Day 67

It takes a young horse to remind me that we all have our bad days.
With that said, Harry was a bit of a psycho today. I worked for the longest time with him to the point where I was as hot and sticky as the horse. He doesn't want to walk on the rail, doesn't want to go straight when he walks on the inside, doesn't want to WALK period. Everyone tells me to just let him get his energy out of his system but wouldn't that defeat the point I'm trying to make? Do I need to stop trying to make a point and try to bond with him? Is he doing this to test me or because he doesn't trust me? I was going to do some Parelli games with him, but was so exhausted that I completely forgot about that intention.

One reader last week answered the question I asked: should I bring Harry or Brie to Michigan next week? I thank you for your advice, saying that if I never bring him to the show then he'll remain the horse that's never been shown. After today, though, it's clear to me that something isn't clicking between us and I don't think we'll get anywhere until we work on this unsolved issue between us. Tomorrow I'm going to work some Parelli before I ride, that way I won't be tired out. That means I'll have to reassemble the round pen. Fantastic.

I've finally accepted that everyone, no matter who you are or what you're doing, will look at you and laugh because you're not doing things to their expectations. It takes a strong person to ignore all of that and proceed to prove them wrong. I'll have to be that strong person if I want to fix this trust between Harry and I.

I didn't get to ride Nina like I wanted to today. I was still working Harry when my brother put her back in the stall.

Speaking of trust, Harry now has this problem going into the wash rack. Popped out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago and you have to do this ridiculous back and forth trickery nonsense to get him in and even that didn't work today. Paco had to get him into the wash stall for me and you know I'm not too pleased about having to have other people help me out. So that's another goal to add onto Harry's list: get into the wash stall.

Brie was apparently psycho for my mom outside, but we all know that's because she was outside. Have you ever had a horse who hated trail rides? How did you fix that?
She was great for me indoors though. I'm confidant about next weekend. Michigan, you better watch out!

Doesn't it seem that in the past couple of months this has turned from Brie-centered to Harry-centered?

So now the goal of this blog is to not end when Brie gets a blue ribbon in a class of ten or more; it has turned into a blog with the goal of living happily with my three horses and eliminating all of their problems, whether they're trust issues, showing issues, or trail issues.

Looks like I'll be here for a while.