Day 201

Guess who's back!
Yeah, after going to the doctor on Friday, it turns out that I don't have a stress fracture in my foot and am good to go! I have to admit, after not walking on it for about three weeks, it's really sore today.

I guess I just expected Harry to be wonderful and for us to have a magical moment because I was able to ride again. As if! He was absolutely dreadful. I even got so fed up with him longeing that I asked my mom to help me out (imagine that!). Eventually he calmed down for me longeing, but then riding was a trainwreck in itself. I felt like I was fighting him the entire time. Now that we've taught him and encouraged him to largo and go fast, that's all he wants to do. I spend a good 2/3 of my ride trying to collect him and get him to slow down. His passes across the board were awful because he kept going out of gait at the end because he'd speed off of them. To add on top of it, every horse on our side of the barn was out in the arena today, along with the horses that Nick was training, PLUS Nicks' daughter Brianna kept running around and squealing (she's 6). Harry almost fishtailed out into her once and I felt bad and scared and I'm sure Nick gave me a dirty look but I couldn't bear look over at him after that, even though Brianna should have definitely not bolted out into the arena so close to where I was working. Ugh. Chaos.

After all was said and done, I got on Brie. Good old Brie. It's so bizarre, going to her and having great rides after I used to cry about how she wouldn't listen to me either only a year ago. While it's frustrating to be dealing with Harry's quirks still after two years of owning him, I need to look back on how long it take to make real progress with Brie and how much of a change there is in her. In short, it took me, on my own, shoot I can't even remember, at least 4 years and a month's supply of mare hormone balancing supplements to get to where we are now together. And while I may feel some days like today that there is little hope for Harry and I, at least there is hope.