Day 32

First off,
Merry Christmas!
I hope everyone's holidays were great.

For Christmas, I got Brie and Nina carrots (the usual) and peppermints (the rare treat)! Brie hasn't had a peppermint in so long because of her insulin resistance that she forgot what it was and spit out the first couple before remembering how good they taste! I let my brother ride Brie first today, as a challenge to him to see how well he would do. He actually did pretty well! It was a good change of pace for Brie and myself, both of us were getting stuck in that "winter routine" rut since we're stuck indoors.
While my brother was riding, I played around with Nina. I tried my Parelli games on her, the few that I know. She's good with the Friendly Game and the Porcupine Game, but still isn't catching on to the Yo Yo game yet. It's a little frustrating when here I am at one end of the rope, waving it around like a madman while she just blankly stares at me, not knowing what to do. I'm pretty sure that's an error on my part. I really need to get around to watching the rest of those DVDs, I've only watched the first two so far. Maybe on New Year's Eve when I have nothing else to do that night I'll watch them.
When I got on Brie, I was determined not to ride around in a circle on the rail like always, and we didn't. We made serpentines, I even "rode" my name in the sand. I tried to get her to canter but that ended up in a gallop. She can't seem to get her back feet to go the same speed as her front feet when I'm trying to canter her. Thoughts on this? Suggestions? My mom's been telling me to let her gallop and then try to bring her back to a canter. She's also been telling me to use a round pen, but oh! We don't have one! Thanks, Mom.
I'm very excited for 2010. I'm confident that it will be a productive and stunning year, a year like no other with Brie. I hope that you are successful with your horse goals (and others) as well.

Day 31

Super cold today. I feel like I'm redundant when I say I'm so proud of Brie, but I shouldn't feel that way. It has taken so long for her to get to this point and I'm happy I didn't listen to everyone who told me to give up on her, that she'd never be worth anything, that she never would win anything. I have a feeling we'll have a huge success at the shows this year. I can't wait for the first show in April.

Nina is still under training. I can't picture her actually working, even though I've shown her and placed while half asleep, but that's another story. She just seems like too much of a goofball to be phased by anything, and that can be a good thing. I guess I'm just eager to see how good she is when Ray is done training. I wonder if she'll turn out to be Fino like everyone has thought, because that would end up being a true underdog story.

Day 30

The calming supplement is working really well for Brie. She was very responsive and now that I have more of a handle over her I'm working on making a more noticable differnece between her corto and largo. I have a really good feeling about this show season and I'm anxious for it to start.
I also worked with Nina today. While Ray is training her we're not supposed to be riding her, so I played Parelli games with her. I played the Friendly Game and am teaching her the Porcupine Game. I started the Yo Yo game also, but she didn't really grasp that one, so I'll focus on the Porcupine Game until she gets really good at it and then move on to the Yo Yo game.
It's so cold over here, and I'm waiting til snowfall to take some pictures of them playing.