Transformation Tuesday 1

Charlie in May 2014 over a raised trot pole on a circle, vs February 2016, less than 2 months into jumping and his first time over a 3-jump grid.

Belgium

Charlie and I would like to express our deepest sympathies to those affected by today's tragedy in Belgium.

Original photo by Franziska Laue, 2014

Lesson 2 Recap: Honesty, and Working Through the Sillies

In keeping with my commitment to recap every lesson, here is Lesson Recap 2! Today, there was less of a "theme" to the lesson compared to last week, but it was a great lesson nonetheless.

Working Through the Sillies

Charlie was not the calm, relaxed horse he was last week, and so, our warmup had an entirely different tone. Today, Charlie was fresh and full of sillies. This is not particularly uncommon for Charlie - as is to be expected, seeing that he is a young horse - so it wasn't any big surprise. There was no "bolt" in his sillies today, but he had a few little rears and gave some rabbit hops. So, instead of gently and calmly asking for forward and suppleness on a loose rein, I asked for forward more sternly by encouraging him to come up from behind into my contact. To do this, I closed my hands tightly on the reins, raised my hands (instead of lowering them, like the last exercise, to give him room to come "up" in his withers), and closed my legs. If I found that, despite his energy, he was ignoring my "forward" cues, I slowed the pace right down for a few strides before asking again for forward. One end of the arena was scarier than the other, so we started working at the less scary end on a 20m circle. I did this at a walk, and then a trot. When he seemed to be more "with" me, mentally, I then moved up to the canter and repeated the exercise.

Once at the canter, we incorporated our theme of "straightness" from last week into some transitions to keep his mind sharp and focused on me, rather than on his desire for sillies. On a 20m circle, we came down the centre line and did a canter-trot transition, ensuring to stay straight before we changed direction (in a "serpentine" manner in the circle) and picking up the canter on the other lead. We repeated this several times. Once I was satisfied with his warmup at one end of the arena, we went back to the walk and repeated the whole exercise at the "scarier" end of the arena - which, funnily enough, wasn't so scary anymore. This concluded our warm up.

Charlie's First Oxer!

Once our warmup was concluded, we started jumping. We started with a small X on the quarter line, jumping it alone at a trot, then at a canter, focusing on straightness. This week, Charlie's disparity in competencies between his left and right lead canters was more apparent than normal. Charlie is inherently stronger to the left at the canter than to the right; he missed a few right leads today and it was much easier to keep him straight to the left. We then upgraded to a 2-jump pattern, a small vertical down one quarter line and a larger one up the other. Finally, we added a third jump to the pattern - an oxer. Charlie's very first! We practiced it alone first, and I was very proud of him; he hardly so much as looked at it! We finally added it to the jump pattern; vertical down one quarter line, vertical up the next, change diagonals, and the oxer up the other diagonal.

Honesty

I will say this about Charlie: if nothing else, he is an honest horse. His sillies are not unexpected; he's pretty upfront about his temperament from day to day, and I could tell after 2 minutes in the crossties that he would be "more horse" than on his average day. His honesty also extends to his work ethic. His first few attempts at the oxer were not flawless; the first, he was unsure and hesitated, but went forward because I was confident in my request for him to do so; the second, he took off too early, but still (gracelessly) clambered over it; the third, he tried to correct his previous mistake by jumping just as early, but bigger; I could go on and on. When I ask him for straightness, he puts up with me while I try to organize and coordinate my leg and rein aids, and attempts to do what he thinks I'm asking. His honesty makes him a pleasure to work with.


That concludes Lesson Recap 2! Next week is Easter, so there will be no recap next week - but stay tuned for other updates in the meantime. The following week, it looks like there will be a Combined Test clinic at the barn, so that should be an exciting day!

Happy trails :)

Charlie inspecting his very first oxer.

Charlie's First Trail Ride!

Yesterday, Charlie and I went for our first trail ride! It was unplanned and spur of the moment, but I'm so glad we did.

I have been wanting to take Charlie on trails, well, ever since I got him. Trail rides or short hacks after some work in the arena are always a nice way to relax, for both horse and rider. Charlie, though, being so young, just wasn't ready. He definitely wasn't ready at the beginning of last season - he would still sometimes act up just being ridden in the outdoor arena. By fall last year, I did take him on a few little walks just a couple minutes down the road from our barn in Edmonton - never longer than 5 minutes tops. But, in Edmonton, if I wanted to go for a longer trail ride, I'd just take Hal. Here, though, I don't have that option, and there are a lot of trails around here. Needless to say, since I moved to Quebec, I've had the trail ride itch pretty bad.

I got home from school yesterday and decided to do a little work with Charlie. I was fully expecting to just work on our "homework" from our lesson last weekend, but about what would have been half way into my ride, a friend showed up and asked if I wanted to go with her to do some gallop sets. I mentioned that I'd never taken Charlie off property much, at all, and not once here - and our decision was made. We would take Charlie for his first trail ride.

I am not afraid of Charlie, or of horses in general, but I am FAR from a brave rider. I can always manage to find reasons to talk myself out of doing something I'm not 100% sure of. Yesterday, it was windy, a neighbour was clearing some trees with a noisy chainsaw, there were puddles on the road and streams running in the ditches and under the road - not to mention cars on the road - and, well, it's spring (almost!), so the horses were fresh. I could go on and on. There were many reasons I thought about talking myself out of going yesterday, but I squashed them, and away I went. (I did wear my cross country vest, though, for my own peace of mind.)

For about the first 1/3 of our ride, I was so nervous. Charlie is still a baby in a lot of ways - not yet 5 years old - and he sometimes doesn't know how to handle himself when he is over stimulated. I was worried that all of the distractions yesterday would be too much for him and he would buck or bolt. But - not once did he do anything even slightly naughty! Not once did he say no! He was looky, and alert, and attentive, but he went forward. The road was very hilly, we were passed by many cars (at least one of which was far from polite), we were surrounded by trees and bushes blowing in the wind and flocks of birds taking off and landing. The only thing that made Charlie a little unsure was big yellow road sign right before the end of the road. In total, our ride was about 30-40 minutes, and by the end of it, Charlie and I were nice and relaxed.

All in all, our ride yesterday was a huge success, and I'm so glad his first trail ride was such a positive experience. I'm looking forward to many more!

Happy trails :)

Thanks to Marie and Jelly Bean for the company, and the picture!

Lesson Recap 1: Straightness and Riding Every Stride

I've decided that I will do a recap blog post for every lesson - at the very least, it will help me keep track of what I learn each week, and maybe there will be something helpful for other STB riders as well.

The themes au jour of this morning's lesson were straightness, and riding every stride. It was an excellent lesson in terms of helping me to ride Charlie on a course in the future. This post will be a little long, but we did a lot of learning today!

Straightness

We started our lesson today with a long warm up, focusing on straightness. Charlie, in his natural state, is wiggly, so we have to work on making "straight" more second-nature to him. Straightness must be established in the walk before it can be expected at the trot or canter.

First, I asked for a free walk on a 20m circle by lengthening my reins and widening my hand slightly, to encourage him to drop his head and soften in the mouth. This is not necessarily how I would start off every ride - i.e. if he is particularly hyper, this would not be my ideal way to start - but Charlie was in the right frame of mind for this to be effective on its own today. Once a nice free walk was established, I shortened my reins slightly and returned my hands to normal position, and asked him to walk forward into the contact. One of my biggest weaknesses as a rider is my hand position, so this was a bit of a challenge for me, too; I have to constantly remind myself to keep my shoulders back, my elbows back, and my hands equal. We also changed the pattern of our circle to a square, taking care to keep our lines straight and our corners, well, square - using my outside aids to discourage him from popping his outside shoulder out. We rode big (20m) squares and little (10m) squares, with the little ones being that much more challenging. Once I felt comfortable with his suppleness of mouth and straightness of body at the walk, I repeated these exercises at the trot. This was the first half of our lesson.

Riding Every Stride

The second half of our lesson was centered around a pattern of a jump down one side of the arena and 3 canter poles up the other. Charlie, like any young horse, is inexperienced and uneducated. This means that I, the rider, do not get a lot of "breaks" in the saddle, and this exercise reinforced that notion.

We started just on the poles - but straight ahead of the poles is the bleachers, where we had a small audience. Let me tell you, that was scary! Charlie would pull up halfway through the poles, lose his balance, and then shy to the left. So, what were we just working on? Straightness! The same idea applied to that situation - only this time, it was to be incorporated into a different task. Using my hands and my legs in the same manner described above. I rode him through the poles and halted at the wall. This took a few times - mostly for me to remember to focus on my hand and my leg aids at the same time. I focused on riding him to the poles - sitting him and waiting for the right moment in his stride - through the poles, and halting afterwards. When the halt became successful, we simply switched it from actually halting, to riding straight and waiting for a turn when I asked for it. And you know what? He figured it out.

We then incorporated these poles into a pattern with the jump - jump up one side, then turn for the canter poles down the other. Again, this involved a lot of thinking, and riding every stride on my part. On the approach: shoulders back, elbows bent, and make him wait. On the landing: ride it straight, as if I was going to ask for a halt at the wall, but ask for a turn instead. This enabled me to collect him and have a straight approach to the poles.


And there you have it! The first lesson recap done. I'd love to hear from anyone who managed to read this whole thing - I'm new to the blogisphere and I'm trying to work on the efficiency of my posts. Feedback is welcome!

Happy trails :)

What My Horses Have Taught Me

When I woke up this morning, the sun was shining, the snow was melting, and the bird were singing - and I, like most equestrians, thought, what a wonderful morning for a ride. With spring upon us, sunny skies and warmer temperatures give us equestrians a renewed sense of excitement to spend time with our equine companions, despite the hassles of muddy yards and shedding horses. I got out of bed with more energy than I do on any given day and readied myself for the barn.


As I settled into the somewhat monotonous, yet therapeutic, pattern of getting ready for a ride - brush the horse, wrap the legs, straighten the saddle pad, tighten the girth - my mind began to wander, as it often does. I started to think about me, and horses, and how they fit into my life. Horses have been in my life for, literally, as long as I can remember, my parents having bought my first horse, Hal, when I was only a year old. I thought about how he was my brother and my best friend and my confidant as a child when I had no one else to turn to, long before I even realized what he was to me. I thought about all the coaching I'd had, before I started riding him and after, about all the barns I'd been to and all the people I'd met because of him. I thought about the many life lessons riding and horse ownership taught me as a child - lessons in responsibility and trust, love and heartbreak, success and failure. I thought about how my horse was there for me, too, when I learned all of those lessons again, outside of the context of horses. I know that I would not be even remotely the same person that I am today if I had grown up without him.


With all of these thoughts in my mind, I lead my tacked-up horse to the arena. This horse is not my childhood horse, but my second horse, my first adulthood horse. This horse is young, uneducated, and inexperienced, save for what I've managed to impart on him in our nearly two years together. This is the horse who taught me, as an adult, how to be brave enough to take chances, yet also to have faith in something that I know to be right. This is the horse that accompanied me, in the hardest decision of my young life, across the country, 4000 kilometers away from anyone and everything else I knew and loved. And he is absolutely the reason I make it through my toughest days because I promised him that I would always come back.


Working him today, I reminisced about how far we've come, and dreamed about how far we could go. Every equestrian has big dreams. But we, like the vast majority of equestrians, know these dreams are likely never to become more than that. Life stands in the way. I don't have the resources to make more of it than that, at least not right now or in the foreseeable future, and any edge Charlie's pedigree might have given him became worthless the moment he stepped onto that stockyard. I know that we are not Valegro and Charlotte, or Hickstead and Eric. We are not at the top of our country, our province, our region, or even of our barn. And that is just fine. We are just Charlie and Alexandria, and we strive to be the best that Charlie and Alexandria can be. Together, we may lack many of the necessities that make a champion, but we have heart - and I could probably argue that we have a lot more heart than most. And I am happy to be the champion of that category, even if just in my mind.


Every horseman knows the proverb, "For every rider there is one horse, and for every horse there is one rider". For me, though, that simply isn't true. Hal was that horse for me for the first 21 years of my life. And now, as life goes, I am striving for different things, and Charlie has become that horse for me for, I hope, the next 21 years. It hasn't been, I realized today, so much incorporating horses into my life, but two very special horses incorporating me into theirs. And I am so much the better for it.

Hello from Charlie!

 Charlie would like to personally wave "hello" to all of his followers! 

 

 

 

A Brief Bio

In addition to our profile on GPS' blog from earlier this week, I'd like to help you guys get to know us a little better with a brief bio. Good Time "Charlie", race name Robert T and previously Wings On Four, is a 2011 pace-bred Standardbred gelding by As Promised and out of Island Romance. He was started for the track in southern Alberta, however it became apparent that he wasn't quite mature enough for training and was returned to pasture for the remained of the season. The following year, he was sent to the Vancouver area to continue his training, however Charlie ultimately decided that he did not want to be a racehorse after all. He was picked up at a Vancouver-area stockyard by Maple Ridge-based J&M Acres Horse Rescue (here and here) in early March 2014. This is how Charlie was discovered by me, his current owner and trainer - on Facebook. In March 2014, I saw a picture of him posted by J&M and I just could not stop thinking about it - so just "for the heck of it", I inquired about him. Sure enough, two weeks later, he was on a trailer from Maple Ridge to Edmonton, AB to start his new life. I started Charlie under saddle in late April 2014, and we began dressage training in August of that year. Our first Bronze Level dressage show was in March 2015, and we continued to compete on the local Bronze circuit in Walk-Trot and Training Level throughout the 2015 season. In November 2015, Charlie and I moved to Sherbrooke, QC, where we have since settled and recently started jumping training. We are aiming for Combined and possibly Eventing tests for the 2016 show season, with our first Combined show planned for early May 2016. Follow us throughout the season here on our blog, here on GPS' blog, and here on our Facebook page. We appreciate any and all support we get - we wouldn't be where we are without it. 

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to our first blog!

This blog started following the selection of Good Time Charlie as a 2016 Standardbred Ambassador for Go and Play Stables in Peterborough, ON, Canada.

Our major blog posts over the 2016 show season will be found on Go and Play Stables' blog, Raise Your Standards, but we will use this blog for little updates throughout the year.

For starters, head on over to their blog for the profile that GPS did on us earlier this week.

Have a fantastic day!

Charlie and Alexandria