Saturday
Unfortunately, we've decided not to go to the Florida show. On Thursday, my dog got injured and after going to the vet, we've learned that he tore his CCL. The common response to this is to undergo surgery, but since he is so old (He's 11, maybe older, since we adopted him) and he has an existing liver problem, we can't put him through surgery, so all we can do is manage his pain with medication. We've been looking into braces, but haven't gotten far with it yet. We might not even go to State Fair now, because how could we put him in a kennel? He would be so freaked out. The only place he might be able to stay is at the vet's office where it's quiet and he's being watched for his problems all the time, but that's only if the vet says that it's okay for him to move out of the house for that time. It just kills me, because I was finally getting him out on walks since I was home over the summer and he was having such a great time, and now he can't go on a walk again, as far as we know =[
With that said, Harry was pretty okay today. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't super awesome. It's kind of what should be expected on a Saturday, since he hasn't been worked all week. His gait was nice, but now we're working on the largo again since he is back to pacing. He'll get there, I know he will. The calming supplement also arrived this week, so he will be going back on that again as well.
I rode Taco today. Jane bought this calming paste, B Kalm, and wanted to try it to see if it would help Taco and give her an easy ride. She said that he was still pulling tricks, but he listened to the corrections quicker than usual. I got on and saw that he was responding quicker. He is still having trouble breaking into a canter, but I know that as we work at it, it will get better. Near the end of the ride, he settled into an extremely smooth corto, which was great because I was able to get him to slow down for this corto and really make his default speed his largo. His board was phenomenal! But we will have to see if it was this paste or if he is really starting to listen to us.
Sunday
I am so proud of Harry! He got over one fear today (although it wasn't the tarp). I took a leaf out of my brother's book today when I warmed Harry up by walking in a circle and flexing instead of just walking or just flexing. I followed my mom and Brie outside as opposed to working a lot in the indoor before going outside and I was pleased that Harry only had a couple of bumps getting out to where Brie was and then he settled down wonderfully. He didn't jump or spook or pace at all, just this adorable little gait, and he kept it up when we went back inside. He had a great board, and my last goal for the day was going to the outdoor arena and around the serpentine posts then over the board and coming back inside. He did the serpentines nicely and got on the board nicely, but then we got to the huge concrete pad that they decided to put smack in the middle of the board and he got scared. He jumped off the board and walked around the concrete, snorting. I went on the other end of the board and asked him to go across again and he just did the same thing.
Instead of sitting there and continuing to bother him to go over the concrete, I got off and tried to get him to walk over it on foot. At this point, everyone saw me trying to get him to follow me over it, and my brother and Nina came outside to show Harry that it wasn't so scary. Nina stood on the concrete and after Harry walked around it a couple of times, I lead him on to the board and kind of zig zagged over to the concrete and he walked on it with no problem! After a couple more times of doing this, I was able to walk and approach it on the straight without him bawking at it, so I got back on and after we went all the way across the board and concrete and back again, I got off and told him how good he was. I'm so proud of him!
I also rode Taco again today. I can't tell if the paste helped or if he really is turning over a new leaf in his book of life, but he was great today! The cantering is still a problem, but he is getting better. His board was great and as long as we get the canter out of him, if we go to State Fair, he will definitely do well.
Showing posts with label Florida show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida show. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Day 235
Sunday
First off, let me say that with only one more view, this blog will have hit 11,000 views! Thank you all so much, it's great to know that someone is actually reading my journey.
I got Brie today, which was nice. I didn't go out yesterday because of a school-related function, but my mom said that she is definitely ordering calming supplement for Harry again because he was ballistic yesterday. She wanted to try him again, so I got to ride Brie, which was nice, because I haven't ridden her for a week or so. She was go, go, go today, as no one rode her yesterday. She was pretty stiff and limping a little, but eventually she worked it out. Poor Brie. She's still so young (11 years old) and she already has arthritis. It just breaks my heart. Once we had all the speed out of her system, we worked on our performance walk, because I want to put her in a performance class. I figure A) Why not? and B) There are less horses in performance classes so she shouldn't get as nervous as she would in a huge pleasure class. I really hope that I can bring her to State Fair. I don't even care about winning with her, I just want to calmly make it through the whole ordeal and show her that it's nothing to be scared of.
After Brie, I got on Harry for a short bit. He was way better today, but his movements were very vertical. I wasn't really used to that, but he was gaiting nicely and behaving like he should. Now he's been having problems keeping his headset, and I don't want to use a martingale, so I have to keep checking him and reminding him to set his head. His largo broke a lot, so now we have to work on that again. I hate feeling like I'm back at square one with him after that period of him working brilliantly, but I just have to go back to basics again.
I got to ride Nina today! So, we're thinking of going down to this international show with her next week in Florida, and we would only show in three classes: one for my mom, one for my brother, and one for me. Since I don't usually show her and this is not the arena to be testing out pleasure classes when she's been in performance her whole life, I'm going to do a costume class with her! I haven't done costume class since Brie stopped showing, because she is the costume horse, but I thought that it might be fun with Nina and she's so well tempered that it shouldn't bother her that I would ride her with a long skirt on. We brought the skirt today to test her with it and sure enough, she was just fine!
We also brought the shipping boots, as it's about a 15 hour drive, to test her with and she was fine with those too, which is surprising because she hates the farrier so much, we figured that would transfer over into a fear of thing secured around her legs, but she was just fine. When we originally got them, we got them for Brie when she was about 4 years old, and she flipped out, so we never used them. Today we tried them back on Brie and aside from taking a couple of minutes to get used to walking a short distance in them, she was fine. Then we tried Harry. I thought for sure he would freak out, but he was good too! I love when horses give you good surprises =]
Lastly, I rode Taco. The only way that I could bring Brie to State Fair is if we bring Taco in Jane's 2 horse trailer, so Taco HAS to go to State Fair. He was surprisingly good as well! My mom says it's because she rode him yesterday, but usually it doesn't matter how many times you ride him, he does what he wants. He tried to pull a few tricks at the start of the ride, but I quickly corrected him and we went along great! I'm working on not breaking into a canter on the corners and figuring out exactly what I need to do to get him to have a wonderful board, along with making it a goal to slow what I'm now calling his largo into a corto, because his default gait speed is very fast and I'm thinking that if he goes any faster, since he's already breaking on the turns, that he will break into a canter. It might be easier to slow him down rather than try to speed him up. But if he shows like he rode today, he'll definitely place in a class! Which is how it should be, as he was a National Champion in the good old days!
So now this weekend is the last weekend of practice my mom and brother have before the show next week. I'm so excited, I hope everything works out and we actually go, and that we make it safely down there, and that we win! That way we can prove those people who were supposed to be our friends (no names) wrong and we get to show that our best horse can run with the very best international competition.
First off, let me say that with only one more view, this blog will have hit 11,000 views! Thank you all so much, it's great to know that someone is actually reading my journey.
I got Brie today, which was nice. I didn't go out yesterday because of a school-related function, but my mom said that she is definitely ordering calming supplement for Harry again because he was ballistic yesterday. She wanted to try him again, so I got to ride Brie, which was nice, because I haven't ridden her for a week or so. She was go, go, go today, as no one rode her yesterday. She was pretty stiff and limping a little, but eventually she worked it out. Poor Brie. She's still so young (11 years old) and she already has arthritis. It just breaks my heart. Once we had all the speed out of her system, we worked on our performance walk, because I want to put her in a performance class. I figure A) Why not? and B) There are less horses in performance classes so she shouldn't get as nervous as she would in a huge pleasure class. I really hope that I can bring her to State Fair. I don't even care about winning with her, I just want to calmly make it through the whole ordeal and show her that it's nothing to be scared of.
After Brie, I got on Harry for a short bit. He was way better today, but his movements were very vertical. I wasn't really used to that, but he was gaiting nicely and behaving like he should. Now he's been having problems keeping his headset, and I don't want to use a martingale, so I have to keep checking him and reminding him to set his head. His largo broke a lot, so now we have to work on that again. I hate feeling like I'm back at square one with him after that period of him working brilliantly, but I just have to go back to basics again.
I got to ride Nina today! So, we're thinking of going down to this international show with her next week in Florida, and we would only show in three classes: one for my mom, one for my brother, and one for me. Since I don't usually show her and this is not the arena to be testing out pleasure classes when she's been in performance her whole life, I'm going to do a costume class with her! I haven't done costume class since Brie stopped showing, because she is the costume horse, but I thought that it might be fun with Nina and she's so well tempered that it shouldn't bother her that I would ride her with a long skirt on. We brought the skirt today to test her with it and sure enough, she was just fine!
We also brought the shipping boots, as it's about a 15 hour drive, to test her with and she was fine with those too, which is surprising because she hates the farrier so much, we figured that would transfer over into a fear of thing secured around her legs, but she was just fine. When we originally got them, we got them for Brie when she was about 4 years old, and she flipped out, so we never used them. Today we tried them back on Brie and aside from taking a couple of minutes to get used to walking a short distance in them, she was fine. Then we tried Harry. I thought for sure he would freak out, but he was good too! I love when horses give you good surprises =]
Lastly, I rode Taco. The only way that I could bring Brie to State Fair is if we bring Taco in Jane's 2 horse trailer, so Taco HAS to go to State Fair. He was surprisingly good as well! My mom says it's because she rode him yesterday, but usually it doesn't matter how many times you ride him, he does what he wants. He tried to pull a few tricks at the start of the ride, but I quickly corrected him and we went along great! I'm working on not breaking into a canter on the corners and figuring out exactly what I need to do to get him to have a wonderful board, along with making it a goal to slow what I'm now calling his largo into a corto, because his default gait speed is very fast and I'm thinking that if he goes any faster, since he's already breaking on the turns, that he will break into a canter. It might be easier to slow him down rather than try to speed him up. But if he shows like he rode today, he'll definitely place in a class! Which is how it should be, as he was a National Champion in the good old days!
So now this weekend is the last weekend of practice my mom and brother have before the show next week. I'm so excited, I hope everything works out and we actually go, and that we make it safely down there, and that we win! That way we can prove those people who were supposed to be our friends (no names) wrong and we get to show that our best horse can run with the very best international competition.
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