A whole year of Charlie

[Annagain]

Yesterday marked my one year anniversary with Charlie. I have always been rubbish with photos and didn't take brilliant ones when he arrived but I decided to copy one of them yesterday to make a comparison. I knew he'd changed a bit but I didn't think he'd changed this much!

 

[Wishfilly]

He is looking great! I hope you've had a great first year together!

 

[Bernster]

Gosh that’s gone fast. I’m rubbish at at keeping track too but those are good pics. Exactly the same stance, focussing on eating hahah. How are things going with him?

 

[Annagain]

Gosh that’s gone fast. I’m rubbish at at keeping track too but those are good pics. Exactly the same stance, focussing on eating hahah. How are things going with him?

They're going well thanks. We've taken things very slowly, partly due to covid limiting our opportunities, partly due to work being crazy and partly due to me have a few wobbles. None of it has been his fault, he's been fab but I still have the "he's not Monty / Archie" thing in my head.

This last 6 weeks I really feel like we've properly clicked though. We did our first dressage competition (just a little local one and only two walk trot tests) a couple of weeks ago and scored 68% and 64% and came 1st and 4th. We're working on our canter transitions at home before we go to get judged on them. The left is pretty good but right is a bit delayed at the moment.

Jumping is a work in progress. We didn't jump for a while (the whole not putting pressure on the NHS thing) so have only been jumping since March really. Until a few weeks ago I was really struggling to canter at a fence. He would come round the corner, pick up speed and I'd panic but after persevering with it I'm now managing to canter around a (very) small course. He's settled to it more the more we've done and I'm finding I'm actually having to kick him into the fence which I'm much happier with.

We've done a fair few fun rides on which he's been fab and he's awesome in traffic. The pigs down the road are our only downfall at the moment but that's improving too. The one thing I haven't done yet that I really want to do is get him to the beach. We're only 1/2 an hour away from a decent beach (or 10 minutes from Barry Island which is a bit too busy - both in terms of people and fairgrounds rides for my liking) but we just haven't got our backsides in gear to go yet.

The way I see it though, we have the next 20 years together, I don't need to do it all in the first year.

 

[Bernster]

Aye and no one has a clock on you! Great to hear and sounds like it’s going well.

It’s still early days with Bertie, we’re about 2 months in. I’ve reset my expectations as the flatwork seems to need more work than I was expecting but it may partly be the small school as he’s struggling with his balance. And I have to factor in life, work, and my own wobbles too!

 

[Annagain]

Aye and no one has a clock on you! Great to hear and sounds like it’s going well.

It’s still early days with Bertie, we’re about 2 months in. I’ve reset my expectations as the flatwork seems to need more work than I was expecting but it may partly be the small school as he’s struggling with his balance. And I have to factor in life, work, and my own wobbles too!

You could be describing Charlie. I tried him in a field and while you think you're riding in a roughly 20x40 space, when you get into the arena you realise you weren't! They're both big guys so learning to balance will be the challenge. I haven't had one this young since I was 12 and clueless. I thought I'd want to be out doing things far more quickly than I have but I'm really enjoying the journey in the slow lane. We'll both get there, I'm sure.

 

[Bernster]

Same! I rode in the field and noticed a bit of falling in/out but nothing like the wall of death canter that I got in our school!