Day 108

Ever had a day that's completely unbelievable?
That happened to me today.

It was the strangest thing. I was thinking about Andre more than usual today, and as we were reminiscing about him on the way home, my mom got a call from an unknown number. Jokingly, I said "Hey, it's Andre, call him back!" So she did.

It was Andre.

I couldn't believe it! I screamed when I heard it was him! I've missed him so much, despite the tiny falling out he had with my family. He's essentially taught me all that I know and I definitely couldn't have gotten as far as I have with Harry, or even Brie for that matter, if it were not for him. I can't even conceptualize how lucky I am to have had him as a mentor from such a young age, pretty much turning me into a horse trainer at age 12, giving my brother and me his secrets, jokingly telling us that we would be his legacy.

He has a couple of clients and has built an indoor on his property, and his Querida has turned all white and birthed a foal a couple months ago! His own baby is getting big, now at 13 months. It's hard to imagine that we've been on our own for over a year now and are doing so well, also owning a third horse!

Away from the shock of the day, onto training. I started and worked Brie first. Her legs are looking kind of stocky. Is it possible that's from cantering? Do horses' legs do that when they're being trained to canter? Am I doing something wrong and over-stressing her muscles? I'll have to do some research. We mostly walked and corto'd today, and she picked up her own canter while she was on a loose rein. It was a fantastic speed too! But I had her stop after a couple of strides, not wanting to agitate her legs any further.

No Nina. Again.

Harry was significantly better today. They are all definitely happier once they've had their playtime outside first. He was not as collected, but at least he wasn't goofing around with his back legs today. We have a good three, maybe four more months to figure him out for show season, so I plan on taking things slowly.

Day 41

I think that Brie may be going through some hormonal changes right now. For the past three weeks, although I have failed to mention it, she has been giving me attitude when I want to take her out of the stall. She may just not want to work, but she doesn't get out all week because of the ice, so you could assume that she'd be happy to leave, right?
Well, I'm trying to be patient with her, yet again. Just getting her to walk today with 3 other horses in the arena was a challenge and she worked herself up. I guess I never have a dull moment with her. She ended on a good note though, finally walking, so I walked a couple rounds bareback, which hopefully she enjoyed.

Still no progress with Nina, as we've just found out that Ray's mom died this week. He's been in Puerto Rico with her for close to a month now, and won't be back until the middle of next week. Please keep him in your thoughts.

I rode Harry again today. He reminds me more and more of Andre's horse, Querida, and maybe a little bit of Brie too. He's young though, so I should give him a chance on the Brie aspect of it. He may have a lot of potential on the Querida side of it, because Querida is a Fino horse. Right now, since Harry's young, we might just show him in Pleasure classes if he's really not where he needs to be, otherwise we'd show him in Performance. If it turns out that we've struck gold again, we might have a Fino horse, along with Nina being a possible Fino horse!
Now why do I speak like I own Harry?
Well.
I do. =] Not officially though. We still have to seal the deal tomorrow and, obviously, pay for him. I should've probably waited to tell you guys in case it fell through, but I'm so excited! While I release a small groan at having to calm and desensitize another young horse, I can't say that I'm not looking forward to the challenge. It will all pay off in the end.