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.

Day 211

My mom read somewhere earlier this week that celery was a good alternative to carrots for horses with insulin resistance. So we figured we'd try it out. Absolutely no one liked it! Brie thought it was disgusting, Nina wouldn't even look at it, and Harry ate one stalk and then spit out the rest that we tried to feed him. Oh well, guess we just have to cut back on the carrot intake!

Brie is looking kind of skinny, but her eye sockets were filling in last week, so that means her sugar was going up...I feel bad for her. Poor Brie. If she ate enough, she'd probably be happier, but we have to keep her underweight to control her sugar...The vet's supposed to come out this month for shots and teeth, so maybe we'll have her test Brie's blood and then give us some more advice about how to manage her.

We were waiting around for the farrier today. While we were waiting, I decided to longe Harry. I feel like I'm dreaming! He's absolutely wonderful longeing now! I got curious after we stopped and had my brother knock over a couple of poles and lay them on the ground for Harry to walk over them. He didn't want to at first, even though he has tons of times before, but after he saw Nina walking over them he just went for it. Then we decided to try the tarp again. Harry didn't learn by example from that! Nina just thought the tarp was the silliest thing and walked right over it, stomped on it, kicked it around, pushed it with her nose, and even picked it up in her mouth and flung it around! Harry, meanwhile, was fearing for his life (and Nina's). We eventually just settled on him being calm and observing Nina and decided it was a good time to have his break. We put him away and got out Brie, who also thought the whole ordeal was ridiculous. In the end, we laid the tarp over Brie and Nina (separately) and walked them around with it. Brie was used to it because I show costume with her and wear a dress, so she's used to something hanging over her butt, and Nina was really well behaved and unphased by it too! At least now I now that if I ever can't bring Brie to a show, I can do costume with Nina! I feel a new outfit coming on the horizon! I better fire up that sewing machine.

We didn't know whether we should ride them or not, but my brother and mom ended up tacking up Nina and Harry to ride. I only put a bareback pad and bit hanger on Brie because I figured with my luck the farrier would show up right as I started to ride. And just as I thought, I was right! I only got a couple of laps around the arena, as Brie wanted to fly, before the farrier showed up. He did Sadie first, but I dismounted anyways to help him out cleaning up and handling Sadie and the rest of the horses.

My mom switched Harry's bosal to a softer one in order to tuck his head in without using a martingale. We changed this because Pasos resist pressure rather than giving in to it, so after this change, his barbada was stronger than his bosal, which would theoretically lower his head. I got the chance to watch him in action today, rather than being on his back, and he looked pretty good! Only time will tell if this method worked.

Last night, I found this video of Harry's father on Youtube. I was so surprised about how similarly they gait, which I guess would make sense, but having never seen his father in action, it makes me realize that Harry's not actually doing anything wrong with his gait --- he only has those little spouts of nervous tapdancing. After watching this, it really made me proud that he's on the right track to follow in his father's footsteps!