Cough.
In a move that surprises no one familiar with my luck (I have none, ever), that plan didn't pan out. Courage has firmly opted out of any sort of career over obstacles on many occasions. He's a dressage horse now and I'm like oh, 80ish% fine with that. Except every once in a while I either go "OMG MISS JUMPING WAH MUST JUMP" or "OMFG DRESSAGE TOO HARD WILL QUIT AND BE JUMPERS".
That has happened three times this year. The first time was a massive shit show that's best described as "if you want to do something really stupid, at least remember to put your freaking martingale on, dumbass" and the second time was actually pretty great.
The third time was last week. It's possible that I had sort of convinced myself that now we were doing reasonably ok-ish dressage that everything would MAGICALLY click into place and C would be completely perfect and we'd be like "lulz y u waste time on dressazzz when could be world's most perfect hunter move over brunello".
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| ahahaha or something |
I mean, I won't swear that's how it was in my head, but you know. It may have been rattling around back there. Because obviously a little first level dressage is all it takes to turn an anti-jumping OTTB into a six-figure warmblood with 1.5 decades of top level training. Obviously.
I'll pause to let your eyes recover from the stain of that collective roll. It's ok. I could hear it from here.
Anyways. Lindsey brought her magical French saddle out and played jump crew for the day. Now that I don't try to make her ride the beastie, she's actually way more willing to do that. Interesting. It started out great--we walked and trotted over poles and I just focused on keeping his topline loose and his brain engaged. He jumped cute both ways when we put up a tiny crossrail.
Then we did a wee little vertical and again, FABULOUS. Thrilled. So easy. Life happy. Perfect hunter. Daydreams.
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| ok maybe not "hunter" perfect, but i'll take it |
And then we changed directions. Courage sucked behind my leg and got tense. I rode a couple circles and asked for some relaxation. It seemed sort of better so we trotted up to our tiny vertical, made a gorgeous jump over it...
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| swoon |
...and landed flailing.
hard.
Hard enough that Lindsey completely missed the video because she had serious (if unfounded) concerns for my physical safety. I apologize for the lack of fail-related media. Alas, it (like my horse) was out of my control.
And lest you think I was abusively jumping the legs off an unfit horse, we had trotted in/cantered out over a teeny crossrail and vertical about 10 times. Total.
Sigh.
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| because i dared to trot him over a pole |
I even compiled a fails video to remind myself of this fact.
So yeah. We dropped everything down to ground poles and slowly worked back up to our tiny vertical and ended on a good note and I actually don't think I broke the steering or the brakes this time, so that's cool.
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| it keeps his head from going over mine |
At least you're listening and not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole! And as always, bonus points for awesome outfits
ReplyDeleteIf things go sideways, I like to lean hard on my outfits to look good. ;-)
DeleteIf Courage was human he would put a hand on his hip wave a finger at you and say "oh hell no!" I also suffer from delusions that things will magically fix/improve themselves...
ReplyDeleteHe's definitely expressive.
Deletewow he really doesn't like jumping! he could cut you a little slack and let you do it every ONCE in awhile.
ReplyDeletejust for funsies.
c'mon courage.
Haha yeah we're pretty much 50/50 on good/horrible with jumping. That's not an acceptable figure if we were anywhere near serious.
DeleteOh c-rage 😁 glad no one was harmed in the making of all your flail media! 😉
ReplyDeleteYeah at least this time he didn't mow anyone over... it's possibly happened before...
Deletehomeboy knows what he likes (and, uh, *doesn't* like) lol. also tho that amazing cross rail pic three from the top reminds me of another certain bay that i know (tho fingers crossed he's just clumsy and uneducated, as he's not yet shown any disinclination to make creative shapes over tiny fences)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't mind the awkward. It's fixable. It's the freak-out-and-leave that's my problem.
Delete"OMG MISS JUMPING WAH MUST JUMP" = strongly identify. If I could just put my horse's want-to-jump brain into your horse's sound body we'd be golden. Courage knows what Courage wants, and he is an awfully cute dressage horse!
ReplyDeleteHahaha yeah it's a good thing he's doing the dressage because there is really no point in pushing the issue. I don't mind this for screwing around a few times a year, but it's not his gig.
DeleteI vote that you always jump 2-3 times a year. The fail photos are hysterical, and the success photos have me positively swooning. Seriously. It's a win-win.
ReplyDeleteThere's very little in between with us. Just another service we offer. :-p
DeleteI totally get it; Gina and Courage have similar feelings about jumps, haha!
ReplyDeleteIt's not a lack of ability. He's freaky talented. Just. Doesn't. Want. To.
DeleteHe certainly has an 'interesting' way of using himself over fences. Oh Courage! Good thing you like dressage :)
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a part of me that wants to keep trying because I CAN SAVE HIM but then I remember that I did that for like two years and all I did was make both of us miserable. Dammit.
DeleteHahaha Hey at least you tried :0
ReplyDeleteI'm nothing if not stubborn. ;-)
DeleteCourage has opinions indeed!
ReplyDeleteNo denying it.
DeleteC-Rage is just the cutest - even during fails.
ReplyDeleteIt's always easier to train a horse to do a job they like. Sometimes it isn't what we had originally planned, but if we can make the transition with or rather for them, then everybody wins. Sure you might want to jump again at some point, but at least you know that if you seriously want to go that direction, it won't be on Courage. There's nothing wrong with that.
ReplyDelete