Day 60

Bobcats and tractors and dump trucks, oh my!
That's what was at the barn today. The owner is digging a very large pond in the back of his house/barn. I'm sure it'll be beautiful when it's finished, but it was a bit of a pain in the butt today.

Nina. Is. A. BRAT.
I don't know whether something happened to her that she doesn't want to give her head to us or if she's just playing games, but she was acting completely unacceptably today. It took me, my mom, and Paco to hold her down to put the bit hanger over her ears and I felt horrible because Paco had to twitch her ear. I'm completely against twitching and sorts of related techniques, I think they're mean and will only harbor mistrust from the horse towards you. While it may help in the short run, I believe the horse will then never want to give you her head because she anticipates being twitched, which will result in more problems.

I've decided not to bring Harry to this show. I don't trust him enough. I feel like that's a valid reason. I don't trust that I'll be able to get through the class with him. I've only had a couple of experiences with him so far riding him with other horses and the majority of those are with Brie and Nina. Today I had an experience with another horse and he wasn't too keen on it. While I would've liked to work with him longer today but I didn't feel completely comfortable with the new horse in the arena and the machinery outside so I only went once around the arena after multiple circles on the far end of the arena.

Brie is ready for show =] Finally! We have to take her off the calming supplement though because apparently it's USEF illegal for shows. I hope she still does well. I have a strategy in my mind: Last year when I won the third place, I didn't have any time to warm her up because I thought I had more time than I really did so we just had to go straight into the class. I'm going to lunge her for a while before my first class, which is Costume, and since I'm usually the only one in that class, it'll be a good way for her to calm down around her surroundings. Hopefully it works! We can only wait and see.

I'm a little worried about Nina at the show. I don't want my brother to get hurt if she gives him a hard time. He needs to gain more confidence and pay attention to everything we tell him about handling a rough horse. Even though she's not "rough", she's still playing games similar to Brie when she was 4 years old. Hopefully we don't make idiots of ourselves trying to get the bit hanger over her head.

Wish me luck!