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 up a Bomber bit for him last week. He has always tended to be a touch "fussy" with his mouth, and after trying him in a rubber mullen (which improved things but still wasn't perfect), I had the idea of trying a Bomber. Of course those bits are $$$ so I wasn't about to just run out and buy a brand new one right away until I sold some stuff to fund this idea of mine. Luckily I found one for sale on Facebook in the exact size & style I wanted for just $85 shipped, which was a significant enough discount to make me jump on it.
We've tried it out for a few rides with some pretty positive results so far. Obviously no bit is a majykal fix, but he has been a bit more willing to softly reach into the contact, respect my half-halts just a touch more, and be quieter with his mouth. I managed to jump him solidly at 2'3" yesterday in it without feeling like I was out of control at any point, which is always a good place to be with him.
Again, on a bit of a whim, I decided to throw Charmer in our last local winter series show of the season this upcoming Saturday. The show is super cheap and its a pretty lowkey schooling environment, so I figured it is a good opportunity for us to get back out and see how he feels about that.
The morning classes start at 2'3" and unfortunately the show always lasts a crazy long time, so I knew if I wanted to take him, I'd have to make sure we could do the 2'3" because I sure as heck am not sticking around until 6pm or later to do the little classes. As a little prep, last week I set a single fence and started at a x-rail and slowly built to 2'3", both trotting and cantering. It was fairly solid and he didn't really knock any rails (we used to jump 2'9"+ easily so the height really isn't an issue provided he can stay sane).
So yesterday, I decided to drag out my jump/photographer crew (my husband) as I played around with Charms a bit more. I only set one more fence, but I started them off at 2'3" right off the bat just to see what he would do (spoiler, he was totally fine with that since they're still little fences for him). But the way I set them allowed me to do a pretty tough "bending line" at almost a 90* angle if I wanted a challenge, but each fence was also separate enough for me to do them individually.
I trotted each fence with him first and he was a little slow on the approach but felt good and we got some nice little jumps so then I moved on to canter. One of my goals was to maintain basically the "same" canter all the way up to the fence, but still feel like I had an adjustable horse if I needed it. My other goal was to not bury him into the fences, but also not allow him to do that to himself (he likes taking a big stride beforehand and then the takeoff spot is too close and doesn't allow for a nice, smooth jump).
After a couple of very "sticky" jumps in which he kind of lost power all the way to the base of the fence, I kicked him up into my hand and focused on trying to almost feel like I was increasing the power. Not rushing, or even making a bigger canter, but having more impulsion on the approach. And wouldn't you know it, the jumps started feeling better and more fluid! Crazy how all those things my trainers have told me over the years actually work.
We still had a few bolty moments and a few (hilarious) kick outs, but for the most part he was super solid, and even the handful of weird moments that we had were super manageable.
We are back to mostly flatwork this week as we head into our little teeny schooling show this Saturday, but I'm feeling good about taking him out, and super happy with how his fitness is improving right now! Taking time off of riding him and working on myself seemed to really benefit both of us. Charmer is physically looking really good (despite needing some chiro), and we finally have his feet under him which is keeping him from being footsore or anything. And my own personal strength & riding ability has really improved over the last year or so, and we just feel like a much better team now all around.
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 up a Bomber bit for him last week. He has always tended to be a touch "fussy" with his mouth, and after trying him in a rubber mullen (which improved things but still wasn't perfect), I had the idea of trying a Bomber. Of course those bits are $$$ so I wasn't about to just run out and buy a brand new one right away until I sold some stuff to fund this idea of mine. Luckily I found one for sale on Facebook in the exact size & style I wanted for just $85 shipped, which was a significant enough discount to make me jump on it.
 |
| Getting some solid form back |
We've tried it out for a few rides with some pretty positive results so far. Obviously no bit is a majykal fix, but he has been a bit more willing to softly reach into the contact, respect my half-halts just a touch more, and be quieter with his mouth. I managed to jump him solidly at 2'3" yesterday in it without feeling like I was out of control at any point, which is always a good place to be with him.
 |
| Can't forget about a little Kung Fu Fighting tho |
Again, on a bit of a whim, I decided to throw Charmer in our last local winter series show of the season this upcoming Saturday. The show is super cheap and its a pretty lowkey schooling environment, so I figured it is a good opportunity for us to get back out and see how he feels about that.
The morning classes start at 2'3" and unfortunately the show always lasts a crazy long time, so I knew if I wanted to take him, I'd have to make sure we could do the 2'3" because I sure as heck am not sticking around until 6pm or later to do the little classes. As a little prep, last week I set a single fence and started at a x-rail and slowly built to 2'3", both trotting and cantering. It was fairly solid and he didn't really knock any rails (we used to jump 2'9"+ easily so the height really isn't an issue provided he can stay sane).
So yesterday, I decided to drag out my jump/photographer crew (my husband) as I played around with Charms a bit more. I only set one more fence, but I started them off at 2'3" right off the bat just to see what he would do (spoiler, he was totally fine with that since they're still little fences for him). But the way I set them allowed me to do a pretty tough "bending line" at almost a 90* angle if I wanted a challenge, but each fence was also separate enough for me to do them individually.
 |
| Wut R Legz? |
I trotted each fence with him first and he was a little slow on the approach but felt good and we got some nice little jumps so then I moved on to canter. One of my goals was to maintain basically the "same" canter all the way up to the fence, but still feel like I had an adjustable horse if I needed it. My other goal was to not bury him into the fences, but also not allow him to do that to himself (he likes taking a big stride beforehand and then the takeoff spot is too close and doesn't allow for a nice, smooth jump).
After a couple of very "sticky" jumps in which he kind of lost power all the way to the base of the fence, I kicked him up into my hand and focused on trying to almost feel like I was increasing the power. Not rushing, or even making a bigger canter, but having more impulsion on the approach. And wouldn't you know it, the jumps started feeling better and more fluid! Crazy how all those things my trainers have told me over the years actually work.
We still had a few bolty moments and a few (hilarious) kick outs, but for the most part he was super solid, and even the handful of weird moments that we had were super manageable.
 |
| Favorite jump shot of the day |
We are back to mostly flatwork this week as we head into our little teeny schooling show this Saturday, but I'm feeling good about taking him out, and super happy with how his fitness is improving right now! Taking time off of riding him and working on myself seemed to really benefit both of us. Charmer is physically looking really good (despite needing some chiro), and we finally have his feet under him which is keeping him from being footsore or anything. And my own personal strength & riding ability has really improved over the last year or so, and we just feel like a much better team now all around.
 |
| So proud of this kid. |
Comments
Post a Comment