OTTB Charm

Last week, I had an opportunity to go out cross country schooling! Banner and I had a show jumping lesson earlier in the day, so I decided to bring Charmer! Its been over two years since I've brought him out, so I didn't expect much of anything for the schooling, but appreciated the opportunity to get out with him in a low pressure, mellow environment.  We arrived long before all of the others joining our group lesson, giving Charmer a fair amount of time to settle into the surroundings and let me get him all ready at my own pace. Once some of the other riders arrived, I threw Charmer on the lunge and worked on transitions and just taking in the sights at first. We moved on to roping him over a few of the smaller fences & playing in the water and popped him up and down the banks a bit! He was distracted and a touch wild but listened well for the most part and was at least jumping nicely! We got to a place where I felt like he was as focused as I could make him on the lunge ...

I'm in a weird state with Banner right now, in which I both have a lot to say and nothing to say at the same time. There are lots of things going through my brain but nothing that seems ready to voice to the world yet. He's happy, healthy & sound, which is always a good place to be. Our partnership seems different than it was & I can't quite put my finger on it. We toodle like pros, but real work has not really been our forte lately. Hence why the blog has been once again taken back over by my sweet Charmer pony & there has been a little bit of radio silence on Banner. Its just a weird place to be, and I'm not sure I'm ready to let the world into my brain at this time with this particular issue. Luckily, with the world - and show season - on pause for the time being, it's a good time to take the pressure off. I know there has been a crazy amount of discussion all over social media (whether it be FB, insta, blogs, etc) whether we should keep ri...

On top of the incredible turmoil of the world in general right now, I am heartbroken to learn that my trainer is moving away at the end of the month. She is moving back to her hometown to be closer to her family, as her young son grows up. And I absolutely understand her reasoning and it makes sense, but I am quite saddened by the news. Photos are from the last lesson I had with Trainer C I've had a relationship with her as a Trainer for nearly 3 years now, and she has inside knowledge of Banner (as she rode him weekly for months before I owned him). She has always been patient and kind with Charmer as well, and keeps a good sense of humor about his antics. Lately, Banner has really been kind of a pill and I was definitely planning to lean heavily on Trainer C to try to get us back to "normal", but now this has rocked my world just a bit. There's another trainer at the barn that I train at that I am also familiar with & who I love, but she is more expensi...

Well I'm nearly 2 weeks late with this post about my little schooling show with Charmer but oh well. Better late than never I suppose. Despite the fact that this show was only 12 days ago, somehow it feels like a lifetime ago as the world seems to continue to get crazier. I know we are all seeing far too many posts about all of that, so I'll try to keep this post a bit happier and away from the craziness of life for the time being. We left off in my last post with me getting Charms back into a bit of a program and jumping some little fences again. Throughout the week leading up to our final winter series show (on March 14th), Charmer and I did some nice little conditioning rides and a lot of work on getting his hind end under him and being softer in the bridle. I did pop him over a couple of fences the night before the schooling show just to make sure  that I didn't have fear of imminent death for taking him out. He popped fences like a civilized creature and remained...

I've got some stuff to blog about with Banner, but for now the spotlight is still on Charmer, so Banner's posts will be coming up later this week. Bringing Charmer back into work has quite honestly been such a joy for me. He's a lot of horse, and there's no denying that, but he is quite athletic and I have a connection with him that I'm not sure I've ever felt with any other horse. His back feels like "home", and I kind of always know what he's going to do even before he does it. It's a very wonderful and unique feeling that I'm appreciating even more after all the time off he got last year. I've been slowing building up his strength (as I mentioned in my last post) and working on getting him to use his body appropriately again. His baseline fitness tends to come back pretty quickly, so I've been really working on making sure he stays soft in the bridle as he gets more fit. Sort of on a whim, but not completely, I picked u...

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, the one good thing that came out of Banner's little injury and my subsequent panicking was that it finally allowed me a chance to take Charmer out to my lesson this Tuesday! I'd been trying to set up time to take him instead of Banner for a little while, but my schedule hasn't really allowed it to happen unfortunately. Photos from an unrelated jump ride at home! I've been able to keep up a reasonable amount of consistency with Charmer lately, which has been nice. And we are slowly working on improving his strength and adding in some jumps again. I have an annoying tendency to get very in my own head about riding him so I knew as we progressed, I needed to prioritize a lesson sooner rather than later so that I could get some good direction on how to improve with him. We arrived in the early afternoon Tuesday, and he was his nice calm, cool collected self on the ground. He's incredibly well mannered and handleable...

I'm definitely a few days late with this post, as I intended to make it on Monday, but oh well! Better late than never. Last Thursday (Feb 20th), I pulled Banner out as normal for a casual dressage ride. Everything seemed nice and normal until I started grooming and saw a big fat spot on his RF leg. It was super unusual swelling and definitely sent me into a wild panic. The outside of his leg looked 100% normal, but the inside had odd swelling in a place that made me fear suspensory or possibly tendon damage. I immediately called my vet in a fairly worried, but trying to stay level-headed, state and left a voicemail explaining what I saw & wanted to get her out as soon as I could fit into her schedule. Bless her, she called me back within an hour (she was in the middle of acupuncturing another horse but called as soon as she was done), and we were able to make an appointment for Friday. The plan was to keep him in his stall, wrapped overnight and see what we found the next...

Banner has been in a pretty weird funk for the last few weeks it seems. Our winter schedule is always a little lighter since I don't board anymore and therefore don't have an indoor arena. He's on a 2-4 day a week schedule depending on the weather, arena ride-ability & light. Our summer schedule is generally 5-7 days a week, so definitely a big difference! I'm not totally sure what's up with him, but I'm feeling a touch lost about it and a bit frustrated, so we are back to the mega basics for a few rides to see if I can get my happy lil pony back! I'm hoping he is just a little burned out on the tough stuff we have been working on & some light work will return him to his unicorn status.  With the days getting longer though, I've found myself with a little extra time now that my rides with Banner have been short & sweet. Its been perfect timing for continuing to bring Charms back into work. I've been trying to hit a lesson with him ...