Day 296

Sunday

We didn't end up going out yesterday because on Friday, our new puppy, Pepina, accidentally ate one of my brother's pills and she had to stay in the overnight ER. She is okay, thank God, but we stayed home on Saturday just to make sure that she returned to her normal, happy self.

I rode Brie today, since we're aiming to take her to the Michigan show next month, and I wanted to make sure that she stays focused and calm like she has been. We rode in the outdoor arena because it was absolutely beautiful out today, even a bit hot!

I never thought I would say this, but I think that Brie is pretty much finished. At 11 years old, I think that she is done trying to one-up us and has settled into the program -- we come out, we pet her, we groom her, we want to have a nice ride, we give her carrots, we go home for a week. Her attitude is completely relaxed in comparison to the whole rest of her life. I have to say, I think it's probably the magnesium that she's on that's helping break down the sugar in her blood so she's not so hyper all the time. But I also have to give us some credit. Without our understanding and patience, I'm sure she'd still be a crazy fool.

We had a beautiful ride and even did a slow canter...A SLOW CANTER. It was fantastic! And also she was strangely nice to Sadie today, and Sadie was nice to her...we think it's because there's a new mare on our side, Isabel. Brie and Sadie hated each other, but maybe they're teaming up against Isabel. Thankfully they're not all put out together!

My mom was having a hard time with Harry today. I blame it entirely on the wind, which is kind of dumb, but horses make up things in their heads to be afraid of, and it was pretty windy outside. So my mom took him in the indoor, and then the round pen, where he apparently had a magnificent largo. I wish I would've watched, but Brie and I were roaming around the property at that time. Once Harry came out of the round pen, he joined Brie, Nina, and Sadie for a ride around the property. We went a little ways down the street before a big gust of wind came by and Harry got a little iffy, so we turned around and went back.

Afterwards, we scrubbed them with a good bath! Brie was soooo dirty. When I was brushing her at first, the more I brushed, the more dust came up! She was pretty grey by the time she was "clean"! After a good bath, they all felt smooth and I took them out for some grass in the sun before bringing them back in and worming them. For me, it was the perfect day at the barn. Doesn't get much better than that!

Day 277

Finally, getting the chance to write on the day that I ride.

Didn't go out last weekend. I was in a car accident =[ So I was told not to ride for a week or so. Thankfully,  I think I'm okay. Unfortunately, my car is not. For now it's back to hitching a ride with my parents back and forth to school.

I was beyond happy to finally see the horses after such a long time. They're all in different stalls now! The rows used to be:

                       Sadie      Nina         Harry        Dora
Entrance way
                       Brie                         Tobacco   Taco

Now it's:

                       Brie       Nina                           Sadie
Entrance way
                       ?            Tobacco     Harry       Taco

The Question Mark is a new horse. We have new boarders!
But first, let me go over the change. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, Sadie and Nina didn't get along. Sadie has issues getting along with people in the arena, but I didn't think that she wouldn't be friends with Nina. Everyone is friends with Nina. But sometime this past week they must have gone at it and Sadie actually managed to get her leg caught above the wall, between the solid wall of the stall divider and the first slot for boards. The stall dividers are half wall and then every other slot is filled in with a board so that the horses could see each other. So that's where Sadie got her leg caught and cut a huge gash in her leg down to the bone. The vet came out and did his thing and now she's by herself, hopefully on her way to a full recovery.

I wanted to work on Brie today. She was already in a good mood because we brought her a banana, but I decided that before I rode, I wanted to start implementing the program that my mom made up for Harry. I want Brie to get more collected that way I could bring her back to show if I ever find a spot for her in someone's trailer, since ours only holds 2 horses. So I took her out with the longe line and my carrot stick and she cantered away for quite some time. She would be going steady and then just snorted and speed up to a gallop and then slow back down. She had a beautiful trot going once she calmed down a bit. At that point, my mom took my longe spot so I moved, took her of the longe line and onto a shorter line and had her move out on that for a bit before I started working on her moving her back end away from me, so that she was more turning on her front end. This works to round her out and stretch her back and neck, which she hates doing, without me pulling her to flex while mounted. She always cheats when she does that by bringing her head really low, not directly to the sides, but during this exercise she either had to keep her head up for balance or didn't realize that she wasn't cheating, but it worked! We did that for a while, stretched out, and then I went back to tack her up.

I was so proud of her! I've been working on getting her used to the mounting block again for quite some time and today I just walked up to it, pulled it out and put it next to her and got on and she didn't move! It usually takes a couple of tries because she walks away from it or swings her butt away so that I can't get on. So I knew this ride was off to a good start.

It took a while for me to figure out my seat again with her, I don't know why I was having trouble with that today but I just couldn't get in the saddle and work. So while I was trying to figure myself out, Samantha started riding Tobacco....and then he started bucking, and she started screaming, and eventually she fell off...she's okay, thankfully, and that's really weird for Tobacco to do that, but she got back on and rode him, so good for her.

After that, I somehow managed to figure out what I was doing and set off working. My goal: looser rein, Brie not pulling out, and maintaining a steady gait without speeding up without me asking or cantering. Mission accomplished! I never understood what riders were talking about when they said they wanted the back end engaged, but I could feel Brie engage her back end. She set her head perfectly, pulled her butt underneath her and really worked from her core. I felt like I was floating! She had wonderful boards, better than usual! She was responsive, we worked on transitions, and my reins were lose. I only had to check her every now and then, but she never pulled out and never tried to speed up. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to ride her tomorrow and try to recreate today's ride.

Day 259

I was all excited to ride Harry after a stressful week at school, but when we got out there, as I was brushing him, I noticed he was bleeding on his back right hock. After cleaning it up, the swelling went down to just a large bump. After inspecting his stall, since he hasn't been outside, I could only find a couple of places where there were flat screws a little bit out, but they were dull...I could only guess that he got mad at his neighbor Dora (she's in heat) and kicked and scraped his leg during the kick. After we cleaned him up, I brought him in the arena to longe a little bit. He walked, although at one point on a reverse he started to speed up a little, but he started limping pretty badly, so he went back down to a walk. After a good amount of walking just to get the blood flowing, I figured "Heck, I might as well play some games with him" since I couldn't ride him. We played the Friendly Game, during which I was super happy because he finally let me swing the rope over his back. We played a little Yo-Yo game and the Porcupine game in one direction, because the other direction he looked like he was dragging his bad leg, so I stopped. He was really responsive in the direction he was good at though! Then I just walked backwards and he followed me across the soundboard at a walk, then I put him in to rest.

I rode Brie and my mom rode Nina. Brie was so snotty today! She tried to bite Sadie and Harry as they walked by her on the cross tie! But you couldn't tell that from her ride. She was a fantastic ride today. Very calm, very responsive. Most of the time I just let her go where she wanted though, since I wasn't in the mood for working very hard. We let Nina and Brie chase each other around the arena, then they followed each other in circles, all while we did nothing! It was quite cute.

Mom pointed out that Brie is not as collected as she used to be and I had noticed that. I think it's just because we've been focusing in Harry and Nina since they show and kind of letting Brie just do whatever. We're going to put the rear end collector on her next weekend, maybe the draw reins. I am not a fan of those reins!

Day 253

Sunday

The farrier came out today and surprisingly he wasn't more than an hour late! While we were waiting for him, we let everyone out in the paddock to play. Harry and I played "I'm gonna get you!", which is basically where I walk around all cool and calm while he's eating, then stop and look at him and he looks up at me, then I crouch down really fast and he takes off. It's really cute, I need to record it. He knows to come by me or not be bothered by me when I'm standing upright, but when I crouch down, he speeds away! It's adorable =]

We only had enough tranquilizer for Nina, so Harry didn't get his shoes back on. I just remembered that I forgot to bring them with to school for luck. I left them at home. I'll have to get them when I go back this weekend. Harry was a little nervous at first and kicked out with his front foot when the farrier was trying to pull the shoe off and he knocked the hoof stand and then got scared because it fell down, but after that I put light pressure over his nose with my hand when he started to get tense and he relaxed into the whole process. After that, there weren't anymore issues.

Kimmy was looking for someone to ride with, since Sadie doesn't like to ride alone, and Brie was already trimmed so I took her for the first ride we've had in a while. I hate getting preoccupied with one horse over another, but it happens. She was so calm today and I think a lot of it has to do with my attitude. I was determined to keep a light rein and steady contact with my legs and seat. I've been trying to rely more on my lower body than my upper body while riding. We walked for a long time, each time she started to speed up I only lifted the reins when she started to jerk forward in anticipation or if she started to steadily start trying to increase, I sank my rear down into the saddle and gently started closing my fingers more tightly around the reins and she would slow back down before I even closed my hands all the way. After much walking to make sure that she got all of the kinks out of her arthritic leg, we sped up for a nice corto and then again for a smooth largo. I could really tell that she was happy with today's work. I also focused more on my legs than my hands for some serpentines and figure 8's throughout the ride.

At the end of the ride I put both reins into one hand and just let it rest on the pommel all while trying to direct her solely from my lower half and she responded wonderfully. She never tried to take off, so eventually I just dropped my stirrups and my rein and let her walk herself around the arena to cool and then gave her a nice warm shower. In all, a great day.

Day 252

I started off Harry today in the same way as yesterday and I've learned something --- he does not like the outdoor arena. We made a little more progress in the Friendly Game, and I got him to step up onto the concrete pad in the middle of the sound board outside all by himself, but he was very anxious and skippy once we started riding and we had to take lots of circle breaks.

Then we heard a dog barking and thought it was Paco's dog in the woods, so my brother and I rode out towards the back of the barn and as soon as we left, Harry started walking and was super calm. We ended up finding the dog -- she was just mad she was in her kennel.

Once we went back in the arena, Harry tensed back up. So my goal was to just get him to walk, since he started skipping only when I asked him to work. We ended up going out on trail again, me, my mom, my brother, and Kimmy with her horse Sadie. We rode in the road next to the property and followed it back about a half mile past the barn, going down a slow incline. Everyone was well behaved! I was a little iffy going back up the incline because there wasn't much grass to walk on and Harry has shoes, but we made it up just fine. There was even a car creeping behind us for a while and everyone was totally normal! I'm so proud of Harry and Brie for being so good.

When we got back from our ride, the horses were kind of sweaty so they got showers. Harry was falling asleep in the shower, silly thing! He must have been tired from doing something different and stimulating and having the chilly breeze in his face. Everyone will sleep well tonight, including me!

Day 226

Today was my mom's first day riding after her surgery! So that means she wanted Harry. Logical choice, because I've been working with Harry every week, unlike Brie, who has pretty much had a vacation since late April. So she took Harry (who was wonderfully behaved) and I took Brie.

I was beyond pleasantly surprised by how good Brie was. I think that a lot of it had to do with her getting her arthritis injection because the last couple of times I rode her before her little holiday and before the injection, she was kind of snotty and bratty. But today she rode like a dream! I didn't attempt making her stand at the mounting block to get on though, because there were a lot of people standing around it watching their others ride in the arena, so I just got on her from the ground. She stayed still! So I already knew from then it was going to be a good ride. Not that she runs away, it's just that she usually fidgets or backs up a little before you get on, but she was perfectly still today.

We did a good amount of flexing, nothing too hard for her to handle after her break, and then some circles with leg yields before we headed off at a nice walk. Her decision! I felt like I died and went to heaven. She and I walked for quite a while before she decided it was go time and settled into a corto. She was trying to canter the corners, so she must've been feeling really good, but I couldn't let her get away with that bad habit. We did figure 8's and serpentines and had a lovely go across the board. Brie is never out of gait. Ever. So when she was sounding kind of iffy in April, that was the surefire sign that she needed another injection. She's back to a perfect gait yet again.

We attempted some walking in the outdoor arena, but I feel like the combo of being in the outdoor for the first time in a long while and it being seriously hot out today made her uncomfortable, so we only stayed for a while. I settled for a relaxed corto instead of a walk and we headed back in to take the shortcut through the arena out back into the pasture.

Of course, when she got out she was kind of hyper, but I was determined to have a good ride outside without either of us getting anxious. She tried to jump the little ditch between the barn and the hill, but we walked around it and through it until she stopped trying to jump or rush it. Walking today was not so much of an option at first. She seemed really anxious about hurrying up to get up the hill, which I really didn't want to go straight to, because she kept pulling towards it. We walked to the fence line near the street, turned and walked back, but she was anxious again to get to the hill and kept reaching her head back to my foot. So I figured "Okay, let me hold her here for a minute if she keeps doing that." She was chomping like crazy on the bit while I held her for a couple of seconds until she stopped and let out a huge rush of air, at which point I let go. I held her back a little going up the hill and she was just as eager to rush back down, but I made her stay up on the top for a while. She eventually stopped chomping again and was silent, relaxed under me, and started looking around and I just pet her. After a while, when she seemed really calm, we went back down the hill. She wasn't anxious going down, but a little rushed, so we went back up again. We did this a couple of times until she just walked up and back down.

We were going to go in, but then this little bird by the pond started squawking at us, and rather than go away from it, I went towards it. Instead of flying away, it spun around and started running away! Once I was focused on following the bird without crushing it as it ran away from us, Brie really slowed without me having to hold her back and managed her speed while I followed the bird. Eventually, the bird got the idea that he should fly away, but it was such a cool feeling knowing that she was actually thinking on her own without me having to tell her everything that she had to do.

We walked in and I traded with my mom. Since he looked like he worked fine inside, I took him outside. He was okay until the last point we had reached outside by ourselves, which was the far side of the hill. Then I wanted him to walk to the fence line. He was very concerned about this, but we got there. When I turned to go back to the barn, that's when he wanted to take off, so I had to bend him to a stop. He didn't really stop, he kept spinning, but eventually he did stop and calmed down. We have to work on halting outside and getting the message across that stopping outside is an option, it's not just go go go. So we climbed up the hill (he was also nervous about that, so we had to go up and down a couple of times) and then waited at the top. He was a little more comfortable at the top of the hill, but still shifting his weight and not relaxing, until Samantha came out with Tobacco. Once another horse was out there with him, he calmed down a lot more. I rode with her all out back and then through the front before I came back in and gave Harry a shower.

I did bring popsicles for them, since they like them so much, but they melted in the cooler before I could give them out! Maybe tomorrow I'll have to give them before we ride.

And now for some pictures!!

Brie's favorite activity

I think this is one of the cutest pictures of Nina

Harry was not being very photogenic today.

My three out with Sadie and Taco.

Sadie: "I want a picture!!"

The Bays v The Black (and White!)

Nina mid-roll!

Eating grass while laying down: the epitome of laziness

The leader and her herd!

Day 220

What a day. I left the house at 7 AM and came back at 745 PM. I drove there this morning with only my brother because my mom wasn't feeling to good.

The vet came out today for spring shots and to float teeth. By the time we got there, Jane's horses were already done and we were just in time for the vet to start Brie. I asked him about giving her an arthritis shot, but he didn't have any on hand so he'll have to come back for that. He also took a good look at her and said that she should gain weight. We keep her on the thin side because of her insulin resistance in order to prevent a spike in blood sugar and develop laminitis like she did when she was younger, but the vet recommended changing her from 1.5 lbs of grain and 2 flakes of hay twice a day to 2 lbs of grain and 3 flakes of hay twice a day. We might just do this to get her up to weight and then cut back to 2 flakes again, because every one else is on 2 flakes and it just seems like a lot for her to metabolize.

So everyone got their shots and teeth done. Nina was terrible for the vet. She had pinned my brother and the vet against the wall at one point and the vet had to give her the tranquilizer one handed. We had planned on the farrier showing up right in time to trim them while the tranquilizer was still in effect, but he was running late so I had to go pick up the tranq in the paste back at the vet's office since he didn't have any on hand. By the time we got back, the farrier was there and the vet's tranquilizer was wearing off, so we decided to do Nina first since she was the most recently tranquilized by the vet and gave her an extra dose of paste tranquilizer. 

The farrier got her hooves done. I went to go get Harry out of his stall and noticed that he was shaking. I didn't really think much of it and tried to give him a bit of the paste tranquilizer while he was in the stall, but he wasn't having it, so I brought him out. There I really noticed how badly he was shaking and knew that something was wrong. I called the vet's office and they said not to give him any more tranquilizer and not to do his hooves until the vet got out here again, so I gave the farrier Brie to do. While he was doing Brie, he said that she was also shaking, but not as badly as Harry, so I called the vet's office back and reported that to them. They said that they were on their way.

A different vet came out than the one who gave the shots and looked at Harry and Brie and said it was probably a reaction to the vaccines and that next time we should make note of the amount of tranq and the brand of tranq plus split the vaccines up to prevent this from happening again. She gave them both banamine and gave Harry cortizone (cortisol?) as well because he was extra shaky. They both had some grass and we chatted, then she left and said to watch them for about a half hour and call her back if they did anything strange like roll around excessively or bite at their stomachs, all signs of colic. We decided that the farrier would have to come back for Harry probably next weekend because we didn't want to stress him out anymore for today.

About 15 minutes into watching them after the vet left, Harry started bucking and kicking in his stall, pawing the ground, and rolling around, so I got him up and walked him and called the vet back. She said to keep walking him for about 20 minutes, put him back in the stall, and if he hasn't relaxed to call back and let her know because she'd have to come out again.

I put him back and began to watch him when my brother went to pet Nina and noticed she was shaking too. At this point, I began to wonder if it was a bad batch of vaccines, so I went to look at Taco and Sadie. Taco was shaking a little too, but not Sadie, so I called Jane and told her and she said she would be back out. I called back the vet, told her Harry was looking okay, but reported on Nina and Taco and she said she'd be right out again and that it was probably a bad batch of vaccines.

My brother went to grab some Subways for dinner while I waited for the vet. Before he got back, the vet returned which left only her and I to handle giving banamine to Nina. Nina tried to run us both over in her stall, and then tried to pin the vet against the wall on the cross ties and tried to rear onto me. The vet told me to get a lead rope with a chain and then put the chain between her top gum and her lip and I held it there like a twitch while she gave Nina the banamine and cortizone (cortisol?). By the time we finished with that, my brother and Jane were back and the vet gave the meds to Taco and Sadie as well. No one got grain for dinner and Harry and Nina won't get grain for breakfast because they were the worst tremors out of the bunch.

Jane called a while ago and said that she checked on them and they all seemed fine, thankfully. We won't have to pay for these emergency calls, but I sure hope we never have to go through a bad batch of vaccines ever again!

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 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 =]