Charlie is the greatest horse in the whole universe & Maxims

Charlie was also a total rockstar at show jumping yesterday. I got pretty nervous because I was the very last rider - and the rain came back after those two glorious warm sunny days - and I definitely felt the pressure of being in 1st. And then, sadly, lost it, with another beginner error. So the good news is that the mistakes I made are definitely mistakes I can learn from and improve (not "huh? what happened?" sorts of mistakes, which I am all too familiar with), but the bummer is that I made them at all. And yes, it was ME making them - not Charlie, who was a total champ. Our show jumping course was quite smooth (to me) - it was very spacious ridden - it looked harder from the ground than it was to ride. I had walked it the night before and then confirmed with Shannon what I thought - I had only missed one thing, which was jumping the purple vertical at a bit of an angle to make the line easier to the next oxer. And then I got to watch how it rode for several other riders which was nice. Shannon told me that Charlie might have difficulty in the striding to the oxer, and in the classic snowball effect, we were excellent until fence #8, when he launched (and I let him, instead of squeezing in another stride) and then I reverted to my usual habit and didn't pull him back together fast enough, so I was still pulling him together as we turned to the combination, and then I didn't want him to go in short so I kicked him long for the first fence and through the two strides, so he was a bit flat and .... just ... barely ... rubbed ... the very last pole of the very last fence of the very last ride of the whole day, and like a tragic novella, I heard it thump behind us as we went across the finish line and it was the thunk of us going from 1st place with the fabulous cooler for a prize to 2nd place with a lousy leftover ribbon from last year's event and some weird ass stall bag thing. Sigh. But it does give us some things to work on (and a manageable handful at that!) and some progress to make over the next three shows. And Charlie was SO MUCH FUN and so fabulous to ride and I had the best time of my life. It was such a pleasure and an honor and the reason I've been riding my whole life and I am so, so, so grateful for the opportunity. My new maxims: - A beginner rider should not have an inexperienced horse. Beg, borrow, but do not buy until you save the money for a horse who will let you have the space you need to learn. - You are probably less experienced than you think you are. This one is hard because you will not realize how inexperienced you are until you acquire more experience. I have consistently, no matter how hard I am on myself and how much of a perfectionist I am, overestimated my skills. Ah - yesterday I had a whole list of these, so I'll have to fill in the rest later.