Annagain
Well-Known Member
I've not been on for a while as I had a week off and tend to just come one here when I'm in work and procrastinating (exactly what I'm doing now).
That does mean I had some time to spend with Charlie though so thought I'd give you all an update. I've had a couple of flat lessons with a local trainer which have shown me just how far we have to go! Trot isn't too bad and is definitely a lot less wobbly than a few weeks ago but we're still struggling with canter, especially in the 20x40 at home. We've been to two bigger arenas and he's far better with more room although we're still running into canter a bit and get the wrong leg fairly regularly (about 40% of the time) on the right rein. Considering I was very wary of cantering him in the school just a couple of weeks ago though, we've come on lots.
We did a fun ride last weekend - the weather was beautiful, the route was fab and Charlie was a total star. We galloped through stubble field after stubble field, he didn't once pull or canter until I asked him to and his brakes were impeccable. I even tucked in behind my friend to pop a small jump - it was nice and inviting, uphill, out of a field into a little wooded area so no room for him to leg it after the jump (this is the sort of catastrophising I do
). Well, he jumped it so big, my hat silk flew off and hit poor Monty behind us in the face, my hat (which never moves) ended up on my nose and I shouted something very rude, very loud. I didn't jump anything else but still had a lovely day.
Last week we were due to go to camp but our area has been put into local lockdown (in Wales this means you can't leave or enter the county without a reasonable excuse) so it was cancelled. We arranged a day of lessons locally instead and nobody else wanted to do flat so I had to get the brave pants on again and do a jump lesson.
We started off over a tiny cross pole. Charlie once again did a huge jump - I was half expecting it so it wasn't as bad as the fun ride and he then settled well and jumped it nicely a few more times both as a cross pole and a straight. We then went to a filler. I trotted round the corner, he picked up canter a few strides from the jump, I panicked, socked him in the teeth and he (understandably) stopped and spun away from the jump. The stop made me wobble, the spin put me on the floor. The weirdest thing happened though, I hit the deck, felt no pain at all, got up said "that needed to happen to stop me being so stupid" got back on and even though I was scared kept going popped the filler the second time and didn't look back. I still struggled to canter at it but I did it quite a few more times and even did a little course of 4 fences at the end - all in trot though, I couldn't bring myself to canter. Having had two quite bad falls the last twice I ended up on the floor, I think I needed a 'no big deal' fall to stop me building falling off into such a huge thing in my head. It was the best thing that could have happened, especially as it was entirely my fault and not poor confuddled Charlie's.
Yesterday the weather was horrendous and a friend had a local indoor school with jumps booked to take her 4 yr old baby so she talked me into going too. I wasn't sure he'd ever been indoors and he was mesmerised by the mirrors but in true Charlie style, soon settled. We started with some poles on the floor, which avoided the 'huge first jump' syndrome and even though they were tiny (not even 2ft) we pootled around most of them, jumped a couple of fillers and I was cantering fairly confidently at them. Charlie thought they weren't worth the effort of jumping and just lolloped over most of them but I'm happy with that for now! I know he has the jump for when they get bigger and when I'm actually sending him forward a lot more - at the moment I just need to do it and not care about doing it well. I was even smiling at the end.
So all in all, he's a superstar and when I get my confidence up where it needs to be, we're going to have so much fun. I have 20 years with him so if it takes me one or two to get where I want to be that's absolutely fine by me. He's lush even if he does a great line in 'special' photos.
That does mean I had some time to spend with Charlie though so thought I'd give you all an update. I've had a couple of flat lessons with a local trainer which have shown me just how far we have to go! Trot isn't too bad and is definitely a lot less wobbly than a few weeks ago but we're still struggling with canter, especially in the 20x40 at home. We've been to two bigger arenas and he's far better with more room although we're still running into canter a bit and get the wrong leg fairly regularly (about 40% of the time) on the right rein. Considering I was very wary of cantering him in the school just a couple of weeks ago though, we've come on lots.
We did a fun ride last weekend - the weather was beautiful, the route was fab and Charlie was a total star. We galloped through stubble field after stubble field, he didn't once pull or canter until I asked him to and his brakes were impeccable. I even tucked in behind my friend to pop a small jump - it was nice and inviting, uphill, out of a field into a little wooded area so no room for him to leg it after the jump (this is the sort of catastrophising I do
). Well, he jumped it so big, my hat silk flew off and hit poor Monty behind us in the face, my hat (which never moves) ended up on my nose and I shouted something very rude, very loud. I didn't jump anything else but still had a lovely day. Last week we were due to go to camp but our area has been put into local lockdown (in Wales this means you can't leave or enter the county without a reasonable excuse) so it was cancelled. We arranged a day of lessons locally instead and nobody else wanted to do flat so I had to get the brave pants on again and do a jump lesson.
We started off over a tiny cross pole. Charlie once again did a huge jump - I was half expecting it so it wasn't as bad as the fun ride and he then settled well and jumped it nicely a few more times both as a cross pole and a straight. We then went to a filler. I trotted round the corner, he picked up canter a few strides from the jump, I panicked, socked him in the teeth and he (understandably) stopped and spun away from the jump. The stop made me wobble, the spin put me on the floor. The weirdest thing happened though, I hit the deck, felt no pain at all, got up said "that needed to happen to stop me being so stupid" got back on and even though I was scared kept going popped the filler the second time and didn't look back. I still struggled to canter at it but I did it quite a few more times and even did a little course of 4 fences at the end - all in trot though, I couldn't bring myself to canter. Having had two quite bad falls the last twice I ended up on the floor, I think I needed a 'no big deal' fall to stop me building falling off into such a huge thing in my head. It was the best thing that could have happened, especially as it was entirely my fault and not poor confuddled Charlie's.
Yesterday the weather was horrendous and a friend had a local indoor school with jumps booked to take her 4 yr old baby so she talked me into going too. I wasn't sure he'd ever been indoors and he was mesmerised by the mirrors but in true Charlie style, soon settled. We started with some poles on the floor, which avoided the 'huge first jump' syndrome and even though they were tiny (not even 2ft) we pootled around most of them, jumped a couple of fillers and I was cantering fairly confidently at them. Charlie thought they weren't worth the effort of jumping and just lolloped over most of them but I'm happy with that for now! I know he has the jump for when they get bigger and when I'm actually sending him forward a lot more - at the moment I just need to do it and not care about doing it well. I was even smiling at the end.
So all in all, he's a superstar and when I get my confidence up where it needs to be, we're going to have so much fun. I have 20 years with him so if it takes me one or two to get where I want to be that's absolutely fine by me. He's lush even if he does a great line in 'special' photos.
