Days 297 & 298

Saturday

Only two more days left!!!

Thursday was Nina's birthday! Happy 7th Birthday, Nina! =] She still is a little baby horse to me <3 p="">
I didn't really work Brie today. We mostly just kind of walked around a bit to stretch out in the indoor and then went outside to go find where my mom and brother went. My mom was working Harry in the round pen and he looked good! If there was a round pen class, he would win it. I don't get how he is perfectly okay going in a circle and pretty much okay going around outside, but when he is in the arena, if he largos, he has a tendency to pace.

After my mom was done, we went for a walk around outside. All was going well until we started to come back. My brother just lets Nina go wherever she wants to outside, even if it's away from us, but Harry always wants to be by Nina so if she starts to go away, he wants to catch up to her. Well Nina started to walk back to the barn and Harry was back with me and Brie, a ways away from Nina. We were walking back to the barn too, but Harry wanted to catch up to Nina. My mom let him go into a largo but he tried to start cantering. First of all, Harry doesn't even have the coordination to do a canter. Really, it's true! He never picks up the right lead! And it takes him a while to pick it up. So as he was trying to pick up his canter, my mom started bouncing in the saddle and started to fall over. She almost righted herself, but not enough, so she rolled out of the saddle and into the grass. Thankfully, she is okay.

When that happened, Harry turned around and looked at her on the ground and backed up a little bit before standing still and putting his head towards the ground. He was looking at her like, "Momma? What are you doing down there??" It was the cutest face! I was scared he was going to bolt, but he just stood there as I got off Brie and went over by him to hold him and help my mom up. She got back on and rode Harry back to the barn by the outdoor arena and worked him in there for a while, but he was pretty shaken up after she fell off so he wasn't really cooperating. We brought them all in and brushed them off before we gave them some giant carrots for Nina's birthday.

Sunday

Happy Mother's Day! I made my mom pancakes today before we went to the barn.

I worked Brie today. She was a little canter-y on the corners, so I was working on slowing that down. She was coming along great! I really want to show her at Michigan.

Mom and Harry worked more in the round pen before we walked around outside for a bit. Brie has gotten this nasty habit now of trying to race to the little hill in the back as soon as we get out the door. She likes to look over everything. But she has to know that she can't do that if I don't want her to do that! No one fell off today, which is great =]

We came in and Jane was having a hard time with Taco. She just got a new jaquima for him and he was acting up and cantering the board and generally not listening to her. My mom adjusted it because it was pretty tight and then raised the bit because that was pretty low. No wonder he was being weird, he was uncomfortable in the face and lax in the mouth! After that he was a little better for Jane, but still was being weird and spinning the reverse back onto the board, so my mom offered to get on.

Taco was super good with my mom! He was gaiting and looked fantastic. Super fabulous. I forgot how pretty he could look. And he sounded like a train! If that was a class, he would've one first place. After my mom got off, Jane got back on and he was better for her, but she needs to work on faking him out before he reverses back onto the board because he anticipates it and spins it, which could lead to Jane falling off if he goes too fast. After her short little trial, she was satisfied with him being nice to her and got off.

Then she offered him to me. I haven't ridden Taco in a long time, not since last year when I was trying to train to bring him to the State Fair because Paco was complaining about it. Paco didn't want anyone else to ride Taco and complained to Jane that I was screwing Taco up, even though he was getting better with me at the time. So I got mad and just stopped. So I was iffy when Jane asked me to ride him, but I did after my mom pressed me on. Taco was like a dream! He wasn't pulling like he used to, he was practically floating. I would love to show him, but I don't know if I want to deal with the sass and remarks from people about what I do when I ride him.

Finally, I don't know whether we're going to go to a Parelli clinic or the Michigan show...if we went to the Michigan show, I could show Brie for the first time in years, and I'd really like to because she's coming along great. I would also miss my friend's graduation...If we went to the Parelli clinic, we would bring Harry, and I think it would be beneficial for him in the long run. I could then potentially go to my friend's graduation. I really don't know what to do. I was so set on showing Brie this year and I'm not sure if I'll have the chance to again this season if I don't go to Michigan. I don't know what to do.

Days 240 & 241

Saturday

First thing when I got there today, I was bothered. Let alone that it was almost 100 F, but I show up and Paco is riding Taco. And then, to add to it, Samantha's dad is now learning how to ride on Taco. Taco is not an easy horse to ride and aside from the fact that he is not the starter horse, I was upset because I didn't want a complete newbie doing anything to screw up Taco. I never got the chance to say anything, and wasn't quite sure how to, but it stayed with me.

I tried to ride Harry, but it was a total failure. I'm not sure if it was because it was hot outside or because he was stiff or because of my sour attitude about Taco going into riding Harry, but he was just not behaving. He was bad, like trying to buck me off bad. I didn't want to give up, so when I finally got him to just go around without being terrible and make a nice pass across the board, I got off. I wasn't in the mood to fight with him today. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Sunday

I went in wanting to say something to Jane about Paco and Samantha's dad riding Taco before the show, but again I never got the chance to because Paco was always with Jane and I didn't want to just call him out in front of her, even if he does undermine me quite often in front of other people. I just can't be that confrontational. So Jane rode Taco and then Samantha's dad got on for a lesson while I was riding Brie. I made the mistake of taking her outside before she calmed down in the arena first and that set the tone for her whole day, with me and my mom afterwards. She's also hiking her back right hip up and I'm thinking it's because of her arthritis. If it keeps getting worse, I suppose we'll have to give her another shot or talk about other options with the vet, but I hope that it doesn't get worse...she's only 11. I would hate to have her unrideable at this young.

I plopped around on Nina while I was waiting for Samantha's dad to finish, and I love her more every time I do! She has such a relaxed walk and she's so focused on what she's doing. She's like a little steam boat. If we make it to State Fair (as now that's up in the air as well), I would really love to do a Pleasure Stakes class with her because I know we could win some money =]

Also more excitement! My dad rode for the first time since he was thrown off of Harry right after we bought him. That's about two years ago! He rode Nina and I knew that he was trying to look like he knew what he was doing as far as making her gait, but she's so automatic that even if he was doing something wrong, she just went on about her business and gave him a really great ride. I think it definitely made him feel better about coming out to the barn with us all the time.

Jane hopped back on Taco after Samantha's dad and so I got on Harry. He was so much better today. He had a wonderful largo and a great board. I think he's super sensitive towards what attitude you have when you get on him, because I was feeling much better today, even though I was still ticked at people other than Jane and I riding Taco. But rather than try and kick everyone else off, it would be more of an accomplishment if I could overcome the obstacle of having other people screwing with Taco and still place...that is, if certain people don't try and take credit for my win, saying that it's because they rode that Taco did so well. Taco might not even be going to the show, because he has to wear pads on his front hooves and that's against the rules, so if the farrier can't put shoes on the back feet or doesn't clear him to take the pads off, then he can't go.

I finally got my chance on Taco and had a bit of a hard time getting him to gait and he did try and pull me into the middle, but after those hiccups had passed, he settled into a wonderful, slow corto and really listened to me. He's even doing better on the corners and isn't cantering as often as before. After he worked (and he was sweating!), we went and walked outside around the pond to cool off. I went with my mom and Brie, and I couldn't believe that Taco was so good outside! He was very relaxed and calm and Brie was the crazy one. I had just anticipated that he would be a handful, but it was a really pleasant surprise to both enjoy the ride and cool down.

I'm really excited for this Friday because the kids that I babysit during the week are coming out. They're little ones, all under the age of 7, and it'll be so great to spread the love of horses with them! Of course, they're only going to ride Nina =]

Day 232

Sunday

Didn't make it out yesterday, but today we were out super late, so that kind of annoyed me. Either way, I called dibs on Harry first and got really discouraged with him. He was all freaked out in the arena, so I did circlework and it didn't seem to calm him down, so I went in the outdoor where my mom and brother were riding. He was still being uppity and pacing so I tried to longe him in there and he turned into the fishtailing brat that he was a couple of months ago. So I walked over to the round pen and made him longe in there. He was much better and ran like there was no tomorrow! Finally he calmed down and I rode him in the round pen. He didn't want to collect and kept pacing, so when he finally got it right a couple of passes, I got off and walked back into the indoor and my mom wanted to ride him.

Then I got on Taco. Jane said that he was being a little nicer this weekend, but he was still pulling her into the middle. I put another rein on him and got on to try for a pass around the arena at a walk and he did the same thing to me, so I brought him back out to the round pen. After a couple of bad passes in there, he was much more cooperative. He kept breaking into a canter though, so I had to keep slowing him to a walk and starting again. He finished nicely and I figured that we should try to go around in the arena for a bit. 

He was just as horrible as he was when we left. He is so spoiled! That's because Jane is scared of him a little and gets off when he starts acting up, so he does that in order to stop working. I was working him the same as he was outside and he was getting better walking, but then I wanted a pass for a corto (which I probably should have just settled for a walk), and he kept trying to canter and take off into the middle of the arena to stop. 

During all of this, Nick saw. He came over with a different jaquima completely on his own and changed it. This one had a steel bosal with bolt nuts on it, whereas the one Taco was using was a soft rawhide one. Nick told me that I can't use it all the time (nor would I want to!) and that he should be better once I changed it. He also commented on the size of the bit. I didn't change Taco's bit to Nina's today because Jane had already started riding when we got there, but hopefully I will be able to two weeks from now. Taco was a lot better with that new bosal and I was very light with my hand so I wouldn't hurt him. He was cantering a little, but I kept pulling him back into gait and we had a couple great passes on the board. I finished and got off, when Paco made a remark about how it was a terrible ride and how I let Taco win because at the end we just walked after he cantered. I was not in the mood for fighting with anyone, so I just got back on, corto'd a little without him breaking and then got back off. 

People and their opinions. Gotta love them.

Days 203 & 204

Saturday

Today we had a huge party in celebration of Paco's birthday tomorrow because not everyone would be here tomorrow. It took away from riding time, but it was super fun. But before the party, I worked with Harry. We were doing the same kind of longeing from last week, using the pole, and it was going pretty well. He wasn't running so hard around the pole, but then he started fishtailing out again and didn't want to move back out...sigh. I really don't know what to do with him or why I suck at this so much. But Paco came over and told me to longe him from the bosal like I was a couple months ago, but he still kept fishtailing out, so Paco took him over.

Harry longed perfectly for Paco. =[ It's things like that that make me feel really bad. I don't know what else I could do to get Harry to work for me without thinking I'm a joke.

We bought bell boots for Harry in hopes that they would help him remember his back legs, but it didn't seem like they really did anything at all. He was just okay to ride, but at least he didn't act up. We put down the poles for the figure 8s and walked over them at the end of our ride. He started to even kind of hop over them and I could tell that he really started to like going over them. That made me happy, because the last time that we worked with the poles, which feels like forever ago, he was scared of them. So progress has been made at least in that department.

Sunday


So, the bell boots aren't really working at all. Oh well. At least the set was only $20.

I let my mom work with Harry today while I worked with Brie. We did a lot of bending and flexing and I started trying to teach her to flex while walking, but she more often than not thought that I wanted her to circle. Just tiny flexes is what I'm going for right now. We largo'd a ton and she was just snorting away out of sheer happiness, so I'm glad that she was at least content with what we were doing today. It was overall just a really relaxing ride and makes me so appreciative of everything we've gone through to get to this point. I never thought that I'd be here with Brie!

Nick rode Harry a bit today after my mom did. He basically said the same thing that everyone else did: Harry is a highly anxious horse. And Nick's way of dealing with Harry's anxiety is to circle him on the spot until Harry calms down, even if he's whipping around like a tornado until he calms down. I don't really think this is a great idea, because Harry made himself so dizzy once that he stumbled sideways almost into the wall after coming out of a tornado-spin circle. I'd much prefer to stop and let him calm himself down and continue on the ride. By the end of Nick's ride, Harry was black with sweat, and it was relatively warm enough in the barn, so we decided to wash everyone (with soap!) today. Now maybe they won't be so sticky and stinky! Although I'm sure this hope is futile, especially since the first thing Harry did when he got back in his stall was roll a bazillion times.

But as I was washing him, I got to thinking: maybe we should try a supplement on Harry like we did for Brie. We ordered Brie Smart Paks before (I want to say Mare Magic) when we were out of other options training wise and it worked like magic after only a month. We haven't had to order it again because she's so good now. Maybe something like that would be the way to go with Harry. I know that he doesn't have mean intentions and that he really is just a fearful horse. Maybe if he mellowed out he would be able to focus better.

Day 193

I get Harry today and we do a little Parelli. And by a little, do I mean a little. We were playing the friendly game and he keeps running away from the rope when I go to swing it over his butt and wants to start longeing. I can't tell if he thinks that's what he's supposed to do or if he's scared of it, but we'll keep working on it. We played that for quite a while until he stopped flinching and started just to stand still while I rubbed him with his leadline. He's still really good at the YoYo game, so I'm happy with that. We ended on that good note before I actually started longeing him. He did so well today! I had a loose line and he was walking when I told him to walk and trotted a bit when I asked him to speed up instead of cortoing, which I guess means he was super relaxed. I did all this before I tacked him up, and when I longed him while tacked up, he was just as good!

But then I got on to ride him...all he did was tap dance! And what's worse is now I can't even tell if it's something I was doing or from Paco riding him the other day. Ugh! That just really gets me. I tried my best to work it out, but he was still tapping a little at the end. We ended with a very nice pass on the board though, so I was happy with at least that. I traded him off to my mom who said he was a little more cooperative and I just plopped around on Nina. Oh Nina. I love to ride her because she actually walks! I know that I complain a lot to my family about not being able to ride her because my brother hogs her all the time, but I really don't want to gait her. I enjoy just being on a horse who walks at a normal pace every once in a while!

Day 192

First day out of the new year! What a better way than to get hooves trimmed?

Since the farrier was out today, nothing really exciting happened. Nina and Brie got trimmed, Nina while tranquilized and Brie was, in the farrier's words, "awesome" because she picked up all her hooves for him without being asked. Harry, though, apparently had really bad front hooves. I know a couple weeks back he got that big chip on the inside of his front left hoof that Paco cut off because it was just hanging. The farrier pointed out that Harry's been riding on his frogs because his hoof wall is in such poor condition. We made the decision to put shoes back on his front hooves. He had to be tranquilized to do that because he got one shoe on and then started trying to rear. But overall, they're all fixed up pretty now and I can't wait to ride Harry tomorrow to see if this changes anything even a little bit.

What I am mad about, though, is Paco riding Harry without telling me beforehand. Actually, I don't like Paco riding Harry at all. It's a really tricky situation because we're friends, but I just don't want him interfering with what I'm trying to accomplish with Harry -- building up his confidence. I know that Harry is really energetic, hyper, and stubborn, but I don't believe that he's mean or is confident. I believe that horses are the same on the ground as they are in the saddle. What I mean by this is that Harry is a spooky horse on the ground, therefore he's a spooky horse in the saddle. I can prove this with Brie. She's like bomb-proof on the ground and is pretty much bomb-proof outside (whether or not she wants to cooperate is a different story). I believe that Harry's spookiness stems from his lack of confidence and while I don't get to work on that on the ground so often, I'm really trying to build up his confidence in the saddle by the work I've been doing that past couple of weeks by trying to get him to collect his own feet and maintain his own speed without me doing all of the work for him, sometimes the wrong way and making him upset. If Paco is going behind me and doing God knows what while I'm not there (not that I think that he's harming him), then how is what I'm doing supposed to stick? It's bad enough that I get ridiculed about doing Parelli techniques and hounded about wasting time while I'm doing them so I can't improve him on the ground, but I have to be working double on riding too? No, I don't appreciate this. And Paco, being older, of course thinks I'm just being a stubborn kid and not wanting to listen to him and his help, but honestly, Paco contradicts himself all of the time. If he's not someone who's consistent in what he's trying to "teach" me, then how am I even supposed to believe what I'm doing is right if the next day what I'm doing is wrong?

Take for example, yesterday when Paco rode Harry he changed the bit. I have no idea what bit he used and he didn't want to show me, but when WE wanted to change the bit, Paco told us No, No, No. Now suddenly it's okay? He can get into our tack room, why couldn't he just use our bit? I want to tell him and I know it shouldn't affect our friendship, but I know that it will. It just comes down to my own horse's well being and the progress I'm trying to make. I know that I should appreciate him exercising Harry because he doesn't get trained and it's cold out, but honestly, that's another thing. Paco should be putting them outside. So what if it's cold? As long as it's above freezing and there's no ice on the ground, I fully believe that they all should be out in the fresh air. It drives me insane because I know they aren't getting out.

This is why I need to, as much as I want to quit, stay in school and force myself into a good job. That way I can get my own barn and my own land and take care of my horses the way that they're supposed to be taken care of.

Day 190

Saturday


As you all know, I was super excited to feed them all their Christmas salads today! I made them with iceberg lettuce, golden delicious apples, and baby carrots. Brie, Harry, and Nina each got their own. I think it's safe to say that they enjoyed them! Harry has found a new favorite food in lettuce =] But before they got to eat their salads, they had to face the big scary tarp in the middle of the aisle. Paco put it up to keep the heat on our side since there aren't any horses on the other end and they all freaked out when they stepped out of their stalls and saw it!

After I fed them their salads, we tried to teach Harry some Bella Forma. For those of you who don't know, it's basically like a confirmation class. The horse has two handlers on the ground and we hold lines attached to his bridle and walk around withe him to show his gait. We did this with Nina when she was little, and my brother wanted to try it with Harry because it was Christmas. He tried with my mom and I could tell they were getting stressed, especially my brother because he was having Nina-like expectations of Harry, who knows nothing about Bella Forma. I went and tried with my mom and Harry I got scared at one point that Harry would kick me because he swung his butt over towards me, so I dropped the rope like I'm supposed to and he freaked, bolted out on my mom and got the rope twisted around his leg. He was running in a circle around her until she managed to get him in close enough to stop and untangle the rope and after that, no more Bella Forma for Harry. We don't want to get killed and we don't want him to break a leg. It's really the sort of thing that you're supposed to start with a horse when they're young.

So after that, we rode for a little bit before we stopped and talked to Paco and Gary for a long time. We cleaned em up, said Merry Christmas, and then left...only to return so I could grab my camera hanging on Brie's stall. So now I can show you pictures!!

Days 188 + 189

Saturday

Worked with Harry again today. I noticed that he had a crack in his hoof...maybe we're making them too hard? We've been using Tuff Stuff on them and since we started using it, he's been cracking. We're going to switch back to Rain Maker tomorrow. I didn't know, but Paco longed him during the week. He was much relaxed when I longed him and only stopped on me twice. Major improvements!

He was good in the gait and even went pretty fast for largo! I'm super proud of him, he's really coming along now that I'm not trying to do everything for him. I know it's only been a weekend, but he seems happier.

Brie was giving Mom a hard time today. She kept hopping and skipping and overall being Brie. I'll get some sense into her tomorrow.

Sunday

Mom rode Harry first and I rode Brie first. We don't know if she's still kicking the stall. I do know that I want to make her a salad for Christmas! I've looked it up and it's not bad for them as long as you don't give them a lot. So I'm going to make them all a small salad with apples and carrots. I hope they like it!

Paco cut off the chip in Harry's hoof today. The farrier's not coming back out until January, so we'll have to make sure it doesn't crack any further up his hoof.

Mom said that Harry was being an angel! I'm so glad that he's getting better, it's like he's growing up. She worked him longer on the barbada rein than I usually do, but she said that when she switched over to the bit rein, he was "as smooth as glass"! He sounded awesome on the board too, so mission accomplished!

Brie was really pulling, maybe because she was a bit confused. I wanted to work on leg contact, since it's something we never do and I figured that since I've only been trying to teach her to canter FOREVER it would be a good idea to get her used to since she jumps in reaction to when I ask her with my leg as opposed to just loosening the reins. If I ever want to teach her flying lead changes, she'd need the leg contact part, not just the reins, so I want to do it the right way. So we worked on maintaining a good speed while I kept contact in the walk and corto. She largo'd a bit, but only after a long time of working at a corto. When I did start asking her at the very end for canter, my main goal was not only keeping it at a sane speed, but picking it up right away instead of pacing and then getting the lead. Every time she'd start pacing to pick it up, I'd slow her back down into a corto and try again at the next corner. She was eventually getting it, but then lost the canter halfway down the long wall, but as long as she's picking it up, our goal was accomplished! I only hope she doesn't think that means to charge the corners from now on, as we've been working so hard to stop from doing that.

I was amazed that it was warm out, well, warm enough out, so we gave them all a hose down. Next time we see them will be Christmas Eve! I can't wait to give them their salads!

Day 187

 Sunday

Whenever I get told I'm doing something wrong, I feel insanely stupid. I feel even worse about it when I came up with it on my own and wanted to believe my hardest that it was working.

Longeing Harry today was kind of hard. Apparently, it made Paco nervous as he watched, so he came over and intervened. Grumbling, I did what he told me to, which was to throw the carrot stick on the floor, tie up the pisador, and longe Harry from his noseband like he had said two weeks ago. Sigh.

Harry is entirely different from Brie and Nina in that he won't longe if you push him from behind and he'll only go if you literally lead him by the nose.  It's really weird and I have no idea how to get him to do it the proper way, but if this works, then I guess I'll have to go with it.

Once we got the longeing out of the way, his ride was great. Sundays are (almost) always better than Saturdays because we've had Saturday to warm up and remember "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be working". He was going a tiny bit faster in his largo than yesterday which was great! The only thing is it wasn't entirely in gait, but it was closer to gaiting than pacing, so that's progress. I'm just gonna keep pushing the speed until he's confident that he won't lose his step.

Brie, on the other hand, is still kicking the wall. Jane heard her the other day when she was visiting Taco and said she was going to town on the wall. So we've decided that, if it's okay with Gary, that we're going to install rubber mats around Brie's stall. Oh Brie, she's going to live in a padded cell!

Day 184

Harry had a reintroduction to the carrot stick today.

First, let me start off by saying that Taco is now on our side! They were all set up like I described last week, but Paco told us that Brie is still kicking and kicked out a board in the front of her stall this past week, so we moved her back on the end so it's just her next to Harry and a wall. I hope she stops kicking. I don't know what to do! We're gonna look for toys to put in her stall to occupy her from the kicking, and if that fails then we're gonna have to suck it up and buy some rubber matting for the walls. If you have any suggestions on how to deal with this, please tell me!!

Back to Harry. I worked him today. We started out longeing on his bosal (noseband) like we had decided last week and he was doing okay in his usual direction and then started pulling me around the arena in the clockwise direction. After about 20 minutes of being slowly dragged across the arena by his fishtailing, I had enough and got the carrot stick. Using it behind him was such a transformation! He didn't run away from it and he just walked, observant of it behind him. After doing that for a while, we stopped because that's all I really wanted from him at that point, to not drag me around anymore and go about it calmly! Then I put it on the ground and he was scared to step over it. *shakes head* What a strange horse.

Getting on him, we worked lots of circles and spirals and serpentines to warm up first, then we went at a walk. He started out nicely and then started speeding up, but I managed him. Going into his corto, he was tap dancing a lot and I had to play around with my weight and position until he stopped and was happy. Then I started trying to push him faster into a largo and we go faster counterclockwise than clockwise...makes no sense! But we'll keep working at it. I'm so confused as to how to go about this with him. Should I work on collecting his corto or should I keep pushing him to go faster? I don't know. All I know is that I watched a video today of when Paco used to ride him as a stallion and he was sure speeding around (in comparison to how he goes now) without breaking gait! Is it the bit? Is it me? What is going on?! I have no idea. Maybe tomorrow I'll take off the jaquima rein and just work the bit and see how that goes.

Days 182 + 183

Saturday

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! While I'm sad that today was probably the last warm day of the year, it's a good thing because it's supposed to be cold in November. Unfortunately, that means that my horses will be quite stinky until it warms up enough to give them a bath. I can only shudder when I remember how dirty they got last year.

I thought that Brie was perfect today. She was responsive, well-mannered, and flexible. Perfect in every way --- until she hit the board. It was the most bizarre experience, being on Brie when she sounded like she was pacing. She's never been out of gait since she finished training 7 years ago. I thought, "Could I possibly be doing something wrong? Could she not really be as flexible as I thought she was being?" So we did circles and she still wasn't gaiting. My mom suggested that I ease up and let her just walk because it might have been her arthritis acting up. I felt so bad after that! It's so hard to remember that she might be in pain...my poor baby is getting old. =[ But after a nice (most likely) final bath of the year, she seemed pretty happy to go back and continue eating, as usual.

The reason why her leg could be bothering her is because she's KICKING THE STALL so much!!! I don't know what's her problem! Is she hungry? Is she bored? She has a salt lick and a Jolly Ball to play with. She gets outside. It's the saddest thing, especially when it looks like we'll have to be replacing the boards on the wall soon!

Mom worked with Harry today. He was being such a brat longeing! Paco had to step in and we've now made the decision that he won't be working off of the pisador when he's longeing anymore. He'll be working off of his noseband. I do not understand him. It's not that he ever wants to go too fast to stop him, it's that he speeds off and then fishtails out and back, pulling you forward. You would think that after a year of working on this, he would get the picture without having his nose held.

Sunday

Exciting news today! Taco is going to move over to our side of the barn! But now the baby has to take his place on the other side. I'll miss him =[ We don't usually go over there because it's where Ray keeps all of his horses and where the Gary keeps his and Ray just generally excludes us, but we'll have to wander over now and then to visit the cutie pie!

So now that Taco is moving over, we have to rework the stalls. Going back to Brie's kicking, Paco mentioned that maybe even though Nina and Brie grew up together, it's just a mare thing. It's funny that we never thought of that before because we humanized them so much. "Oh they love each other! It must be something else." But it's worth a shot. We know that Brie hates Harry from when she first started kicking to make damage to her stall and it stopped when she was on the end next to Nina for a while, but Paco says it's gotten horrible lately. So we're going to try moving Brie in between Taco and Harry and then putting Nina on the end. It might make her mad that she's next to Harry, but she seems to like Taco and hopefully her like for Taco outweighs her hate for Harry.

She was much better today, gaiting like normal. It must've been her leg bothering her yesterday. We worked more on flexibility today and keeping her corto contained after a largo, because usually after she largos she just wants to fly at a corto, but that won't do if I want to convince my parents to bring her along to shows this year!

I also got to ride Harry today after my mom worked with him. We put weighted bracelets on his back legs again to see if they would help with his tap-dancing, but I don't think they did...Anyways, we're figuring out what we want to do with his largo/corto difference and we're trying to collect his corto a little more and push is largo a little bit. Just a little in each direction. Going counterclockwise he works phenomenally, but clockwise is a little harder (just like longeing). After some fighting on the counterclockwise, we settled into a super collected corto and a smooth but not very fast largo. Clockwise, I fought with him the entire time until Paco told me to just walk and then quit after he gave in at a walk. I have a feeling that if Harry were a person, we wouldn't get along very well, we're both stubborn. But he did give me a nice walk at the end, so I'll give him that.

The farrier also came this afternoon. We did Brie without tranqing her, which is what's normal. She's 10, she's used to this, but he wanted her tranq'd every time he came out before this. I'm glad she was able to show what a good girl she is for the farrier. We started Harry but when he got to the front feet Harry started to try and rear, so we had to tranq him. Of course we needed to tranq Nina. I wonder if she'll ever be able to do it without being drugged...maybe we should lessen the amount each time until she can remember that it's okay? They're all going barefoot for the winter time, so I hope they don't get any cracks!

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!

Day 178

I brought Emily from the Equestrian Team out to the barn today!! It was so nice to have someone else to ride with and teach allllll about my lovely Pasos!

She comes from a polo background, and apparently didn't learn how to actually ride/do all the required horsey things before they set her on a pony and told her to chase that ball! So I got to teach her how to groom and tack up and longe. The tack part might be conflicting with the English tack, but it's similar enough.

I was going to set her on Brie, but Paco got out Extremo and warmed him up for Emily. Emily got on Extremo and oh boy, away they went! I could tell she was freaking out because Extremo kept pulling her into the middle whenever she wanted to go fast. After much instruction from Paco and myself, she finally got him under control though! She even looked like she was enjoying him because she was making the right corrections and handling him very well once she got the hang of it! Now she knows how hard of a transition it is for me from Pasos to hunter/jumpers every week! They're pretty much polar opposites!

At one point, I switched from Brie (who Paco started to ride, lucky her) to Harry. After chasing Extremo and Emily around for a while, Jane asked me if I could ride Taco, and Emily switched onto Nina. While Taco was pulling me around the arena at the start, my mom stayed with Emily and told her how to ride Nina (basically, you just sit on her). Emily liked Nina WAY more than Extremo =] Which makes me happy. My horses are awesome.

Once I got a hold of Taco, Emily offered to get off and let Jane ride Nina because she insisted Nina was so perfect. Jane was a little hesitant, but of course she fell in love with Nina who continuously walked, which is all Jane's looking for!

After that, we all gave the horses baths, mucked and fed, and then we started to barbeque. Ray wasn't there this weekend, which worked out perfectly for bringing Emily and having this little party. We made chicken and steak tacos and mexican rice and had cupcakes and apple pie and pasta salad and potato salad...a true feast! After eating until we exploded, we talked, handed out carrots, we packed up for the ride home, during which Emily, my brother, and I all slept the entire ride home.

So not much training on the home-front today, but it's always good to just get out and share your love of horses with other people!

Day 177

I hate when my farrier is late.
I mean, I do enjoy that he takes his time when he gets to our barn, but that means also waiting around while he takes his time on other people's horses at their barns before he gets to ours. Which sometimes means showing up at 5pm instead of noon.

We didn't get to stick around to see Nina being trimmed because I had to get back to school, but we tranq'd her and Paco was going to be there to help out.

On the other hand, after my mom rode Harry today, we found out that he severely cracked his hoof just from being on the rocks for a second on his way out the arena into the grass. I had a picture, but I can't get it off my phone right now. So the farrier tried to fix it and basically told us we can't ride Harry until Thanksgiving now because he had to take off a big piece to fix the chunk that happened with the crack. =[ This makes me beyond depressed.

I rode Brie today. She was really good, but stocked up again. We're thinking maybe it's time for another cortisone shot for her arthritis again, because when she's warmed up and ready to start going faster, she snorts, and it took her a long time for her to snort today before she was warmed up. We're going good with the largo, we only break in the corners now in the counter clockwise direction, but we'll be able to fix that by Spring. There might be a local fun show coming up in November, so I'm hoping we can take Brie to that to get her used to being back out in the show ring!

Today, I also rode Kimmy's horse, Sadie. She's an Icelandic Pony/Foxtrotter who was trained for barrel racing...which is an interesting mix. O.o Anyways, Jane, who's Kimmy's grandma, said that Sadie could use all the practice she could get since Kimmy's having trouble with her doing anything really because Sadie hasn't been ridden too often for over a year now. Boy, was that horse snotty! She almost ran over everyone standing by the arena door at least 4 times trying to get back to her stall and tried a couple of little rear/jumps on me too until my mom had to lead me away from everyone for their safety and stand by the pole and make me do circle work. Then Sadie started to calm down. Apparently, she never gaits, but Sadie was gaiting when I was really looking forward to doing some extra trot/canter transitions. In all, Kimmy has a lot of work a head of her, but I'll take the chance to ride any horse I can get! Especially now that Harry's out for the next month =[

I was proud at the end though. Paco congratulated me on riding Sadie so well because apparently she gave Kimmy a really hard time last weekend and Kimmy got off crying. So that made me happy =]

Day 176

It was just me and my mom today! When we arrived, Paco said he had a surprise for us and it turned out that surprise was he had been riding Nina all week. That's great and all, but I wish he would've told us beforehand. The farrier last week said to lay off her because her hooves are going over her shoes and she couldn't be tranq'd last week to do her shoes so we have to wait until tomorrow. So on top of that, Paco had been using a different, hugely different bit on her all week and trying to make her extend while we've been trying to make her collect. While I generally don't condone my brother talking back to people, I hope he says something to Paco. I mean, it's a nice thought, but when her hooves aren't done and you're using this big bit on her that's completely different from everything we've used and are teaching her to do something different than we want, it's kind of a problem.

So he rode Nina saying she looked so much better and she really looked the same. I started and rode Harry today while my mom walked around Brie. Brie had quite a bit of stocking up in her arthritic leg and it took a while for the swelling to go down. Harry was good but seemed kind of sleepy. Nevertheless, I'm proud that he didn't skip a beat on the board and his largo was very low in the amount of pacing. Tomorrow he'll be even better!

What I'm trying to work on Brie is the speed of her largo without breaking into a canter. She's going super fast but still breaks in the corners sometimes, so we need to find a speed that's still fast but so that she doesn't break.

The farrier's coming back out tomorrow to do Nina, as I said. Hopefully it'll be 1 2 3 done!

Illinois State Fair!!

Just a heads up, this is gonna be a long one. Hope you make it through it!
I usually like to do posts in present tense like it was the day, but I'm gonna reflect on this one.

Harry did amazingly getting in the trailer both coming and going, which is something we were all kind of worried about. Seems like he's getting the hang of going places! The show was Friday and Saturday, and I decided to enter him in both performance and pleasure classes. I normally wouldn't have done pleasure classes with Harry, but I figured it would be good experience for him to get used to more time in the show ring. Plus the classes were cheap, so even if I didn't do all that well, he'd be getting exposure.

Friday were the performance classes. My brother had two and my mom had one and I had three. I rode against each of them at some point. My mom got 4th on Harry in the class she rode him in and I got honorable mentions and a 7th. My brother got 5th on Nina and my mom got 2nd in the trainer's class.

That day, we had a cake for the judge. While we were eating, I took the opportunity to ask her what she was looking for. She basically just told me consistency in the gait, which I found out later both by other people's conversations with her and how she was placing horses that it meant ONLY consistency in the gait, nothing to do with headset or even overall manners, which I think is COMPLETE bull. But whatever.

Harry was having a difficult time getting warmed up on Friday. He kept skipping around anxiously and not wanting to work. I found out that Paco had "rode the crap out of him" on Wednesday and it was supposed to be a surprise to help us win, but I don't know what kind of bit he used or anything and that had me really upset. I like Paco and all, and I really don't have a problem with him riding Harry whenever, I'd just like to have known, you know? I'm not sure what I could've done, but I still would've like to have known.

Every time Harry came into the show ring, he skipped right in front of the judge. I was trying to be loose on the reins, but he would then try to take off with me instead of doing his usual lovely corto and when I'd try to pull him back to speed he'd skip again. This went on for every class I had both Friday and Saturday until the last class, but I'll get to that.

Friday comes and goes, Jane visits with John and we find out that Paco will be hitching a ride with someone to visit on Saturday. We have a great time with one of the trainers, Paul, who is stalled next to us. Once upon a time, I ranted about a certain Randy, who seems to win every class. But after being stalled next to him as well, he and his family seemed to have gone complete 180 from ignoring us to being super friendly. After having the time to watch him and his horses in the some classes I wasn't in, I hate to admit that he's actually really good. I have to give him credit -- his family does everything. The other barns bring people to clean the stalls and help tack up, but he owns, trains, and did all of the cleaning while counseling his clients.

I have a certain nemesis who I won't even name, but she always beats me in every class I'm in (except for that one time Brie won 3rd place), and she's a client of Randy's. It just annoys the heck out of me that she just pulls up in the middle of the day, not sweating, in her show clothes, hops on her horse that Randy's prepared, and wins.

Saturday comes the pleasure classes. I have on in the afternoon and get honorable mention again. Harry skips a whole ton in the largo because I'm pushing him for speed which is what the pleasure class wants. It's very hard because I can't hold him back enough without him skipping in the corto for there to be a noticeable difference in speed between the two gaits. Then on top of it, there's a little gait on one wall of the arena that you KNOW you're not supposed to go through while horses are in there. Well we're going into the lineup and I'm doing my final lap around and some lady comes waltzing through it into the arena, spooking Harry halfway across the arena in one swoop (I don't know if the judge saw), so I turn my head and yell at the woman. The indecency of some people!

After that class, Paul comes up to me and my parents and makes a super generous offer -- he wants to take Harry with him when he leaves Springfield down to St. Louis to train him for a month for free. Then we would meet up at Nationals in Memphis, I would show him and then take him home. After much conversation, we decide not to. I'm still very torn about it. On one hand, it would give us a huge help because Harry would be ridden every day by a real trainer (not counting Ray who doesn't really work, or Andre who just broke him), Paul could figure out his problems, and address them. Then on the other hand, I don't want to be like my nemesis. I take pride in saying that I've gotten him this far. It's only his first year of showing and if he's qualified for Nationals that's certainly an achievement! Then there's the problem of his shoeing. Our farrier (who is currently MIA) was doing a particular job. But then any farrier could maybe see it and pick up where he left off. I feel like I'll be battling with this up until Springfield, but I can't go back and change what happened now.

Onto the night classes. These are the Stakes classes where I could win money. My mom was in one with Nina and I was in two with Harry. I rode against the horse in the neighboring stall, Entrenador and my friend Allison. Entrenador is a 3 year old stallion and I was kind of miffed when he beat me both times! But then I have to remember that Colin trained him for Allison before he left the state.

Both classes were huge. I made the cut in the first one and got honorable mention while Allison got 7th. The second class was the one I really thought I'd do well in. I had Harry collected, he wasn't skipping and his largo speed was perfect. But I didn't make the cut in that one. Later someone told me that the judge didn't even look at me the whole class, which is like what the heck, how could you already have passed judgment on me from the class before?! There was a huge difference in his gait and everything between the two and to not even be looked at is very upsetting.

But such is life. This is why I want to be a judge.

One thing that we all thought was hilarious was when Paco rode Tormenta, a horse that Ray considers to be garbage, against Ray on a horse he considers to be amazing, in a Stakes class, on a whim, and BEAT HIM. Paco's not even a trainer, he's the help around the barn, and he beat Ray on a horse that is supposed to be insane. What a kick =]

At the end of the day, I'm happy with Harry's final performance. Even though it was the last class and he wasn't looked at, the improvement from the first class on Friday made me extremely proud. I left with some final advice from Paul -- stop cortoing and LARGO LARGO LARGO until he gets it down pat. I have 8 rides between now and Nationals, so I'll leave the collection until the last 4, maybe 3 rides. Something else I want to work on and perfect -- longeing! It shames me to not have longed him because I was scared he'd embarrass me by running out. So we're going to work on listening to me on the longe line, not stopping when he feels like it, and largoing our butts off.

A final note: after seeing the gaits, performances, and placing of the horses in performance classes, I've decided I'm going to put Brie in performance next year. She's had her arthritis shot, which may have been part of the problem later in her show career and seems to have really calmed down with her age, even going out on trail rides. I hope there will be a couple of fun shows around the area that I can haul her too in the fall for some practice. But after watching my nemesis's horse win class after class, that horse is really no different in performance and appearance from Brie. I would love to kick her butt. All I'd have to worry about is actually making it through the class without her refusing to move and trying to run over the judge. It's a chance I'm willing to take.

Days 162 & 163

Saturday

Back from vacation! I've missed Brie, Nina, and Harry so much. I haven't ridden in two weeks!

Before we went to the barn, we went to John and Jane's barbeque at the yacht club and grabbed some lunch because by the time we all woke up and got out there it was already 1pm! I met up with Annie and her new boyfriend and cousins and we all just hung around for a couple of hours until we left and went to the barn.

I was expecting quite a handful today, especially when mom said that I should ride Harry first so she could tinker around with a new bit that we're trying on Nina. I gathered up Harry after giving everyone much love and brought him out into the round pen. As soon as I let him off the line, he ran around like a maniac! I was happy he was getting it out of his system here instead of while I would be on him. After he started slowing down, I hooked him back onto the line and lunged him some more and he was responding super well to just my voice commands and didn't really try to give me any crap, so I brought him back in, cleaned and tacked him up, and into the arena we went!

I was also anticipating that he'd be a little berserk when I would flex him because he has been lately before we left, but with just a little kick and throwing my weight backwards, he gave in very quickly and stopped trying to start spinning around to throw me off. 

I was super super super surprised on how amazingly he worked today! He responded so well to everything I asked him and had a perfect board and wonderfully slow walk and cute little largo. I can only hope that he'll stay that way until Nationals are over and he'll get a nice break going into winter.  We went to go walk around outside a little bit by ourselves, but he seems like he doesn't have a lot of confidence to go very far from the barn by himself, as whenever he reached a certain distance from it (about 30 feet), he'd spin around and start heading back, not even in a hurried way, just kind of saying "Nope, not going any further". We'll have to work on that.

The bit my mom tried to use on Nina didn't work out too well, so we're going to try a different one tomorrow. We're trying to get her head to come down more, and with our last show before Nationals coming up in two weeks, we don't have that much time to work with!

After all of this, we were all sweaty and icky and still had to go back by John for dinner and the fireworks show he puts on every year, so we took Paco (who was also going back), and ran to Wal-Mart. I'm not sure what happened, but I do know that I went in with breeches and tall boots and came out with a pair of shorts and child sized flip flops and headed to a lovely fireworks show and dinner of cake (the real food was all eaten by the time we got there...830pm!). In all, it was a nice first day back =]


Sunday

So since Harry was so wonderful yesterday, especially after a two week break, I REALLY expected him to be horrible today. Wrong! I think that a break was really all he needed, he might've been starting to get burned out, because he worked beautifully today too! I even got him to go all around the property (except for by the pond. It might suck him in, you know) by himself! To say that I'm proud is a huge understatement. I hope he keeps it up for Nationals! I might even put him in Pleasure classes for fun at the State Fair just to see if we'll get some blue ribbons if he keeps up this wonderful attitude!

Nina's bit adventures didn't go so well today either, but we've seemed to have settled on a simple Mylar snaffle and a tie-down. With only another weekend's practice until the State Fair, I would start focusing more on working on dropping her head for Nationals instead of short fixes. We've done everything we could think of, it's just been an ongoing problem since she's been broke to ride. If you have any head-setting/dropping suggestions, please tell me!

Brie's leg was a little swollen today, but my brother warmed her up while I rode Harry and she was walking fine by the time I got to her. We all went for a nice walk around the property and she seemed to enjoy it a lot. We even ventured out onto the little side street next to the property, much to my dismay. I was freaking out getting there, but had to pull it together and act like I wasn't scared that way Brie wouldn't flip over on the asphalt and run away. There's nothing to really be scared of, not very many cars drive there, but all I could see was that one scene from The Horse Whisperer.

Thursday we're going out to meet the farrier again for shoeing. Hopefully the tranquilizer will work on Nina this time!

Days 160 & 161

Saturday

I actually only rode Taco today. Jane was there and Paco joked that I should ride Taco again since he didn't see me last time I rode him, and Jane was all for it! I was kind of just looking forward to relaxing on one of my horses, but I rode Taco anyways. She was all excited because she bought a new bit for Taco, so Jane wanted to hear how I thought of the bit but she ended up having to leave.

I think the new bit works fabulously with Taco. It has kind of a high port, so it's further back in his mouth, and he is super responsive to it. On his old bit, I had to pull a little harder (which would make him angry) to get him to slow down, but on this one it was just a mild touch and he slowed to a walk. He has a fabulous walk too! Way more calm than the previous times I've ridden him. But as a wise old horse at the age of 16, I really need to be on my toes because I'm sure he knows every trick in the book, that old coot!

I only cooled Harry, who was super hot because Paco rode him very hard. He was still putting up a fight from last week about flexing, but who knows? He could've slept funny and been stiff...I like to give my horses the benefit of the doubt and everyone always makes fun of me for it, but really, if you slept weirdly, you wouldn't want to be throwing your neck around!

Sunday

So. Hot.

I went with the intention of just giving them all a nice bath and deworming them, but when we got there I somehow got roped into riding. After I had already rinsed Brie because she was icky and sweaty from just standing in her stall, my mom insisted that I at least just walk her because her leg was looking a little swollen so I just waited for her to dry, brushed her hair, and threw on a bit for a bareback ride.

Without a saddle, I could really feel her limping at the warm up and felt it go away when she was all warmed up. We really only walked and it was great! I thought for sure she'd try to take off because she wasn't wearing a saddle, but either she was super hot too or she was actually complying! Now THAT was the nice relaxing ride I was looking for yesterday -- although, it wasn't too fun having horse sweat and hair on my breeches!

Paco decided to ride Nina today too, since my brother was getting super aggravated with her because she kept going into a little canter. He rode her for a lonnng time, I felt bad because it was so hot out, she was almost black with sweat when he finished (and she's light brown!). He said that we should maybe change her bit, but I don't know, I think she's doing really well, especially since I never ride her and got second place. I don't put too much worth into people's words like that when I know that they're doing well. Like yesterday, Paco said something about them not performing as well as they did when they didn't have shoes on -- uh, yeah. The shoes aren't the ultralite ones, they're normal, they haven't had shoes on in over a year so they probably need a little bit more muscle to build up, and it's 100 degrees out pretty much every weekend since then! *shakes head*


Anyways, I don't know if I'll be out for the next two weekends...we may or may not be going on vacation. I'd rather stay here and ride!

Days 155, 156 & 157 - Fourth of July Weekend

(In advance, sorry for the huge amount of posting! I've had them all saved and never got around to posting this weekend!)

Saturday

I rode Brie today and she was such a good girl. An absolute angel in the indoor and her gait was sounding perfect on the board. Then we go in the outdoor for a little pass in there before we go out marching around on our own. Being outside on her own is what I think makes her antsy. Even though she loves to be leader, I guess it's no fun without anyone to lead! After a struggling-to-keep-calm pass around the front entrance, we headed back to the outdoor arena where my mom and brother join us and then she acts like a total doll walking around the property while Harry tap dances the entire way and Nina, as usual, is as cool as a cucumber. 

When Paco was at the last show (we didn't go), he picked us up a rear-end-collector (which we charmingly call "the fruit basket"). We wanted two, one for Harry and one for Nina, but the vendor only had one, so that's what we took. 

Rear end collector

 The basket part goes over the tail and is meant to kind of make them put their butts underneath themselves a little more instead of being so lengthy. We put it on Nina today and she looked entirely different! Once again, I wish I had a working camera =[ You could tell she was definitely thinking and responding very well to it. I think that together with the new shoes, she'll be ready to really compete at Nationals! 

Sunday

I started Brie today, hopped on Harry, then finished on Brie. We did a lot of riding in the outdoor arena because it was so gorgeous out today! Once again, Nina had the fruit basket on, so she was like a little train. My mom worked on Harry's largo and he was going so fast that he was keeping up with Brie at her largo! I just hope he stays like that for when he shows!

When I got on Harry, he was feeling a bit tired because of working out in the sun and didn't feel as excited and animated as he usually is, so my mom got back on him and she and I went on a ride around the property. Both of them were better than yesterday, but Harry was a little bit freaked. As long as we keep bringing him out and about, he'll be fine, I know it.

Monday

To my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day! To everyone else, Happy Monday!

We went out to ride as a kind of spur of the moment thing instead of staying home and deciding to clean our pool. Only my mom and brother came out with me, my dad stayed home. We got out there and no one was around, it was kind of nice. Then Jane showed up and we talked for a little bit, she showed us a bit she wanted to try on Taco and I offered to try it on him for her.

After we fished out some fly masks, cleaned out the water bucket, and stuck Brie outside to enjoy the grass, my mom put the fruit basket on Harry and I went over to the other side of the stable to help Jane put together her only-used-once jaquima with a new bosal, hung the new bit and took Taco out in the ring to lunge him. She told me that no one ever lunges him before they get on, they just go! I found that kind of weird and said that since he doesn't get ridden a lot and she comes out to feed him carrots often, she should just lunge him for a couple of minutes that way when she wants to ride him he'll be less energetic from daily exercise (she drives out just to give him carrots every day).

I got on him and soon discovered that he doesn't like flexing to the right, so I got off and worked that on the ground, trying first with the rein over the saddle, then on the right side just pulling it back, then finally just grabbing his head and pulling it over like a hug. He likes hugs =] So she said she'd start doing that too. As an older horse who gets ridden very seldomly, I'd sure not want to flex either!

After all of that, I started to ride. He was very calm at a walk, but as soon as I went into a corto he wanted to take off like a freight train and when I pulled back for more than a second he only went faster! Now I can understand what she and Annie mean when they say that their arms hurt when they're done riding him. They have to be pulling and then pulling harder when he keeps going faster, ignoring the bit and the rider. He absolutely HATES people hanging on his mouth.

We did some walk-corto-stop transitions and he got better at the end. His gait on the sound board is kind of icky, but it also got better at the end. He wanted to charge the board too, but I made him walk it and then speed up a tiny bit. When he sped up that tiny bit, he sounded phenomenal, but then he charged again and it was just plop-plop-plop from then out. He could use a lot of exercise and I hope that she remembers to lunge him often because I think he would definitely benefit from it.

It was nice getting back on Taco after not riding him for a long time and being able to help Jane with a couple of tips. I only hope she follows them!

Days 135 & 136

Saturday

Short day =[ I rode Brie today. Her canter is coming along so nicely! I'm so proud of her, she's really starting to realize she can't just bolt. I'm thinking of putting her in trail class when we take her to shows. There are jumps, you have to close gates, and do various things that you might have to on trail, like stepping over a tarp or something. It sounds really fun and I have a feeling she'd do great. She really seems to trust me except when the sunshine demons are out and we actually go outside haha.

Mom rode Harry today and got kind of annoyed with him. It looked like he was just a lot to handle. Tomorrow it's trailer time!

Sunday

TRAILER TIME!
We brushed them all off and took Harry outside to face the trailer. My mom had the first go and after a couple minutes of little rears, Harry finally realized that he had a chain lead on his nose and that he better behave! She got him in, but he kind of hopped backwards out. Paco led him in and out again, of course Harry was beautiful for Paco. So then my mom gave it a few more times and then I did and the even my dad did! He's getting better at it. With a couple more weekends of practice, he'll be going in and out like a pro. We also put Brie in there just for kicks to show Paco how we blindfold her and lead her in. Poor baby hit her nose on the inside because she walked too far. I'll have to take a video of us leading her in blindfolded sometime for all of you =]

I started off riding Brie. I was so thrilled when Annie and Jane showed up with Annie's new horse, Brenner! Annie went to tacking up Brenner and we were cruising around the arena, my mom working with Harry again. Brenner was kind of spooked at the noise of us going over the soundboard, so we stopped until Annie got on. Annie only took a couple of steps before someone when on the soundboard again and Brenner got spooked.

He bucked, and it looked like she had him under control, until he bucked again and lept over the soundboard, when Annie landed on the horn, he bucked again and it looked like she was going over his head when she half jumped/half fell off of him as he bucked again and I rounded him into the corner with Brie when he started to take off. Annie was okay, thank God, but she'll be feeling a pain in her butt, literally, tomorrow morning from that saddle horn. After that, she went in the outdoor arena to work him.

After seeing that, it really made me stop and think. Holy crap! He was a huge horse! He had to be at least 16 hands, which may or may not be normal to other people, since our little Pasos are around 14/15 hands. It really made me wonder if I could handle bigger horses. And Annie is a tough girl, her motto is "If I'm going down, he's going down with me"! For her to get half thrown off really shocked me.

After the whole accident, I switched Brie for Harry. Oh. My. Gosh. Was he AMAZING today! I got a really good video on my dad's phone, but unfortunately it was too big of a file to send to email =[ Now I have to figure out how to get it off of there. He was relaxed and worked beautifully and his gait sounded phenomenal! If he shows like that, we'll surely be cleaning up!

I switched Harry for Nina and just plopped along on her, cooling her off after my brother rode, and then we hosed them all off. Sadly now I'm back to classes. It'll be hard to get used to again. And this Saturday I won't be going out to ride because I'm going to a competition for an X Factor "front of the audition line" spot! I still have to figure out which songs I want to sing! Wish me luck!