Equestrian Team Spring - Day 2

This lesson was by far better than the last one.

Today I rode Sunny, who was infinitely better than Wonder last week. She was a little wiggly, but overall very nice. I got to work on my balance over poles and then got to go over some little jumps, which was really nice. It was a good confidence boost. I don't know why, but I'm so much more scared suddenly of jumping on these horses, which is stupid, because at home I make Harry jump over things he's dead scared of and have no fear, and make Brie jump over bigger jumps going really fast. I don't really know what's up with that, but the entire time tonight that I jumped I tried to tell myself, "It's fine, don't freak out, it's just like going over with Harry." I feel like I would do infinitely better with my own horse, but that's not going to happen any time soon. And I know this sounds stupid, but I think that if I can't get over this funk with jumping by the end of the school year, I might not join the team again next year. I feel like I'm happy with having tried out jumping and now know that I'm not missing anything by not doing it and would rather save the lesson money every week and put it towards board or shots or shoes or something for my own horses...because in reality, when I get my own horses again later in life when I have a real job and what not, I will undoubtedly go back to Paso Finos. I might buy my own jumper or dressage horse for fun, but I feel like as you get older, it gets harder to get into different show circles than what you were raised in if you're serious about showing (which I am). I'm not trying to make this sound like a crutch or anything, but the more time I spend with the team and their jumpers, the more I just want my Pasos. Maybe it's school horses, maybe it's the sport itself, but I'm not really all too thrilled with it anymore. And I'm perfectly okay with that.

Days 205 & 206

Saturday

First, let me show you how I longed Harry last weekend.

I made this little loop around the pole so that he couldn't pull me when he fishtailed out. So that was that!

Here is another picture from last weekend. Nothing too special, just using double reins! His little braid looks so funny =]

Last two pictures from last weekend. We turned walking over the poles into jumping over the poles! At least he was enjoying himself...I remember when he was too scared to even go anywhere near them! And I have to say that I'm proud of my posture, it's gotten way better!

Now, to photobomb you from today! Compared to last weekend, it was beautiful out! I can't even believe that I had to wear a turtleneck last week, today was gorgeous! As it being so beautiful out, we let everyone run around and play before we started to work today.

Harry wins the award for most photogenic today. I have tons more pictures, and he's in the majority of them! He's such a cutie, as soon as I walked into his pasture he ran over to me to see what I was doing.

Running towards the camera.

Being a model.

Then I hopped over the fence to Brie and Nina's paddock. Nina was adamant on playing tag the entire time, so I didn't get very many stills of her. This is my favorite though.

In between chasing Brie to make her stop eating and do something interesting for the camera, I got this one. I'm just bugged that I didn't get her whole face in the frame! She looks so dirty!

Doing her favorite activity -- eating!

Finally some movement!

Harry looking over at me in the next paddock, sadly. He gets sad when he can't play with Nina, but Brie really doesn't like him, so we generally don't put them together unless we're making a Christmas card or something.

My dad caught a frame of Harry and I. He was following me around the pasture when I walked in. I like how both of our hair looks crazy.

This is my favorite of the two of us so far!

 

 I tricked Harry into giving me a kiss. He is clearly disgusted by it! Girls have cooties =]

Now that the photobombing is over, let me tell you about my marvelous weekend! Harry's 7th birthday was this past Thursday and we planned on celebrating but forgot the apples...oops. Anyways, after tacking him up I thought of longeing in the corner of the arena and using the two walls as a buffer for fishtailing. He was super calm and looked great and never fishtailed. My mom even asked, "Wow, what did you do to Harry?" I think it was probably because he ran around outside first, but at least he has this calm idea in his mind now. Hopefully this will work for a while and we can progressively move away from the corner and into the middle of the arena.

My goal for this weekend was to work on the largo. We had a beautiful ride pre-largo. He was collected and calm and gaiting wonderfully, doing everything I asked of him. I couldn't have been happier.

When we got into the largo, he lost all sense of calm and normalcy and began pacing and tapdancing. I tried everything I could think of ---flexing into the wall, stopping to let him rebalance, slowing and speeding back into the largo, pushing him forward...at the end I even pushed him into a canter and he wasn't having that. I was totally out of ideas and discouraged by that point, so I calmed him back down to a walk and collected him back into a corto, passed across the board, and finished on a good note. 

Disappointed, I was talking to my mom about what to do with him. Should we send him to training? I just would hate to do that because I have so much of my own efforts invested in him and even though I can't see it at times, we really have come a long way. Think of those poles, for example! So I made a deal to give me until my birthday next month and if he's not doing better, then we should send him to training, either by Nick here or by Paul who offered it to us last fall at the State Fair. I just hope that we can get somewhere on our own!

Sunday

Today I should have really taken pictures, that way I could have shown you what I did.

While in the car, I started talking to my friend Melody about my situation with Harry and how I've tried everything I could think of. She suggested heavier shoes (but that's not happening) or maybe slightly pulling him off the wall and doing some random shapes to refocus his mind on what he's supposed to be doing and calming him down, then letting him go back into a largo. My mom suggested putting on the rear end collector (a.k.a fruit basket) and the weighted bracelets on his back legs. So I decided to combine the three.

I was expecting hell on legs when I longed him today, but happily, that was not the case! He was just as good as yesterday, and it has me thinking, maybe he doesn't need to be longed before I ride. Maybe longeing is what is working him up with anticipation? As soon as we get the largo down, I'll test out that theory. Until then, our corner will work just fine.

The past two days have been our longest rides since I can remember. They're wonderful. The first part of our ride was him getting used to the collector and the bracelets, so he was pretty bouncy. After he calmed into that, our corto was a little tap dancy. I started the shapes first with circles, but then found that he thinks circles are just the greatest thing ever and loves to spin around and started doing it on his own, so we stopped circles and started doing triangles and squares and stars. He was better with those. His corto relaxed and he was feeling pretty confident and our board was phenomenal.

Feeling good, we started going at the largo. It was tricky and we definitely did more shapes than not, but at the end of our ride, we had an absolutely BEAUTIFUL couple of passes across the board at a largo, no skipping or tap dancing or pacing. He was just giving me all of his effort and it felt amazing. Beyond proud of where we were at, I took off his contraptions and we headed outside, because today was even warmer than yesterday!

I joined everyone in the outdoor and was only looking to have a little fun, so we corto'd around and across the board, where he got a little too excited and danced across it, so I had to refocus him and go across it again, where he did really nicely. Then my mom and I headed out into the front pasture where he was just an absolute doll walking around out there, while my mom was stuck with Brie in her monster mode, trying to run into the trees and fences. Harry was wonderful throughout our whole ride out in front, and after spending 10 minutes trying to close the gate we came out of when we went back into the arena (and failing), we headed inside where my mom was adamant on making Brie walk.

While Brie was trying to walk, Harry and I were cooling down. Feeling especially adventurous because of all our progress today and because I was using the training saddle (which has a horn), I took my feet out of the stirrups and was determined to not fall off. He worked surprisingly well! He didn't get scared that the stirrups hit his side a little bit and walked as if I had them in. 

In all, today was by far one of the most progressive days in my training with Harry. These are the days that I need to remember when he's throwing me around the arena and yanking ropes out of my hands. He is beyond willing to learn, I just have to improve my methods to understand him.

At the end of the day, we hosed everyone down and gave out Harry's belated birthday present - golden apples! Brie's birthday is coming up this Thursday, so I wanted to get to the store to buy these granola oat balls that you hang from the stall that they can munch on, although I have a feeling Brie's will be gone in a day. Hope you all had wonderful rides today as well!

Equestrian Team Fall - Day 5

It's so funny how one week can be the complete opposite from the next.

So remember last week when I was all moody and felt like crying in the middle of my lesson for no apparent reason? Well my hormones are back in check and this week was AMAZING.

First of all, I got to ride with my shmexy show boots a la my mom. I'm telling you, putting the $60 into reconstructing the soles was really worth it, because I didn't have to go through the pain of breaking them in. Thank God that younger-version-of-my-mom and I have the same calf width and shoe size!

So after shining them up from digging them out of the basement this past weekend, I was feeling mighty awesome. Once again, I'm riding Tommy (who looked like he fell into a mud pit for about a week). And I have exciting news.

I CAN FEEL MY DIAGONALS! I never felt them before! It's only taken a year to finally feel that I'm on the wrong one (when I'm paying attention) and switch. I just hope that I don't get too freaked out at the show to forget that and ride the wrong diagonal the entire class, but I'm sure that won't happen.

But wait, there's more.

I JUMPED PERFECTLY!

The first one I got left behind on because I was hesitant, thinking about last week. But then I told myself to get over it and I GOT OVER IT! LITERALLY! My heels were down, my legs on contact, my speed perfect, my position right on key. It was such an incredible feeling to just sail over my little oxer and not fall forward or backwards and stick the landing! I'm so happy =]

Stacy had nothing but good things to tell me. She's confident that I'll place in the show this weekend if I ride like I did today. Also, I'm banned from wearing anything else except my mom's boots from now on. Stacy said that I rode much better in them and I could feel it too. While they still kind of hurt because of one of the wrinkles digging in my ankle every once in a while, they were much better than my Steed paddocks that I've been wearing. Those are especially stiff on my ankle. So I'll just bring those back home to kick around the barn in when I feel like wearing jeans, which will pretty much be all winter until it snows and I wear my insulated Mountain Horse boots.

It's an understatement to say that today was a good day. Can't wait to compete this weekend!

Equestrian Team Fall - Day 4

(completely forgot to post this so it's gonna be in past tense)

Wednesday I went out to my lesson with more new people, as usual. In fact, Emily has been the only person who I've driven there twice!

So we get out there and tack up and what not. I'm riding Tommy again. I'm not feeling entirely in balance, which my mom later chops up to possibly having my stirrups be too short. So I'm going to lengthen them more and see how that works this week. But anyways, so my trot is good, but I don't practice two-pointing around before I start going into jumps. The pick up on the canter was great, I was really good with my commands on that.

Then I start going into the jumps. I'm not sure why, but I just get this feeling of huge dread in my chest. I was thinking, "Why am I ready to freaking cry, I couldn't wait to jump!" So I go over the first one and he rushed over it and in my attempt to slow him down and balance the two point, we pop over it. So I tell Stacy I'm going to take a walk around before I start again because at this point in my head I'm ready to burst into tears (I don't know why I was super emotional that day).

After our walk around, now I'm determined. Control the horse, chest up, ribs down, go WITH Tommy over the fence. It was okay, but my position wasn't as straight as I wanted it to be. I was too focused on keeping my heels down. Last time over, my position was awesome, but I stood on my toes. I balanced, but I know that's the wrong thing to do so even though I felt steady as a rock with an awesome torso, I still felt horrible at the end of the lesson because I stood on my toes instead of sinking into my heels.

Good thing I'm not jumping this weekend. I was so eager to start, but after crying to my mom about it afterwards and hearing the advice about the stirrups, I'm okay with waiting a while. I'd rather not jump, even maybe waiting to enter jumping classes until after I graduate and am off the team because I'd rather have a super solid foundation and not cut corners so that way when I get my own jumper I can actually win.

I just really need to win the flat class!!

Equestrian Team Fall - Day 3

I'd just like you to know that there's a small hurricane going on outside my window over Lake Michigan right now. That is all.

As for my lesson, I'm so angry at myself! The flat was absolute perfection. Even though I had to fight a bit at the beginning with my new horse Sunny to get a canter as opposed to a fast trot, it was SO GOOD.

Then comes the jumping. I'm always getting left behind now! I think it's because of my fear that I'll go over the top and fall off by anticipating the jump, but I almost fell off from being left behind tonight =[ Stacy really tried to explain it in every way that she could to make me go WITH Sunny over the jump, but it just wasn't happening. Maybe I was thinking about it too much? What do you think I should do to help?

Also, I'd just like to say that after riding Paso Finos for so long and now trying to go back to hunt seat is ridiculously hard for me to conceptualize the correct leg position. I'm so not used to having my leg so far back, it feels like I'm going to topple over. I don't really understand how that's going to help me keep my balance...but I'll try.

Next week Stacy's promised Emily and I to do all no-stirrup work. Whoopee. =/

Equestrian Team Fall - Day 2

It was just me and another new girl, Layla, tonight! I hope my lesson isn't always half empty. On one hand it's nice to get more attention, but then it's not as fun driving there and back!

So while Stacy figured out where Layla was in her riding abilities, she let me start jumping again this week. I feel like for the most part my flat work is solid. My leg strength in picking up a canter is getting better and resulting in a quicker transition, but the downward transition can still use some more work. Nothing I won't be able to fix in time for Notre Dame in 3 more weeks though! I can't believe competition is coming up this fast. Then we have a huge break until about March when it picks back up for I think 3 more shows.

Working on my jumping position tonight, I really need to strengthen my back and core. Every jump I felt like I was getting left behind, and then when I started to think about it, I started hunching over again. It wasn't until the last jump that I got my position perfectly, but I'm still glad I got it! Now I know what it's supposed to feel like and can aim for that and perfect it until I can point up into the jumping classes, which hopefully happens by the end of the school year. I'd be really bummed if I had to show all flat classes senior year. Then I would just have to buy my own jumper to be able to show and as a recent college grad I certainly wouldn't be able to afford that!

Equestrian Team Summer - Day 7 (Final day!)

Friday

Today was my final lesson of the summer with Stacy. I thought I'd have the last one next week, but she's going to a regional dressage show with one of her other clients, so the next time I'll have a lesson it'll be with the team!

I think that maybe I needed to fall off. I was being pushed around and walked on like a doormat by these school horses, scared I'd do something wrong, and today's ride was spectacular simply because I had one goal in mind: DON'T FALL OFF AGAIN and did everything to prevent it.

First of all, I finally settled with the idea of correcting them. I feel scared correcting other people's horses because they're not mine, but when it comes between falling off and staying on, it doesn't matter to me anymore if I have to correct them, I'll do it! Also because I was scared of falling off again, my leg contact was phenomenal. To feel that contact and balance and be able to ride with one hand on the reins, one hand on my head, while in a two-point felt awesome.

I did so well today that we started going over jumps again. Having leg contact also made landing the jumps SO MUCH EASIER. I used to tend to forget to have contact over the jump and kind of just let the horse do his thing then try to recover afterwards, but not wanting to fall off has paid off in that aspect too. I did four jumps, and landed 2 of them soundly, with the first one me forgetting to sit the canter instead of stand which I immediately fixed a couple strides into it and the second one coming off on the wrong lead. The last two felt amazing, like I was flying without fear of going over the top.

I was also very strong in getting him into a canter and back into one after he broke into a trot a couple of times. (I was riding Tommy, btw). I feel very confident about moving up. If I don't move up a level this year, at least I feel like I'll place a lot in the shows and be able to move up the jumping for my senior year. By then I feel like I would know enough to jump in small shows if I got my own jumper (unlikely, but still). I just feel bitter about not having this kind of starting point last year with Nell...if I had had Stacy for an instructor last year, I might've been jumping for shows this year. Oh well, I can only move forward!

Day 169

I love days like today. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, it's perfect weather for riding.

I started by switching up where every one stands on the cross ties and started brushed Nina for a change (my brother was MIA). I never noticed how RED her coat is. It's so red it's almost purple, kind of. Then I tried to brush out her ears and she wasn't having any of it, so I got the carrot stick out for the first time in a while and started rubbing her ears with that and giving her carrots whenever she stayed still for a couple of seconds. By the end of it, she was staying pretty still, but when I brushed them she still fidgeted around and moved back and forth. My brother really needs to work on that. But I'm happy I got some bonding time with little Nina.

I rode Harry with his fruit basket first. My mom taught me what she's been working on with him, working him on a circle and pushing his rear kind of off of the path of the circle so that his back feet cross over every time he steps so he has to think about walking. We did that for a while and then I took him out on the board. I tried to largo him, but I wasn't able to give him my complete attention, which I felt bad about and really tried to, but it just wasn't happening and I didn't want him to suffer because of it, so I gave him over to my mom to ride and I got on Brie.

I took Brie into the outdoor arena after going around the indoor a couple of times and we corto'd around out there. Then I had my dad set up a little X jump out of two boards and a couple of traffic cones so we could go over it. Brie just wanted to charge the thing down every time we turned to approach it! She never refuses a jump (so far), so it was more for me to try and fix my posture going over it. By the end of it with my mom coaching me I had a better posture than at the beginning, but still not quite as good as necessary. I didn't want to stress Brie's joints too much, so we took a long walk around the property with Harry and Nina afterwards. She started out really calm but once we started heading back towards the barn she was GO GO GO! I was just focusing on trying to get her to not run into the barn, and actually had to turn her around so she wouldn't face the barn and do sidepasses to get in front of the door to go in straight without running herself or me into the siding! What a goof.

We still don't know if we're going to Nationals, but I really don't even want to anymore. It's so disappointing and because of everything that happened I didn't really enjoy myself as much as I could have today, which is even more upsetting...

Equestrian Team Summer - Day 5

Today was SUCH an improvement. I felt so much better with my legs. But of course, since I got better with my legs, my top half fell apart!

I rode Tommy today again (yay!). I'm becoming quite attached. I'm glad she's letting me stick to one horse until I figure out what to do with the bottom, balance, and but the top half and bottom half together over fences.

I feel so great that I can finally see and correct my diagonals. I'm super happy that most of the time now I start posting on the correct one to start with!

One thing that really clicked for me this week was leg position. With the Pasos, you're usually really quiet with your leg because if you slightly kick them (unless you're in Brie's mule mode or Harry's backing up to rear mode), they'll be heading for the hills! Stacy really drilled it in my head today to open up my hips and keep my calves in contact with the sides of the horse all the time. I also learned a semi-obvious but neat little trick about head pulling and such that I can't wait to try on Harry -- instead of pulling back the reins to try to fight them to tuck their head back and stop pulling, give them a little squeeze and pinch your shoulder blades together so you're not really pulling, just kind of locking yourself in a firm upper body position for a minute while pushing them onwards with your leg.

Trotting was awesome. She had me really working on my two-point position today in a trot along the long walls of the arena which helped me balance over the fences WAY better.

But, since I managed to do something right with the bottom half, my upper half was lacking. I completely kept collapsing my ribcage over the fences instead of keeping a nice and helpful frame that I had before when I couldn't balance with my bottom half. So I have to think about that and remember it for next week!

Stacy also gave me some at home kind of exercises that would help me strengthen my two-point, which I think is fantastic and I'll be doing them alllll week.

I can't wait to get better. Since my first show with the team will be in November, I decided to ask her if she'll let me jump in it. She said if I keep improving like did today, she'll see if she can move me up to beginning jumping!! I can't wait!

Day 101

Just to think, I gave up a month of this for something that wouldn't even last, but I'll get to that.

This sure was an interesting return.
I'll start with the weird stuff first. So Ray rode Harry today...yeah, that's what I said. Crazy, isn't it? My mom was having a bit of trouble with Harry lunging, since she wanted to start him out today, and Ray offered to help lunge him, so she let him. After lunging Harry for a long time and after Harry was sufficiently worked up, Ray asked if he could ride, so my mom agreed. Good news is, as far as I can tell, he didn't screw Harry up--he was still fino-ing across the board. The entire thing was just really strange though. I want to start Harry tomorrow.

I rode Brie for a really long time today! We walked and corto'd and largo'd and went outside in the trail and worked on cantering...she even jumped! Her cantering is getting really good: I'm getting to the point where I don't even have to squeeze, just shift my legs and she picks up the right lead. It's a little harder to the left, but we'll get there. As soon as she has the basic signals down pat, I want to work on flying lead changes.

We jumped a tiny X set up out of wood and traffic cones. She over shot it a couple of times, and my position needs work, but I'm so excited! I'm going to ask my Grandpa to make a set of jumps for me for christmas. I need to learn hunt seat, since all I learned on the team was equitation.

Speaking of the team: I quit. Yeah. I'm not too bummed about it. I'll miss the girls in my lesson the most, but it just became this big political power trip for the exec board, plus I wasn't too pleased with where we were at. No skin off my back, now I have $40 extra to put towards a car every week =] so I can go see my own horses.
I'm really excited to keep jumping Brie though. My mom was an amazing hunter jumper in her day, so she'll give me lessons on position and everything.

I don't know when I'll find time to ride Nina though! My dads shift is changing at work so now we'll have to leave really early on Saturdays. =\ this also means that if I want to stay on a Friday at school, I definitely won't be going out to the barn on Saturdays. I'll have to choose wisely.

Two weeks til the Iowa game, three weeks til the Wrigley game, and four weeks until normalcy.

Day 26

(originally started at 1130pm last night)

Today was a not so good day.
And thinking back about it, it's been my first not so good day in a while.
It started with trying to get Brie out of the stall. With the Parelli knowledge, I tried the same thing I did yesterday but she kept giving me her butt. Discouraged and thinking my horse hated me, I cried (which was bound to happen when you try something new) and was upset that my mom had to help me get her out. She came out, I brushed her. When I tried to get on, she kept moving. I wasn't even anywhere near the mounting block! She kept fidgeting around and moving, so I made her turn on her front legs, which she was doing when she was moving. Finally she stopped (only because my mom started looking at her ughhh) and I got on. Slightly disheartened, I figured I'd jump because she loved that so much.
Wrong.
She kept refusing the jump, and finally I got her to accept it, only after she reared up before it while deciding whether to spin around and run away or go over it and stood like that for a whole 5 seconds, without moving, which is actually pretty long to be balanced on her back legs. She hop-skipped over the jump and after that she had a better attitude.

I can't really be mad at her. This is the first time that's happened for a while now. And I can't be mad at myself for the whole stall sour issue, because so far, Parelli hasn't addressed that. I guess he assumes you can at least get your horse out of the stall without killing you.

I plan to watch more of his DVDs this week if college doesn't kill me first.

Day 18

I failed in getting to the stall first. I need to start racing my mom to the stall.

Paco is officially moved in. It's so nice. And Ken is supposed to be making all the paddocks this week. I can't wait for Brie and Nina to get time outside every day, since Ken's been a slacker in turning them out all this time, which probably has a lot to do with Brie's anxiety.
Jane came by today! Taco is coming back very soon, he was at her son's farm just being a horse for this month. I'm so eager to ride him again.

Brie! She made me very happy today. We showed off her gaiting and jumping to Ray and everyone else, they were impressed, even though the jump was pretty much a foot off of the ground. She was more anxious outside though, and we had a fright when my mom was riding her and Brie kept backing up, almost into a barbed wire fence. I had to maneuver Nina over to her and pull her forward. Not very safe. Oh and another fright. I lost my stirrup while jumping this tiny fence and Brie tripped and while she got her footing I almost flew off the side of her because she turned so sharply. But I stayed on! And maybe we won't raise the jump for a couple more weeks.

Andre brought back a bit for Nina. She seems a little iffy about it after being bitless since July. She seemed very depressed while Andre was working her and a lot more happy running around outside with Brie. On one hand I feel guilty, because I want to let her just be a horse, but then on the other hand she really does need to be trained! She is just a baby after all.

I'm so eager to see how the stables look this weekend with Paco in charge =]

Day 17

Well I didn't take Brie out of the stall today, my mom did, and apparently she walked right out.
I won't believe it until I try it myself.

She seems like such a different horse now, even though we've been jumping for only what, two weeks? Four days, really. She seems a lot calmer, even walking around outside. The only problem I have is keeping her away from the jump! I think she's happy that I'm stimulating her mind and just not going in circles all day. Which I, surprisingly, never though about before because that's what Andre and the other trainers do. But I mean, if I went in a circle all day and didn't do anything fun, I guess I'd be angry and anxious for it to be over too.

Today was a very good day. Paco finally is here! He was abandoned with Andre in Georgia until Thursday when Ray, another trainer, drove them and the horses back up here. The truck is still in Georgia being fixed.

The stalls were so nice and SPOTLESS for once! It was great, I was very happy. Now Ken is working outside making more paddocks before the winter really sets in over here. It'll be nice, I hope that he makes them bigger than they are now, because Brie and Nina can really only stretch their legs, not run around and have fun.

We ordered this calming supplement for Brie from Smartpak. Yeah, yeah, I'm usually against supplements, but this one is supposed to work in two months and we'll never need it again because it'll rebalance her hormones. I'll just have to wait and see about that.

Mega excited for Dominic to come up in two weeks! I can't wait to show him how Brie can perfectly gait, go on the soundboard, jump, and go right back to gaiting. As soon as she's calmed down, I have a feeling we'll be cleaning up at the shows in the spring with her.

Day 16

It's official. Brie loves jumping.
She does tend to veer off to one side when she lands, but we'll work on that.
Still bribing her to get out of the stall. I bribed her with an apple today! So not good, I wish I had time to watch the Parelli DVDs we paid for and never got around to watching. Maybe I'll bring them with me to my dorm next week, to see how this week goes so far.

Nina likes to jump too! She went by the jump after I stopped, and, with my brother on her, she jumped right over it. Without warning, so that may have been a little bad, but Anthony stayed on so it's all good.

We also put poles on the ground for Brie and Nina to walk over to teach them how to be aware of how high and where they're stepping. I think Nina needed it, because she kept knocking into them for a good few tries, then got the hang of it.

That's what people in our stables need to do. Just have fun with their horses, and enjoy themselves. Not constantly be trying to fix this and that about their horse's gait and make them absolute perfection. Maybe that's why we didn't win anything at Nationals, we probably wore them out for the months beforehand.

Well Andre is stuck in Georgia. The truck broke down and the horses are being kept in a stable down there. I feel so bad for them! Paco is supposed to be coming up with Andre too, so now he's stranded as well.

What I'm looking forward to most is Dominic coming again in October for a weekend. Can't wait to see what he has to say about Brie's progress!

Day 15 & Nationals Comments

I didn't make it down to Nationals. =[ The flights coming home weren't looking so good, so we decided not to risk being stranded in Georgia. We did watch the ending of Nationals on Galopando TV though, which is the stream-network for all things Paso Fino. I feel like I'll get my commentary on Nationals out of the way right now.

I was amused by the largo race, but disappointed at the same time that there were only three entries. Come on people, lighten up and have some fun with your horses! Don't just work them all the time! Secondly, I was SO MAD when I saw the costume class! Backstory, I qualified on Brie to go to Nationals this year and last year for costume class but we figured it was too long of a ride to bring here there for just one class. This is what my costume looks like.
Well, I don't have a screenshot of it, but there was a girl in the costume class who had pretty much the EXACT same dress, the same black horse, the same roses, same ribbons, same veil, but this is the killer part: She had the same speech as me. How low can you get? Thankfully she was punished (by karma) for the copycat-ism and received 5th place out of 5.
Lastly, I'd like to congratulate the Fino Stallion Champion, Halago! He is truly amazing. If the clip isn't on Galopando TV, then I'm sure if you're really curious and search it on YouTube you'll find it. Maybe I'll even link these two classes tomorrow or something for you to watch.

Went to the stables today. Instead of doing the same old routine, I decided today would be a great day to teach Brie a little bit about jumping (and learn myself, with help from mi madre). At first she was kind of freaking out that the jump was made up of a 2x4 and plastic traffic cones, but then she got used to it and then she loved it! She kept going around and jump jump jumping! We both enjoyed it, and I love that she's getting used to doing all sorts of different things now.

I switched Brie for Nina with my mom and we rode outside. Nina is too funny, she has a shorter stride than Brie, so Brie covers ground faster and gets farther ahead. When Brie gets too far ahead of Nina, you just tell Nina, "Come on Nina, go get Brie!" without any other signal and she takes off at a cute little carousel pony gallop to catch up to Brie. It's adorable! I'm teaching Nina, too, how to jump outside, over little ditches, and she's kind of hesitant. Knowing this, I didn't think that she'd want to jump up and over a fairly steep little hill, but she did! I wasn't prepared for this and almost flew out of the saddle but caught it before I fell backwards over her butt. It was scary and fun at the same time. I'm also proud of Brie, she's getting more calmed down outside.

I still have my problem of trying to get Brie to come out of the stall by me. I haven't gotten around to watching Parelli to see if he has any suggestions for this, so in the meantime, if anyone has suggestions other than bribing her with carrots, please tell me!

P.S., I don't think I mentioned it before, but the two horses in the header are Brie and Nina! Brie's the black one, Nina's the brown one.

Day 2

What started out as a crappy, frustrating day turned out to be a little fun and informative.

I decided to put a snaffle bit on Brie. For those who aren't familiar with the Paso Finos, let me explain. Pasos are Spanish horses from Colombia and Puerto Rico. Hence, they use Colombian style bits. (if you really don't know, bits are the metal parts that go in the horse's mouth) Snaffle bits are mainly for English style riding, like dressage and jumping. Based on the knowledge from Dominic, Carmello, and my mother, who are all trained in dressage, I believe it's worth a shot. Because they offer explanations as to how what the trainers are doing wrong, and how a bit of dressage training would be good for these horses, I believe its worth a shot. And because the trainers in Florida are winning and catching onto the snaffle bit "revolution", I believe it's worth a shot.
And anyways, Brie started out with this snaffle bit. It can't hurt to go back to her roots. And hey, if dressage has been working for hundreds of years on all sorts of horses, why wouldn't it work now to help this Spanish breed have more finesse?

Anyways, I worked with Brie on the snaffle bit. She seems okay with it, but slightly shocked at the difference between it and the Colombian bit. I don't know how it'll work out, it's just an experiment.

New problem: getting Brie to willingly accept the bit.

Now with Nina. She's very unhappy. Andre pointed out that Nina has sores, symmetrical sores, on the inside of her mouth. Hmm I wonder why. Not. She's pacing and not in her natural gait. The only good part about that is that Andre gave us a way to fire him. He suggested giving her time off! His situation's complicated and I don't wish to go into it. But we all at the stable think that he's getting ready to quit right before Nationals because of his situation. That'll leave the stable in peril, but not me!

The fun part of my day? After getting really angry at Andre, I decided "well what the hell." I got out my hard hat, took some cones and a long 2x4, and made a small jump. At first Brie was hesitant, but once she got up to it, she jumped right over it! And she liked it! I think I might've found her calling! The smaller jump circuit. I'll keep it up for a while and see how it goes.

And for those who say a Paso Fino can't jump, I say to you this:
A horse is a horse and will do what makes her happy.