to oblige. And Charlie, bless him, is such a pro at grids. After only a very few repeats with building the grid up, I honestly felt pretty satisfied about things. Actually tho, trainer K surprised me by suggesting we add in a little bit of course work as a finishing touch.

To do so, she set the above fences all up to 3'3 (except the first two grid elements), and sent us on our way. And like, I haven't jumped a course at T height since.... uh, March lol. But Charlie.... he's just on fire right now, absolutely slaying.

pictured: flashback to our doctor-themed hunter pace a couple weeks ago

It's honestly amazing to me what this horse feels like when he feels good. He wants to jump the fences. He likes it when they're big. And it's easy for him.

Charlie has an excellent eye and is educated enough now to know how to adjust himself to the fence. It's such a great feeling. Like I watched trainer K set the fences and kinda gulped a little like ugh, really tho?? Except, the horse just goes, ya know?

Like even when we jumped into that bending 3 stride line from a faaaairly open distance haha and Charlie had NO CLUE that there was a second element lol omg, once he saw the second fence he just half halted himself, jumped it cleanly, then landed perfectly organized for the rollback turn to the triple.

this is my preferred method for conditioning!

It probably helps that I'm continuing to practice some of the softening in my hands to the fence that Martin preached to us about. And, as a slight point of pride, we didn't have a single jump in the lesson (even through the hairy bending line!) where I got left behind or did my weird pearl-clutching over the fences.

But really.... Honestly I think it just boils down to Charlie straight up feeling good in his body. Esp compared to last year. Which... is interesting to me. Bc it's not like he's had any recent work done either -- his last injections were eight months ago (after which we did a course of adequan).

So what's the big difference? Honestly? I think it's the time off from the quarantine period, plus his current conditioning program. Or, uh, ahem, the lack thereof. Because you see.... with his feet in such rough shape, I've been avoiding any unnecessary pounding. No trot or canter sets, and no lengthy rides just for the sake of length.

strolling the farm is nice too ;)

We've been doing all our purposeful schooling (either on the flat or over fences) in short intense bursts a la Doug Payne's "stringent criteria," and otherwise just hacking out and having fun. And the horse feels amazing for it. Which has me rethinking my entire approach to conditioning him.

Previously, knowing that Charlie has a history of quitting (like at Plantation), my idea had been to over condition him. Make Charlie so fit that even if things get rough, he'd have enough in reserve to carry us through.

Maybe that was a fine idea, maybe it wasn't. All I know is.... the ground was hard as shit for basically all of last summer and frankly I now suspect that he was dealing with persistent low grade soreness and inflammation because of it.

Meanwhile, the horse has been back in full work for 8 weeks now -- equivalent to the amount of time off during quarantine. With the only major difference in his work load revolving around babying his feet. And he feels fantastic. So....... Ya know. There's some important food for thought in there lol.

In an ideal world, I want Charlie to be happy and comfortable and set up for success in his work. Bc dammit, in this year 2020, all that really matters is that we can have fun and enjoy ourselves in the moment, right? So. For now, I'm taking my cues from Chuck lol. We'll see what happens!