Mind Blown

New. Favorite. Photo.

I just have to drop that there for you to look at for a moment. Because I am obsessed with this photo.

Okay, well now that I'm done gawking over that photo (who am I kidding, so not done, but I'll try to move on), we will move on to the actual blog post.

Originally, we (Jayne and I) had a lesson planned for Saturday afternoon, but after quite a bit of rain poured down in the morning, we opted to move our lesson to Sunday afternoon. There ended up being a bit more rain on Sunday morning, but nothing too terrible, so we loaded up the ponies and headed off to our lesson.

The drive over was fairly uneventful, except for the couple of miles traveling down a road under construction, but thank goodness for ponies who travel quiet, because we all got there in one piece. 

Honestly, Jayne and I were both 100% under the impression that one or both of us was going to take a swim today. Neither of these horses have been ridden outside, let alone off property in over 3 months, and both of us are pretty severely out of shape. 

I gave Charmer a few minutes on the lunge line to try and get some wiggles and silliness out, but he didn't feel like being all that silly. He was fairly obedient, albeit distracted by the tractor moving some jumps around. So I figured I might as well head over to the arena - either he would be fine or he would explode, but the lunging wasn't going to change that. 

We warmed up at a decent walk. He was taking contact and paying attention (unless I tried to walk in the puddles - there are Charmer-eating monsters in those). I asked for the trot and he got a little wiggly for a moment but pressed forward pretty well. He got a little mad when the other horses passed him, but that is nothing new, and it wasn't as explosive as it has been in the past. 

After no real explosions in the walk or trot, I just knew that we were going to take off like a rocket in the canter. So once Jayne finished her warmup, she warned the other girl riding in the arena that there was a good chance we were going to racetrack around the arena. The girl totally understood and opted to wait in the middle while I got some of the wild out of my horse. 

And then the craziest thing happened. We cantered. Just cantered. No bucking, no racetracking, just cantering. Like a normal horse.

When we were done, Jayne deadpan looked at me and was like "where's the ace?". Neither of us could believe that he was just being calm. He honestly seemed drugged he was so relaxed. (And no - I did not actually drug him haha)

By that point, Trainer S had come out and started putting us to work. We worked on some various walk, trot, canter stuff and then moved right into the jumps. There were two teeny little crossrails in the corner that we were working on, so she had Charmer and I head over the first one. And since we all know Charmer can have a tendency to bolt after fences, she told us to halt in a straight line after the jump. He rocked that. It was seriously no big deal. I was hanging onto the neckstrap for dear life and was 100% sure I was going to die, and Charmer just hopped over it like it was nothing, and pleasantly complied about stopping a few strides after the jump.

Trainer S, Jayne and I, all basically sat there, open mouthed like "did that just happen?". After trotting the teeny crossrail again, we strung both teeny crossrails together. And it was no big deal. Now I should mention, that up to this point, Charmer and I have never been able to jump more than two jumps in a lesson, and never in a row/course type fashion. 

Trainer S looked at Jayne and I and said "what happened to the riders that were here last year?". Now that is the first time either of us have ever been asked that question in a positive way. S was totally shocked at how ridiculously calm everyone - horses and riders alike - was.

She threw the fences up to little verticals and Charmer did not even bat an eye. There were no ridiculous fireworks or flails. He acted like a seasoned pro.

We did make it over this

That is, until we had to jump into a big puddle. That is when the baby horse came out. But he was incredibly brave and trusting, even though he was sure that there were Charmer-eating monsters in there. This was his first real time having to deal with water in any real way, and I honestly couldn't have been more proud. He was super skeptical, but he tried his little heart out, and I couldn't help but laugh every time he squirreled his way over.

Again, jumping back out of the water puddle was another cause for great concern, but he snapped his knees up to his chest and trusted that I wasn't asking him to jump to his death. He tried so very hard for me every single time, and I always rewarded him with a nice scratch and pat and usually a little laugh too. 

He finally reached a point that we could trot and canter through the puddles without too much drama. Jumping with water was a bit hard for him all day, but we made tons of progress and he was incredibly brave.

All I can think of when I look at this photo is Kuzco from the Emperor's New Groove - "NO TOUCHY"

We even cantered the last fence and he rocked it without any hesitation whatsoever. He honestly took every jump like he has been doing this for years and is a seasoned pro. I could not have been prouder.

You guys, this horse is just so freaking cool. I am so ridiculously in love with him. Sorry for the annoyingly proud mom post and gigantic photo dump but I cannot get over how fantastic he was yesterday. I am so looking forward to our future together.