OTTB Charm

This weekend brought around another one of our local schooling shows! I entered Banner in at Novice again, as he definitely needs more & more practice doing that level. He is laughably bored at BN, but still just a bit intimidated by some of the Novice questions, so its a great learning experience for him each time we get out. In our recent show jumping lessons with Trainer C, we have finally unlocked a new level with Banner. He is finally feeling confident & schooled enough at the 3' level that I need to stop "helping" him as much (okay, lets be real, I need to stop micromanaging him). It is super  hard for me to learn to just almost sit there in a supportive role for him. I do my part, trying to set him up well & give him a fair chance to make a good decision, but now I need to let him take some of the responsibility. Banner is loving this new balance we have struck. When I finally stopped fidgeting with him as much, you could almost hear him sigh ...

Heading into day 2, Banner & I were sitting in 1st place! But to be honest, I had no expectation of keeping that placing or anything, and I was not worried about the placing we got at this show. Right now at Novice, XC is sort of our weakest phase. Banner eats up the galloping fences (rolltops, tables, steeplechase, etc.), but some of the tougher questions (1/2 coffins, trakehners, etc.) still back him off a bit at this height. Unfortunately for the barn that puts on these shows, their tractor broke, which didn't allow them to move any of the XC fences, so our cross country course was the same as it was in July . Part of me thought "whomp whomp..." because this didn't mean really any new lines or new challenges (they did add one up bank out of water, but that was it). But then I thought about it and actually this was perfect! I knew the mistakes I made last time and we had done some XC schools to improve our weird ditch issue. The course being exactly the s...

So, as you may have gathered from the title, I did in fact make it to the Karen O'Connor clinic this past weekend (yes I'm very late on this post...we just won't talk about that). Spoiler alert, it was amazing . Epic water shot (I've always wanted one of these) Day one was SJ work. We were in the BN group, and Banner was wonderfully bored with everything we did. Karen honed in really quickly on what everyone needed to work on, and we were no exception. Her first, and biggest note for me was that I need to get the impulsion from Banner sooner, but be a better manager, because he can quickly go from impulsion to impulsive.  Banner and I only did each exercise once, which can easily feel like you got overlooked, but I know from watching Karen several other times, that if you only do it one time, that means you did it right. I felt like we got some good notes and work, and I honestly felt awfully proud & happy that she didn't feel the need to dril...

This weekend, our local barn hosted their first ever true schooling HT. It was a 2-day show, with dressage & SJ on Saturday, and XC on Sunday. Banner and I signed up to do the Beginner Novice! Our dressage test was mid-morning, and there was a storm threatening all day on Saturday. It was definitely brisk, and it was getting to a few of the horses, but Banner came out true to his unicorn status and warmed up like a champ. We are working on improving his transitions, and he gave me some of his best yet to date. His downwards tend to be a bit abrupt, and his upwards tend to start in the front with his back legs struggling to catch up, but on Saturday we got most of our transitions in great form - fluid and smooth! He stayed relaxed and rhythmic in our test and gave me some great work. Our upward canter transitions could have been better, and our free walk could have been stretchier, but I was pleased with our test, and excited about the fact that I still think we have so mu...

Banner has been mine for almost a full 2 months now, and I have been loving every single moment with him. He is incredibly versatile, but so gentle at the same time. He is bringing a joy to riding that I haven't felt in years , if ever. He is easily the most trained horse out of my 3 and is always game for trying new things. Like riding tackless for the first time. And then letting me stand up on him - no big deal. I am definitely still learning how to ride him though. He is a big, huge tattletale on me when I shift or change. He will cruise along at the canter as long as I ask him to, but if I take my leg off, he breaks. We are working on our counter canter (with trainer help), and he swaps leads if I shift my weight by an ounce. He is forgiving and awesome over fences and is teaching me a lot, but he requires a correct ride! *photos are just from a random home ride, not our lesson* In order to try to improve my own riding and give him the ride that he deserves, ...