Days 55 & 56

Saturday

Today I didn't do any riding because the vet came out. We had all three horses' teeth floated and they were given their annual spring shots. I would've taken pictures of them while they were all sedated, but I didn't want to embarrass them any more than they were while they were in our presence. While they were sedated, we clipped all of their ears. This is fantastic because they never let us get to their ears with the clippers (or anything, including fingers) while they're awake. This was especially important for Brie because the tips of her ears were DIRTYYY.

Sunday

It was kind of rainy today. I started off riding Harry in the indoor arena but was easily getting frustrated and upset so I went into the round pen outside to work with him in between rain showers. He calmed down out there while Brie was going pretty berzerk from being outside with mom. Nina looked fantastically calm, as usual, with Antz. After Harry was sufficiently calm, I went back inside.
I started getting frustrated again. So instead of being angry and letting him feel it and then possibly getting hurt and being counter-productive, I just got him to walk around the arena once, even if he wasn't on the rail, and then stopped. He doesn't like the rail because there are flags hanging on the walls. I think he'll get over that as he learns to trust me more because he doesn't have a problem walking next to the rail when I have him on a leadline.
I rode Brie. Immediately angry 1) because she was uppity after being outside and 2) because I HATE THAT SADDLE!! It is the WORST saddle in history in my opinion. Maybe it would be okay if I wore full chaps all the time, but it's for show, and I'm wearing tuxedo pants for show, and I definitely can not be sliding around and compromising my ribbon and safety in front of dozens of people. It's going on eBay this week.

I walked Brie back to the aisle to untack, had a good cry, and went on giving them showers.
In the wise words of Linda Parelli, "Don't get upset at your horse. Cry, let it out, end your session, and the next time you'll have a better day". I'll be watching more Parelli while I'm at work once I've caught up on all my homework.

Equestrian Team Day 9

I had such a good ride today!
I was a little (okay, a lot) bummed when I showed up and found out that I had to ride the same horse as I rode last week, the half dead one, remember? Dreading having to use my crop, I just talked to him as I tacked up. "Please be good, Jimmy," I begged. "I don't want to have to use the crop on you, it's so mean. I don't want to have to kick the hell out of you either, I know you're old and I'm sorry about it. It's only an hour and I can't even do the high jumps yet. Pleeeease." It must have gotten to him because he rubbed his head on my stomach multiple times before the lesson.

We got to ride outside, too. It was light enough and only got dark at the end of the lesson. So I learned how to carry a crop the right way and didn't even have to use it! I didn't even have to kick Jimmy! (Maybe I'm an animal communicator in training as well?) We had some good jumps, getting a little better at figuring out what the WRONG diagonal is, which is progress. I only had one problem that was entirely my fault: I wanted to canter but my foot slipped in the stirrup so instead of being sensible and stopping, adjusting, and restarting, I just kept up holding on for dear life as I tried to get my foot back and make him canter at the same time.

I feel like such an idiot sometimes when I'm in that lesson. It's disgusting.

Anyways, can't wait for my ride this weekend. Hopefully it's not too mucky outside. I really do wish I was in Tennessee though. Actually. No, I don't. It's even worse storms down there.

Happy riding!

Day 54

I didn't ride Brie today. My mom did.
Instead, I rode Taco outside. I worked with him in the round pen and he was SO good. At first, I couldn't understand what more Jane wanted out of him. Then we went out of the round pen.
Oh boy.
I guess I can't expect that much because he hasn't been ridden in over a month or so because Ally, Jane's granddaughter, didn't come out, she had to work, so she couldn't ride him. He was SO HYPED UP. And he just fueled Brie's craziness. We were sure to have been a sight to behold.

I didn't see Nina working (again, darn it!) but apparently she was breathtaking. I really need to take some time out to watch her.
I worked with Harry. He was pretty calm today. I even corto-d him around the round pen a couple of times, but I could tell that he was getting more worked up. So I will continue not overdoing things and hopefully he'll gain my trust with that and begin to calm down.

Since we're not going to the show next weekend, the vet is coming out for spring shots. I can't wait til after the show to hear how everything goes.

Day 53

Rode outside today again. Everyone was getting ready to go to the show next weekend which we are not going to.
Harry was significantly better today. When we started off he didn't want to throw me off first thing. We were pretty relaxed the entire time. The only thing that might have bothered him was the large gusts of wind that happened every so often, but we were good.
I'm assuming Nina worked well too. I was too busy at that point trying to stay on Brie. I supposed everyone has their off days. We've only ridden outside about a bazillion times but she's still uncomfortable riding like this. Any suggestions? She kept hopping like she wanted to rear. How do you make a horse comfortable riding outside?

We hit up a fun show at a stable down the street. It was cute! I wish we could've put Brie in it. It would've been good experience for her.

We also "ran into" Chris there, another trainer, and the owners he works for who own the other Paso stable in that same general area. We were arranging some training (grr), but I liked him the most so far in his philosophy. It was similar to Andre's except he seems like he knows better ways, and has more time, to implement it. One thing that I really loved that came out of his mouth: "I want to train the horse, teach the client how to handle the horse, and then let them go. I'm not afraid of losing clients because having amateur owners being able to handle their horses, even babies riding the stallions I train, speaks volumes for my reputation". Not a bad choice of words, Chris.

As of this moment, the owner is supposed to be getting back to us within a few days about pricing and accommodating us because his board is about double what we pay at the stable we're at now. Still being significantly more expensive, we would only train one horse at a time. I believe we would finish up Nina first since she has such a small window of opportunity since she's already been in training. She's been dropped for months once already and we're all not sure what would happen if she was out of training for that long again. She has amazing potential and we don't want that to go to waste.

I think we can handle the basics with Harry for a while.
Looking forward to my last day of riding this weekend. Hope it's a good birthday ride!

Equestrian Team Day 8

I FINALLY JUMPED!

To sum it up in one word: AMAZING.

The only bad part was I had a pain of a horse who would NOT trot unless you smacked him on the butt. Ugh. I never had to deal with a horse that DIDN'T want to run away, so naturally, that was a bit of a difference.

I am a little ticked off with the trainer though (again with trainers). She treats me like I don't know the horse's butt from his head. Hello, I believe I stated I was a trainer. Just because I'm with the gaited breeds doesn't mean I'm a complete alien/idiot.

Anyways.
My birthday's in three days and I can't wait to ride this weekend! I hope it's nice out again.

Day 52

Officially the first day of FINALLY having no trainer. For any of the horses.

I worked with Harry first. I worked on lunging him. He likes to run really fast and angled so he almost falls over, so that was a little bit scary. I didn't want him to get hurt. I have to work on that. I worked more with some Parelli stuff. He's still scared of the string on the end of the carrot stick so I want to get him acclimated to that before I start any other games. I want to have his complete trust, or at least most of his trust before I go and try to experiment with anything else.

I only have one goal with Harry, which seems to be his major problem:

I want him to calm down.

He is so uptight. He did rear a little bit when I first got on, but I walked him for about 30 minutes and he was relaxed by the end of it and he wasn't hot at all, which is the first I've ever seen him not all sweaty and gross after working.

While I was brushing down Harry, my brother worked with Nina. Her head was set beautifully. I wish I got pictures of that!
At the very end, I rode Brie outside. I didn't warm her up inside or anything. I lunged her outside and walked around the round pen that my brother was in, attempting to get her to that Quarter Horse walk. No luck.
I did ride her around the back pretty successfully though.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I can't wait to work more next weekend. I'll leave you with this beautiful picture of Harry I took on Saturday.

Day 51

It's over!
Ray is fired. Long story short, my parents got in a huge argument with him and he's done.
One problem: now we need a trainer.
At least, that's a problem in their eyes. I personally cannot wait until tomorrow when I get to ride all three of them and Taco too.
Today was beautiful out. I didn't ride because when I showed up I didn't know if Ray was going to work with them/us or not so I gave them all bathes. They looked and smelled marvelous until I let them outside to dry in the sun and they all rolled around in the mud. Ugh. Horses.
But the one super exciting thing that comes out of this is that now they get to go outside everyday. Ray wasn't going to let Nina and Harry out because he was training them but now they can go out. It's going to be gorgeous this week, so hopefully they'll all be in good moods next weekend. Especially since next weekend is MY BIRTHDAY!!
Yup folks, next weekend I'm turning 18!
What would make it a fantastic 18th birthday would be if I got a car, that way I could go out all the time on my own to ride. Training would be much more effective.
I can't wait until the day that I have my own farm and can ride all I want to.

Equestrian Team Day 7

I feel like I almost had a small heart attack today.
I was feeling very insecure about cantering today. I knew I was riding a pretty good horse, according the two chicks I usually go to lesson with, but I just got a little freaked out. I blame uneven stirrups that I never bothered to go back and fix because it took me long enough to even get them level.
Probably something I should get over caring about looking stupid.

Somehow, when I go there, I always feel stupid. I don't know why. Probably because I still can't get my diagonals right. Ughhhh. Personally, I can't see it. I can't feel it either. I look down every. single. time I go to trot and I still can't tell if I'm on the right diagonal or not.

I hope Jane brings out one of her horses this weekend so that I can practice on her.

Going into this is like going into a whole other world. It amuses me to think of what they'd all say about my Paso Finos. If they ever went out to see them, they'd be converted. They're so much easier to ride. Or maybe not, they're much more lively than those Thoroughbreds I've had experience with at the lesson barn.

Anyways, once I get a little better and actually fix my stirrups, I'll be jumping =]

Day 50

First off, I'd like to say, Wow. I've been at this for 50 days over a span of about 9 months. I didn't know that 9 months of my weekends was the equivalent of 50 days. It doesn't seem like that much time I've spent working in reality. I've been expecting all these changes, but really it's just like Brie's had about 2 months of training.

Brie was nothing compared to Harry today.
First thing I did with Brie was SHED HER. She is SO furry! I spent a good half hour with that charcoal block shedding her. It was nice enough so I rode a little bit outside before Ray asked me to get on Harry. I switched with my mom and agreed.
Harry. Is. Insane.
Well. Not so much insane as anxious and uppity. He was giving Ray a bit of a hard time and while I just wanted to walk him around the outdoor arena, Ray insisted on having me gait him around. Less than one lap around the arena, I was up in the air, lost a stirrup and was about to make my (short) fall onto the ground when I yanked him to the side. Even off balance he was trying to rear up on me while Ray was yelling "Release the reins!" No way in hell was I going anywhere until that horse was staying still underneath me and I had my stirrup back. He continued to try to rear up throughout the rest of the ride so I circled him everytime I felt him getting angry or anxious.
I've come to the conclusion that his rear is much different than Brie's. When Brie goes to rear, which she hasn't in ages, she simply pushes off with the front feet up a little bit into the air. When Harry goes to rear, he sinks in his back feet and propels himself upwards in an attempt to do a Shawn Johnson backflip. Now that I know this is his preparation, I know exactly when to circle him.
Not to mention that Ray did nothing to come and aid me. I think that was a test. I think he was trying to use my possible injury as an example of why he needs more money to train more. I think I thoroughly shocked him when I not only stayed on, but handled myself accordingly.
How I wish I could make it out there every day to train. My horses would be so much happier.

Not to mention that Ray doesn't want any horse that he's training to be let outside. Bullshit. Only a couple more weeks and then all three of my horses can go outside, not just Brie. I feel bad for Harry and Nina. I wonder if Ray every considered the reason why his horses are so unruly is because he never lets them outside.
Why is this a recurring pattern with the trainers I've experienced?