Day 179

Happy Halloween everyone! Well, almost Halloween anyways. Harry was sure in the mood today.

We rode for such a long time today. I started off on Brie. I need to work on her flexibility because yesterday when Paco rode her he said that she was very stiff on her turns. This could be something that I had just gotten used to, but I need to work on it. I don't want her to be sore after riding just because she's not flexible. So we did lots of circles, spirals, serpentines and reverses and she was compliant. She had a bit of a fast streak, but she never broke into a canter on the corners, so I was proud of her for that. Apparently she was worse off for my mom later on when we switched, but I think it might've been just that she was angry because she was getting tired.

Before my mom rode her though, my brother and I switched. I just got to walk Nina around, which is all I ever want to do when I ride Nina. She's so laid back and relaxed. I would just bring her out on trails all the time, she's perfect for it. But after a short time on Nina, I switched with my mom who had been working Harry for a good chunk of time.

She's been trying to work on Harry's largo since he paces when he goes too fast because his legs can't keep up with his brain, so he was flying around the arena today. I wanted to get him a little bit more collected so we did our corto and crossed the sounding board and then walked to cool.

While all this is going on, Samantha, this little girl who comes for lessons, was riding Tobacco and Jane was riding Taco, while Kimmy was riding Sadie. Jane insisted that I ride Taco because John was popping in and out through out the day to see how Taco was doing. So I hop on. First thing Taco does is speed away with me and start cantering down the long wall! I try my hardest to remember to not pull on his mouth because he manages to get a hold of the bit between his teeth and pull away with the rider, so I'm quickly pulling and releasing to try to get him to slow down the first lap around the arena and then pull up to Paco, who directs me to pull his head to the wall to get him to slow down until he realizes I mean business.

So after a couple of laps around, I finally settle into Taco and we understand each other. He performs beautifully! This was probably the best ride I've had on him to date. He takes the board perfectly and I'm so glad that John was there to see it. He sent me this picture he took of me and Taco.

I would love to show him for John and Jane. He's so much fun once you know how to handle him. There's a fun show coming up in December and I fully intend on dragging Brie down there to get back in the hang of showing again since we need to beat our nemesis this year!