Happy Monday, y’all! We’ve continued to enjoy the milder and less humid conditions lately, and decided to capitalize with a destination xc clinic @ Windurra with local legend Sally!
freshly arrived on a gorgeous day for some xc!
Not gonna lie, Windurra is just a touch far from our new boarding barn, and especially for our level there are certainly plenty of places closer to home. In fact, I’d kinda gone into this year thinking we’d get our regularly scheduled xc fix in lessons with new 5* event trainer, considering those lessons take place at a full fledged eventing facility complete with xc course too…
started by being a princess over some little logs
But that hasn't happened yet for whatever reasons, and in the meantime I’ve been keeping us in practice with little solo expeditions to Tranquillity. Which, obvi, I love. But every now and then I wonder if all the haters who think I’m ruining my horses by jumping them so much outside of lessons might at least have a point. And so off to a lesson we went!
i feel like there were more bebe jumps than last time we were here
And it was a good one!! Not necessarily meaningfully different from my solo schools — bc let’s be real if you’re jumping small fences for the lowest levels of eventing… Basically just point and shoot your way around lol.
But then again it’s always super nice to have expert supervision — esp in the form of Sally, a widely popular local pro who is all about confidence and successful progressive repetition. And also a bit unapologetic for pushing for those slightly bigger or more technical elements that we might not do alone.
look at this cute little table!
Doozy, for her part, was a super star! Still strong and chaotic (especially on the back side of fences), and also *quite* fussy about picking up our trot and canter at the beginning of every turn. Like she gets so ahead of herself, knows we’re going to canter, but also knows I’m going to ask her to go slower than she wants, and so we kinda get stuck in a little fit just trying to get going. Thankfully, these little moments became significantly less explosive as the lesson wore on.
already a pro about water
It was exactly the style of ride that I honestly never really do with Doozy — because it’s hard, because of those little fits. Starting and stopping and jumping one fence at a time is a challenge when every transition feels so hard won. Much much easier to just get into gear and cruise around for a bit.
ooh we jumped some BN things too!
But then again, that’s what lessons are for. That’s what practice is for. And Doozy can certainly benefit from learning that we stop after every single jump, instead of racing off into the distant horizon, never to be seen again (LOL. But Really Tho!).
a little wild about the banks combination lol
The jumps themselves were also quite nice. It seems like Windurra has invested in a whole bunch of new low level fences — including quite a few that had too much top spread for Starter but maybe weren’t fully BN height - a lovely dimension! It was nice to have the variety, even tho realistically Windurra is most useful for the higher level horses.
another super sweet little table!
Doozy tackled each fence with aplomb, only ever really surprising me when she occasionally proved slightly more civilized than I was expecting. She really didn’t make a bid at anything (except the step up, oops) and actually bc of our sorta fussy sticky transitions, I was able to keep a fair amount of leg on the horse almost all of the ride!
lovely roll
Our straightness was not fantastic — possibly also a side effect of the fussy transitions. But ya know. That’s why we practice, right?
fun feeder!
Probably the only kinda crazy (for us) thing that we jumped was a little roll top coming out of the water. Not a big fence at all, tho obvi bc of its position on rising ground it’d measure quite a bit larger than its true dimensions. Plus, obvi, the proximity to water makes it significantly more technical than what the guidelines allow even at Novice.
technically you wouldn’t see *anything* like this before training level, but why not play a little amirite?
But that’s kinda the cool thing about Windurra overall — All the questions thru 5* are set up in various levels of progressions and heights, such that you can start to get familiar with more technical stuff in easy and inviting ways.
view of the same jump from the other side — obvi a very small jump but quite a nice question!
Overall, I’m glad we went — and def want to go again, tho ugh I wish it wasn’t so far! It felt reassuring to be in a lesson environment where the coach was basically just reaffirming that we’re doing the things we need to be doing for where we are in the training.
proud biscuit <3
Like, yes, there are things for us to work on — straightness, balance, posture, all the normal things — but that’s literally what this level is for, learning all that. There is no prerequisite for needing to know everything before you’re allowed to do anything, it turns out.
helmet cam video!!
And ya know, it also turns out that doing the things — even somewhat less than perfectly — is still fun and rewarding in its own right <3
feeding the beast before going home
Anyway. Doozy was basically a princess about being on the grounds from beginning to end. There was a fair amount of activity when we first arrived, tho we had the place almost entirely to ourselves by the end. Didn’t seem to matter for Doozy, tho!
feeding the other beast too, ahem
She was also super good about horses in our group coming and going for their turns, including galloping and jumping in close proximity to us. We’ve only ever really had maybe 3-5 experiences ever of schooling xc in this type of group environment, and you really never know with Doozy, but so far, so good!
pro tip (especially if you’re actually a pro!): *PaY* *tHe* *PeOpLe*
It’s nice to know bc while realistically I’ll still probably do most of my routine xc schooling solo at Tranquillity or similar places, there’s something special about the fun camaraderie of group clinic-style lessons.
I was actually talking about it with someone who rode in an earlier group — about how it’s a little far, and a little expensive, and all these little reasons why maybe it’s not the most rational thing. Except — legit NONE of this is a ‘rational’ thing. We do it bc we want to, and isn’t that enough?
I work at a consulting firm full of type-A geniuses, each a master of something—and everyone’s got an analogy for everything. It's like a sport: who can pull the most perfectly relatable client story out of their hat, fastest. My boss, in particular, is fond of saying, “If you’re resting on your laurels, you’re wearing them in the wrong place.”
arrived just in time to enjoy pleasantly subsiding temps + humidity
And ya know. I admit to spending maybe more time than was quite necessary basking in the glow of our wonderful Loch Moy experience last month… But. Eh. It’s been hot, I knew there was work travel on the horizon (happened last week), and let’s be real: we’re allowed to be adult amateurs who can sit back and rejoice after doing a “big thing” every now and again, right? It’s all good.
the helmet cam always makes evening look so majestic!
Tho I’m also trying to really learn and understand all the various components that help create wonderful positive experiences in the first place. Namely, for us (and me and my mental demons in particular), it seems to be steady consistent “bite-sized outings” where everything feels easy and routine and mundane and normal.
With that in mind, I spent some time calendaring the next couple weeks between planned lessons and other outings, with an intent to balance Doozy’s trailer schedule, and decided that last night was the night to pop back over to Tranquillity for a little trip around the xc course.
not a new jump, but a good one
By now we’re all kinda familiar with the routine, right? Tranquillity just makes it so darn easy to get out and do whatever needs doing. I actually decided to warm up in one of the outdoor rings too, more or less to try to keep myself as honest as possible.
It wasn’t a perfect warm up — Doozy definitely knew what was up and was distracted by other horses (and deer) milling about the property — but honestly it was totally fine, and she popped over the little x-rails setup in the ring as quietly as she ever gets. Good ‘nuff!
brief interruption orienting the uninitiated to Tranquillity’s inviting layout: we parked next to the two big outdoor rings along the driveway, warmed up in the third outdoor (spiral), then basically made a circuit around the various fields (notably, the hay fields only ever really have jumps on the edges if at all).
Then we were off for a nice little jaunt about. Just trying to find the jumps nicely, reminding myself to circle and get balanced whenever necessary, and trying to keep everything easy breezy.
We started with mostly logs, but honestly Doozy was jumping fine — if a little fast and excitable. Bc, erm, it mayyyyyy or may not have been our first proper jump school since Loch Moy LOL. All good tho.
oooh putting this together is new for us, tho!
I knew from last time that as much as I like putting little lines together, Doozy sometimes seems to do better with single jumps when she’s feeling too hot to trot. Tho, interestingly, on this particular night, we actually had our very best set of jumps after what was a nice long straight run (the above gif) — just like what we’d see at an event.
not a new bench either, tho got quite a nice little shot to it
So it’s not necessarily that she does better on singles vs related distances, but just that she does better when she has a fair amount of time to relax into a more forward rhythm and cover some ground. Which… Is hard to trust when the shorter approaches feel so choppy and explosive. But interesting food for thought, none the less.
ooh first time with this slightly larger ramp-y triple bar!
Anyway, in trying to process all that information in real time while also making snap judgments about whatever jumps happened to appear in front of us, I opted to finish the schooling with a little loop around three nice fences — two of which are familiar, and one that was slightly larger but also friendly, all of which would require some threading the needle thru the driveway trees.
basic brown boxes are always good to us, even when i take a crazy tight approach LOL
And it was good! Tho actually I opted to throw in a last minute circle before the second jump (the new-to-us triple bar) just bc I didn’t totally love our level of straightness and canter, and preferred to circle, do a simple change of lead to Doozy’s left leg (just in case she found the weird water cooler jump on the left side a little spooky), and make it all a little more clear.
walked over the little log bump
It obvi didn’t matter tho LOL, Doozy was fine, jumped it great, and then even jumped the final fence fine too even tho I turned wayyy too early through the trees and we weren’t at all straight. Oops. What a mare haha.
omg there was swamp water for once!! we just snarfled through it, no real schooling
We stopped by the water mud puddle on our way back to the trailers just for the culture, more or less. Doozy was skeptical, as is natural — this ain’t exactly the world’s most inviting water complex. But she figured it out like the clever biscuit she is.
In a way I’m kinda grateful to just have helmet camera lol, bc it hides so many imperfections and really just showcases the feelings and vibes of a ride. Which, ya know, are what core memories are made of, right?
Like I could totally feel throughout the ride when my hands were misbehaving, or I wasn’t riding as straight as possible, or whatever other flaw you can imagine. But. Eh. That’s what the practice is for, I suppose! One little nibble at a time lol….
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!
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!
