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.

Days 271 & 272

Saturday
I think that I forgot to post last weekend...terrible thing is, I don't even remember what happened! But I can't forget to post this weekend, the last weekend of 2012!

Today my mom decided that Harry is ready to be riden again. She was the only one who rode him while I dealt with Brie, who is feeling super good because she had her arthritis injections again. Harry sounded really good on the board and my mom said that he is paying a lot more attention to her now, which is really fantastic because for a while there he was ignoring us and just trying to follow Nina around. He looked like he was concentrating on her and didn't do any tap dancing and never broke gait on the board. It seems like his month off of riding and just doing groundwork has done him a lot of good!

I found out today that during the week, Samantha was out along with Jane and her grandkids to all ride. Samantha's mom was cleaning the stalls and the horse they were most scared of was Brie! That makes me kind of sad, that after all of this time she still is perceived as the crazy horse. She is an absolute doll when it comes to children and she has excellent ground manners. She is so polite when you go to clean her stall, she moves out of the way for you and everything. She even poops in the same spot all of the time so that there isn't a huge mess! So when I found out that Samantha's mom was terrified of cleaning Brie's stall because she was scared that Brie was going to hurt her, it really made me feel awful. Brie is very misunderstood. And it doesn't help that people still talk about her. We don't even show her anymore. I mean, just because she refused to walk in her classes and did her nervous crow-hopping that doesn't mean she's a dangerous horse. She's nothing like some of the other horses I've seen trained at the barn that are actually very dangerous, throwing their riders off of their backs and slamming people into walls while they're being groomed. I mean, Brie is even perfect for the farrier. I just don't get what makes people think she's this evil horse.

Sunday
My mom rode Harry again today and he was just as good if not better than yesterday! I can't wait to get on him and see how he is now.

I only rode Brie again today. She just wanted to fly! She is definitely feeling younger and spunkier now that she isn't in pain anymore. I had two reins on her today to try and work on her collection. She's gotten away with doing whatever for a pretty long time and I'd like to fix that. After we worked, I let her canter around the arena a couple of times and I could tell she was having fun! I swear, she should have been a Thoroughbred. She would've been a great race horse! She could have cantered for hours. Just imagine if I let her gallop!

Well, next time I post will be 2013. I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and that your 2013 is filled with success!

Days 257 & 258

Saturday

It's days like today that make me realize that the horses aren't getting out as often as they should be, and I wish the sign hadn't been this extreme. We were walking everyone out to the pasture to run around a little bit, and my mom and brother were in front of me with Brie and Nina while I was walking Harry. We were going to split the girls from the boys, because Samantha was there and she wanted to let Tobacco out with Harry. I turn for a second to get the get to the boys' pasture and hear my brother going "MOM!". I turn and look and see my mom face down in the mud in the entrance to the girls' pasture, I couldn't even tell you where Brie was, but my brother ran over to my mom, realized he had Nina still in hand, dropped Nina's leadline and yelled for her to stop and ran over to my mom. Nina didn't know she was loose until she tried to go into the pasture again and my brother yelled at her again, then she turned around and started to walk away towards my dad and walked back towards me so I caught her. I look and my mom's now standing up and Brie is trotting around the pasture with her leadline still on. Samantha and her parents come out with Tobacco and Samanta runs over by Brie, catches her, and takes her leadline off. Once everyone is in their pastures, I get the story: Brie was so obnoxious and she went back around my mom so that the leadline was stretched across my mom's back and before my mom had the chance to switch hands or spin around to not be in the way of the rope, Brie bolted for the pasture and knocked my mom down on her way in through the gate. We were lucky that she didn't get trampled, but she does have a large bruise on her hip where she fell. I blame this incident on a combination of Brie's worsening gate manners and the feeling that they haven't been getting out. I know this is true because Brie is normally so good being lead out to the pasture, but in the past month she's been worse. I think that it culminated with being locked in for almost two weeks while everyone was away at Nationals, but that's no excuse for her behaving like that!

I rode Brie today and she was fine being ridden, not stiff, not limping. Gary decided to keep his massive trailer in the arena for the winter, so everyone bawked at that for a while. My mom rode Harry and I have to admit, he was much better the way she was riding him, the way I was describing last week that I should revert to. More forward seat and hands higher. At the end of the ride, I told her that maybe Harry isn't performance. Maybe he's pleasure. Because being able to watch him and Nina today, there's such a difference in drive between the two of them. Nina looks like a little train, with such determination in her eyes, as she works. Harry meanwhile is very calm, looking like he's taking a basket of fruit to market to sell for the day. And you know what? I don't care if he's pleasure. So what if people say he's "less of a Paso Fino" for being that, or that "we screwed him up" from when we first bought him. If he is able to be that calm and relaxed in what he's doing, I wouldn't want to wind him up just to force him back into a state of mind where he was clearly upset, back in his early days of riding. If he is calm and happy in his work, then I know I did my job, and I can tell that he is happy from the look in his eyes as he works.

We took a ride out to Dover Saddlery today to get saddle pads, but you know we came back with more than that. It was just me and my mom, and as we were in the car, we were talking about the Paso Fino circuit and realized this is the only breed we know of outside of racing Thoroughbreds where the trainers do the majority of the showing. Where's the fun in that? Being able to say that you can afford to support the trainer and buy a top quality horse and then not even be able to ride? That doesn't sound like much fun to me. And the worst thing is that if you aren't someone who pays for a trainer to ride for you in your classes, you get made fun of! You get told either to your face or behind your back that you aren't good enough. Isn't the point of owning a horse to be able to enjoy it yourself?

Sunday

We did a photo shoot for ourselves today! Here are a couple of my favorite pictures.

After all that, I rode Harry. I rode him for forward and with higher hands and he was completely different! He was so much better. He wasn't leaning into the bit at all and he felt more collected. He was still a little pokey, but after some circle work, he was doing beautifully. I really think that the deeper seat and lower hands works better on Brie than Harry because she is just going beautifully with that. But Harry likes to be ridden forward and light, so that's what I'll give him. Now we need to get back to our previous goal: largo without breaking or pacing!

Days 238 & 239

Saturday

I can definitely tell a difference between Harry on the Calmex and Harry off of the Calmex. He is so much more relaxed when he's on it, but then at the same time, he's so pokey. I don't know which is easier -- to get him to wake up when he's pokey or getting him to calm down when he's anxious. He was a beast to longe today. I ended up having to use the pole, which I haven't in a while, but riding he was very relaxed. I can't believe that State Fair is two weekends away. I don't feel very confident about it.

Taco was great today. Totally performed. I'm feeling very confident about him at the Fair. Too bad I feel more confident on Jane's horse than on my own...I also found out that we can't bring Brie with...Jane gave the spot in her trailer to Samantha. I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about it. Samantha otherwise wouldn't have been able to go, and we would've brought three horses. I guess I just have to wait until next year to try Brie in showing again...

Sunday

I rode Brie a lot today. She is so good. I can't believe all of the progress we've made in her attitude. She just seems so much happier. Although, she did get a little crazy outside when I asked her to canter. I figured she was being so good lately that she deserved it...maybe I shouldn't be asking her to canter anymore either. She was pretty upset after that and it took a couple times around the ring once we got back inside to calm her down.

Taco was still nice today, but a little buggier. He takes a while to settle down into a speed that's acceptable. I brought him outside yesterday and today for a change of pace and he seems really happy!

Harry was a lot better today. He seemed more awake. I'm just really nervous about the show now.

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!

Days 222 and 223

Saturday

Didn't really do much today. Just played a couple of Parelli games and then left because it was hot out. But there was a lot that went on this week. Earlier in the week, Samantha's mom noticed that Nina wasn't acting right and that she couldn't pick up her head to eat her hay from her hay basket. She called my mom who called the vet and the vet said that there was a large swollen lump at the injection site from last weekend and there were hives on Nina's neck. Definitely still a reaction from the shots. So the vet gave Nina some medicine to eat for the rest of the week and then up until tomorrow. The vet was back out to check on everyone who got shots every morning for the rest of the week up until yesterday morning. Poor Nina. First the stitches on her nose, now this! And the vet also mentioned that a couple of weeks ago, some minis colicked from the vaccines too. So it's definitely the manufacturer's fault and the vet will be taking that up with the company. I'm just so thankful that Samantha's mom was there to notice Nina! Who knows what might have happened if the vet didn't get out there. One thing's for sure -- Nina wouldn't have been able to eat for a while if she couldn't reach her food =[ But by the time we got out there today she was definitely better and the vet had cleared her this morning.

I'm proud to say that Harry and I are making progress with the tarp! He didn't want to step on it, but I did pick it up and drag it on the floor while he walked with me and then held it and walked around with it while I held him too. Then when we were all finished, I brought it into the aisle where he was cross-tied and folded it in front of him really small, then showed it to him and rubbed it on him and he was okay with it. Progress will continue!

Sunday

I'm getting really discouraged. After Harry was working well all this time, he's not doing so hot anymore. He's all loose and flying away from me now that he knows how to largo and I can't figure out how to get him to slow down and collect without tugging on the reins and it drives the both of us nuts. And it was so hot today and I felt bad for working him so hard, but the next show is in two or three weeks, and I won't be able to go out to ride this weekend, so we don't have that much time to get back to where we were a month ago. I really don't know what to do and it's frustrating. I know he's trying to figure out what I want too, I just know that he's trying, but I don't know a better way to communicate that I want him to just collect and corto instead of flying around now, and that I still DO want him to largo, but only when I ask him to, not just all of the time as a default speed. I was getting really frustrated, but then I had to remind myself that we didn't work yesterday and that he was really behaving like he was trying to give me what I wanted. He wasn't fighting at all and I appreciate that. I just need to figure out how to ask him for it better. Hopefully this week off will give me some sort of revelation!

Day 217

My mom has to have surgery next week on her spine, so she's trying to take advantage of as much time with the horses as she can. Today she rode all three horses and tomorrow she plans on doing the same thing. I hope that everything goes well for her in the surgery and there aren't any complications.

After looking at some stuff on Parelli Connect this past week, we went in with the intention of playing as many of the Seven Games that we know. I was more focused on getting Harry to play the Friendly Game because he had such a hard time with it last week. My brother and mom were playing the YoYo Game when Samantha's mom pulled in and started talking to my mom. Harry was making wonderful progress, coming in closer to see the carrot stick and letting me pet him with it when my brother called my mom and I over in a panic.

As we came in, he showed us a gash on Nina's nose that we hadn't seen when we came in because of the dirt covering it. It looked pretty gross, but not very bad. He took her out of the arena we were playing in to go into the wash rack and wipe off the dirt. My mom followed. I played with Harry a little more and heard some banging and my mom came in to ask me for help.

Nina was having a fit in the wash rack when you tried to touch her nose. I put Harry on the cross ties and went over to look at it. They were just trying to press a compress onto it to make sure that it would stop bleeding. It looked a lot worse once it was cleaned. The cut is about three inches in length and about half of a fingernail deep, but it's not bleeding. After much calming and talking, I can get the washcloth on her nose for about a minute before she starts thrashing around again. My mom took the hose and just let it run over her nose (which Nina still didn't like) and then I poured some hydrogen peroxide in my hand and pushed it onto Nina's nose. I got it all in one try because the length of her cut started to bubble white like cuts do when you put peroxide on them, so now it's disinfected. We put this blue stuff we have on it (I really need to learn what it's called) and only after then did I remember that I should take a picture.

Not a very good picture of the cut, but still. Maybe I'll get another shot tomorrow.

After inspecting her stall, my brother found that she must have cut her nose on her feed bucket. It was kind of shoddy looking before and I have mentioned it to Paco when Harry was living in that stall, but he never changed it. Well Nina must have cracked it and then went in to eat and sliced her nose on it. I'm just thankful it's not on her eye or her entire face or something worse like that. I am worried though that it won't grow back together and that there will always be a separation. I don't know if she needs stitches or what. Someone suggested butterfly closures, but she'd need to be sedated anyways for us to do that, and if that's the case, stitches might be the better option. We'll see how it is tomorrow.

Once we found out the bucket was the cause, my dad took down all three of the horse's feed buckets (their waterers are steel automatic) and put in new ones. Much better.

We all rode after that. I rode Brie first and she was kind of limping. I guess it must be time for her to have another arthritis shot. I was trying to get her to walk because of the limp, but she didn't want to. So after a while of struggling with getting her to walk, but a little bit of calming down, I let her corto the rest of the ride and she seemed content. Then my mom switched with me and I got Harry.

This largo is the kind that we've been looking for. He is so ready for show in a couple of weeks, I can't wait! He was absolutely flying in his largo without breaking gait (only a couple of times in the counterclockwise) and had a very nice, high-stepping, collected largo. Hopefully I can get some pictures and a couple videos tomorrow!

In the end, I ended up riding Taco a bit for Jane, because it was muddy out and she didn't get to let him out in the round pen to longe, so he was being a bit naughty for her. It took a couple of laps to settle into his tweaks, but he worked nicely for me after that. He likes to break into a canter though. If I were training him, I'd definitely have to work on that, even though his canter is gloriously smooth, it's unacceptable in show. At the end of my ride, John asked if I would show Taco. I sure hope that he was serious! I would love to! And it would give me an excuse to get a different show jacket =]

I really hope that Nina is okay. Please keep both Nina and my mom in your thoughts!

Days 209 & 210

Saturday

We got a call this morning from Paco about Nina. He said that Nina looked like she wasn't feeling well, but wasn't rolling around like she was colicking. We rushed out and by the time we got out there, she was looking better than Paco had said, but we got her out and made her run around the round pen until she pooped just to make sure that she wouldn't colic. Thankfully, she did! And remained okay for the rest of the day.

While I didn't exactly "do much" today, I think that today was one of the most influential days I've had with Harry.

After trying to work with the tarp last week, I decided that the first task I would do was confront him with it again. We went out into one of the small paddocks (it's more like a pen) and I held the tarp, folded up. He was not having any of it. He kept running around and away from it and me. Eventually I got him and tried to rub it on his nose, but he didn't like it much. Rather than chasing him around some more, I laid it out on the ground, clipped him to a lead line, and we tried to walk very close to it. He was getting kind of close, but the wind kept picking up and moving it, which would scare him. I hung it on the fence and unclipped him and hoped that he would eventually go by it on his own, but he wouldn't.

After this, I had Paco help me. I've seen Nick doing this trick. He ties the horses short enough to the pole in the arena that they won't get tangled up in it, and swishes a rod with a plastic bag on the end around the horse until they stop fighting and trying to run away from it. Then he goes closer to them with the bag and eventually tries to rub it on them without them being scared of it. Basically, it's the Friendly Game with a bag, not a rope, and tied up so we won't get trampled. So Paco helped me with that. Harry was so scared though! By the time he finally relaxed and let us touch him with the bag, he was soaked with sweat. I didn't ride him, just hosed him off after that and let him relax in his stall.

So no, I didn't do much, but I really think that was one of the best things I could have done for Harry. It's something that will build our trust. Once he knows that I won't let bags hurt him, he'll be more comfortable with tarps, and then other things that come our way will be less shocking.

Sunday

Nina is still looking good! She pooped 3 times before we got there, so she must be feeling better.

No tarps today! Although, while my parents were talking with Paco, my brother and I put everyone outside and got the huge exercise ball that we bought a while back and wanted to play with the horses. Brie was totally unenthusiastic about it, which I guess was good? At least she wasn't running away from it! She was just letting us bounce the ball off of her sides until we felt bad that she looked so bored/sad by the fact that we were throwing a ball at her. So we moved on to Nina.

Nina usually loves playing with the ball, but not today! She kept running away from it. We didn't know if she just didn't want to be bothered or what, so my brother held her while I just rubbed it all over her. She wasn't scared of it, so I guess she just wasn't in the mood.

Then we moved on to Harry. What a baby! No matter how many times we kept coming back to him, he just wasn't having it! We did eventually get to rub it on him, though, which is progress. =]

After all that, I rode Harry starting inside. I didn't put any bracelets or the rear end collector on and just wanted to check any progress we had made in the past two weeks. He was very calm in the indoor, but then when we went in the outdoor, after our little herd of riders broke up to do our own thing after walking around the arena for a while, he got really upset and kept tap dancing. Frustrated (and hot), I decided to go back inside and work with him. He calmed down and gaited really nicely, and then we worked on largo without pacing. Every time he paced, I would just bring him back a little or even stop if it got really bouncy and let him start over again. We ended with a beautiful largo pass over the board and I ended with it so that he could hear what I wanted him to do.

I switched with my mom and then rode Brie outside with my brother, Kimmy, and Samantha. Of course, Brie was their leader! And after we ran into a few branches, raced up a couple of hills, and chased John's car down the driveway, our day was done.

Now back to school =[ It was so nice being on break! I wish I could ride every day.

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!