Days 58 & 59

Day 58 - Saturday, 5/8/10

I rode Nina today. This is the first time I've legit rode her. I mean, yeah, I rode her outside, but I never really tried to collect her or anything. It was just for fun. I only walked her around in a circle, making my invisible round pen, because I needed to get used to her. She's very different from Harry and Brie. I have to hold my hands extra far apart because she doesn't like the rein on her neck. She likes to trocha and trot when she can get away with it.
And she hates when you touch the top of her head. I don't know if it's just a game she's playing with us or what, because when Ray and even Andre used to tack her up, they would be perfectly fine getting the bit in and touching the top of her head. She goes crazy when you try to get the bit hanger and jaquima over her ears, trying to rear and everything. I insist that keeping her on the cross ties is not a good idea while trying to tack her up because you could get choked or smacked with those in addition to being pushed over or injured by her, along with them just being in the way.

Harry was pretty good today. His gait is phenomenal, it's just getting him to walk that's tricky. I guess it was the same problem with Brie though, too, back in the day. Ray even gave me a compliment. He told me that I was doing a fantastic job with Harry and that he looks a lot better. =]

Brie was good! She's perfectly, show ready, I feel like. I just wish my parents would agree with me and leave Harry home for this show, since I feel like he's not ready, and let me spend more time getting to know him, and go and show Brie. I feel like all this progress and hard work with Brie will go to waste if I only bring her to show in the State Fair. Ugh.

Day 59 - Sunday, 5/9/10

Today's Nina's birthday! I thought her birthday was coming up soon yesterday, so I checked this morning on her registration papers and it was today! Yay! We brought apples to them in celebration. It definitely made Brie's day a lot more than Nina's!

I didn't ride Nina today. I got in an argument with my mom over bit-inserting techniques. I wish I knew why Nina wasn't accepting the bit into her mouth, or letting us put it over her head. It's so frustrating. And it's so angering that I can only go there twice a week to work with them. It's kind of depressing knowing I've been working on Brie since October and it's only amounted to barely two months of training. If I actually did two months of training, every day, I can only imagine how amazing they would be.

Harry was a little excited when I rode him. He kind of scared me at one point, when he charged past a couple of flags and started hopping all over, so I pulled him to the side and made him flex, but not before he spun like a tornado and the saddle almost wound up underneath him and me on the floor. My mom wanted me to get off and end it, but I wasn't about to let that session end on a bad note. I got off, calmed myself down because I admit I was a little freaked out, adjusted the saddle, talked to him, and got back on. He tried to charge past the flags again on the next time around, but I handled it very well and made him walk and reverse past them a couple of times. He calmed down. He had another phenomenal board. When I do get to showing him, he'll clean up.

Brie was simply amazing today. She walked calmly, she corto-ed perfectly, and didn't break into a canter for her largo. Her performance today only makes me more sad that we might not be able to bring her to the Springfield show.