Day 108

Ever had a day that's completely unbelievable?
That happened to me today.

It was the strangest thing. I was thinking about Andre more than usual today, and as we were reminiscing about him on the way home, my mom got a call from an unknown number. Jokingly, I said "Hey, it's Andre, call him back!" So she did.

It was Andre.

I couldn't believe it! I screamed when I heard it was him! I've missed him so much, despite the tiny falling out he had with my family. He's essentially taught me all that I know and I definitely couldn't have gotten as far as I have with Harry, or even Brie for that matter, if it were not for him. I can't even conceptualize how lucky I am to have had him as a mentor from such a young age, pretty much turning me into a horse trainer at age 12, giving my brother and me his secrets, jokingly telling us that we would be his legacy.

He has a couple of clients and has built an indoor on his property, and his Querida has turned all white and birthed a foal a couple months ago! His own baby is getting big, now at 13 months. It's hard to imagine that we've been on our own for over a year now and are doing so well, also owning a third horse!

Away from the shock of the day, onto training. I started and worked Brie first. Her legs are looking kind of stocky. Is it possible that's from cantering? Do horses' legs do that when they're being trained to canter? Am I doing something wrong and over-stressing her muscles? I'll have to do some research. We mostly walked and corto'd today, and she picked up her own canter while she was on a loose rein. It was a fantastic speed too! But I had her stop after a couple of strides, not wanting to agitate her legs any further.

No Nina. Again.

Harry was significantly better today. They are all definitely happier once they've had their playtime outside first. He was not as collected, but at least he wasn't goofing around with his back legs today. We have a good three, maybe four more months to figure him out for show season, so I plan on taking things slowly.

Day 107

Sooooo cold today!

We bought Harry a Christmas halter. His is green and Brie and Nina's are red. I'll have to take some pictures to show you! While I just brushed off Harry and lunged him, he lunged really well! He started off kind of crazy, but I just let him go, figured it was excess energy. He was sure full of it today, he kept pulling me while I was riding him, but I'll get to that in a bit.

I rode Brie first. It's so nice to ride Brie--she's really calmed down since I started really working with her such a long time ago, it feels like. She responds really well to weight shifting and leg yielding for turns. I'm trying to teach her how to pivot on her hind legs. It'll take some time and some figuring out what the heck I'm doing, but we'll get there. Her canter is coming along nicely too. We worked on slowing it down a bit today so she's not too much like a bat out of hell and then we worked on lead changes. She's automatic! I reverse her and she takes a couple of strides in gait to collect herself and then switches without much effort from me! Maybe she's missed her calling all along. It's the funniest thing too--when I lunge her, she trots but then when I ride her she gaits! Silly horse.

No Nina =[ Maybe tomorrow.

Harry's been having some difficulty keeping his back legs in step with the front legs this past week. So instead of trying to collect him, I let him move out and learn how to keep everything in sync that way...I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do if I'm trying to promote him going Fino, but I'd rather have him be comfortable and know what he's doing that forcing him into something just because I want it. Boy, was he pulling today! I think he's ready to be worked on just one rein, but I'll have to see about that. It was so cute, he wanted to largo really badly but then when he got up to speed he couldn't keep his back legs in time with the front at that speed either! So we just settled for a corto. Afterwards, while I was trying to cool him, I let him have a loose rein and he just corto'd around forever, completely responding to shifts in my weight for turns. It was a fantastic surprise! We did all sorts of serpentines and spelling out things in the sand. I just hope that he figures out his legs soon enough. I'm sure he will.

Day 106

Oh Brie. Now that we've started canter training, that's all she wants to do! Not okay, especially when no one else wants to canter her during their ride. We have to work on listening skills. We tried to work a corto inside and then went outside to jump ditches and canter. What a silly mare.

I rode Harry today too. I actually started on him. Our lunging was nice, a couple of fishtails, but we did very well. He's listening very nicely. His gaiting today was rather odd though. All of his hooves weren't in sync at all, even when I hopped off and let my mom try to fix that. I guess everyone has those days though, don't they.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving break! My irregular weekends have finally ended! I can't wait to start going on Saturdays and Sundays from now on. I didn't go yesterday because I went to the NU VS U of I game at Wrigley, which we lost horribly. It was so depressing, I can't even begin to tell you. Oh well, all I can look forward to is this upcoming weekend of normalcy!

Day 105

I rode everyone today!

Paco rearranged Brie, Nina, and Harry so they're all next to each other. It's small, but it made me happy. Harry used to be across from them, so now it's like they're a little family, all together!

We let them all out in a paddock together. I'm so pleased to see that they all get along =] No injuries!

I started off on Brie today. Her jump boots keep slipping and turning around! So I'm just going to leave them off until we start actually jumping. I practiced trying to get her to slow her canter down a little bit, but she was soooo crazy fast today! She was a good girl though. I think she likes getting all this excess speed out of her system.

I finally got to ride Nina today! She's a bit of a challenge trying to keep her head down but her gait was really nice. She has super tight turns that aren't very rounded, so I mostly worked on bending.

Harry was fantastic. As usual =] I can't wait until I have enough money to buy a car and then I can drive out to see them whenever I have free time.

Day 104

Tested out our new Passier today! It was nice, just will take a little getting used to. Harry wasn't at his best today...probably because he was getting used to it as well. We did a good job though. I want to work on getting him more flexible though.

Rode Brie for a heck of a long time. I tried out her new boots. They didn't seem to bother her, which is excellent! We might even get bold enough to try those shipping boots again. I just worked a lot with her cardio today and didn't jump. We practiced cantering some more and went out around the arena instead of just the pole. We still need to slow down a bit, but we're getting there. We have all winter. And she wasn't even hot at the end of it! She's coming along.

We're putting Nina and Brie on a diet though. Nina's just plain fat and Brie's neck is getting a little hard again, a sign that her sugar is a little high, which can't happen. Poor girl, she only gets a handful of grain now with her hay.

Day 103

Not much today. The farrier was out. Nina was such a good girl for him. She didn't try to kick him or anything! She was scared though, she kept snorting, but she was good and stayed pretty much calm. I was so proud of her!

We really just lunged all of them for exercise today, since we were tied up with the farrier and now we have a short amount of time on Saturdays. Harry's lunging really well, my mom did a great job with him while I was at school.

I rode Brie bareback while my mom lunged her. We were trying to get her to canter while lunging, but she was being a sass and just kept waltzing on back into my mom. Oh well.

We bought a new saddle! A Passier! We got it on sale and I'm super excited to use it tomorrow. It's going to be Harry's new saddle. I'm pretty sure he's calm enough now that I won't need the horn/handle on the Colombian saddle to hang on to should he start rearing/bucking. He's such a good boy lately =] We also got a new saddle pad for Nina's Aussie saddle. And Brie? We got her jump boots. I'm not entirely sure how she'll react to them...she flipped when we tried to put shipping boots on her once. I think she'll be okay with these since they're significantly smaller. They're really nice and cushy too.

Hopefully for Christmas I can ask my Grandpa to build me a set of jumps. Nothing fancy, just two posts with a bar basically is all I'm looking for. I can't wait to ride tomorrow, and sleep a little later in the morning. I had to wake up at 630 this morning! Alas, the life of a horse trainer.