Day 68

Yay for progress!
I may have told you a while back that I started working with Harry on some Parelli games. Well, actually, game in the singular. I started working on the Friendly Game with him and he was okay with the string for the carrot stick and the carrot stick separately, but not together, probably because it looks like a giant whip (but it's really not). We made huge progress today when I was able to connect the two and rub them over him and he didn't flinch! It was fantastic. Step 1 of the trust-building achieved!

It was thunder-storming today. Last time I rode Harry in a thunder-storm he got kind of freaked out. He was okay today, probably because the thunder was far away and it was just raining hard. I lunged him for quite a while and then started working. We changed his bosal and barbada (noseband and chin piece) and his entire jaquima because of Paco's recommendation yesterday. After working for a while, trying (unsuccessfully) to get him to walk on the rail, Paco adjusted the jaquima and told me that sometimes I have to give a little to get something in return from the horse, otherwise he'll just be mad at me. Makes sense. So he told me to just work on going straight down the line, not necessarily on the rail, and that each time to push Harry over a little bit and soon he'll be on the rail. Hopefully that works.

I also have exciting news. Exciting for me at least. Ray was watching us today while he was training and he told me as I passed by on Harry that I was doing a good job and to keep it up, I'll get there eventually. That may have just been a crock, but it gave me a smug feeling to know that he complimented me.

Didn't ride Nina. Again.

Rode Brie. This is our second to last practice before our Michigan show next weekend. I'm excited for it. She was a little uppity today, hopefully she's more calm on Wednesday for our last practice. I really hope she does well, I have to admit, I'll be really disappointed if she doesn't. All I'm asking for is to NOT get excused and to NOT come in last place. Second to last place is completely acceptable at this point. I gotta work my way up.