Days 247 & 248

I completely forgot to write this over the weekend, so I'm going from memory here. I'm going to try to write it like it was that day.

Saturday

If there ever was a "best" day for riding, today was the day. It was absolutely gorgeous out and I wanted nothing more than to go around with my little Harry. I wonder what he's really thinking when I imagine he's looking at me with such love in his eyes. He was a little iffy in the warm-up, and wanted to go pretty fast, which is always a surprise to me. I changed his bit back once again and it's too early to tell how he's responding to it, although I can say that he is not having issues flexing anymore, so whatever his deal was with that must have worked itself out, although I still take extra caution stretching him before we start up.

After his ride, my mom, brother and I walked around outside, enjoying the weather. Not the ideal Quarter horse type walk, but enjoyable nonetheless. It was so cute, he couldn't keep up with Brie and Nina's power walk, so he broke into the tiniest canter I've ever ridden and didn't get psycho about it. After that, I don't mind letting him canter around outside a bit. He truly has gotten a lot more confidence outside.

Sunday

Worming day! And well needed, the horses have begun ripping their tails out. Poor things. They look so shabby now, but hopefully it will smooth out soon. Brie has been kicking the stall again and we have no idea why, Paco has supposedly increased her food rations. So we tried on one of Judy's trail boots and Brie didn't seem to mind it, and so she suggested that, since the impact of the kick must be affecting her arthritis, we should buy a boot of our own and just leave it on her all week. It's not so much as a boot, but more of a hoof covering. It doesn't go up on the meaty part of her leg at all. All we can do is give it a shot.

The Easy Boot, via Horseloverz.com

So since we're pretty much decided on not showing Brie again, I've been wondering about how she would react if I started riding her bitless again. When she was being trained, the only reason she started wearing a bit was because we wanted to show her, and it's required, but before she was age 5, she hadn't had one. I think that next week I'm going to try that out and see how she is. She was being pretty compliant today, but I felt like she could have relaxed even more. My goal for her now is to just get her into a calm mindset and keep her there for the entire ride. We walked around outside by ourselves, in which she didn't bolt, so that was a plus. I managed to keep her at a speed-walk the entire way through.

While I was waiting around by myself in the outdoor, I noticed that the serpentine boards had been filled in where the gap was that she got her hoof stuck in, so I hopped off and tried to have her walk over them. She wasn't too keen on the idea, but she walked over them a couple of times before everyone came out and we got back on and walked around some more. She's really doing well lately, I think it might be because she's getting out a little more since the heat wave has subsided. Her leg wasn't swollen at all this weekend and she didn't really limp either day too. I hope that as autumn sets in, she's much more comfortable.

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.

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 185

Harry worked so much better today! I started out longeing him right from the get go with the carrot stick and using his jaquima instead of the bosal band, just to see how he would react and if he would try to fishtail. He was so calm! He only got a little nervous and didn't really fishtail, more like stop and look at me when another rider went over the sound board, but he was a very good boy longeing today.

Getting on, we worked circles and flexed like yesterday, except today I had a couple of goals. One, I wanted to work only on the bit rein once we were done flexing, and two, I wanted to stop trying to do everything for him and let him figure it out for himself. After reading a bit of Casey's blog yesterday, I realized how is Harry going to perform better if we're always trying to tell him exactly what to do and do everything for him, like he's incapable of figuring it out himself? I'm proud to say that we accomplished both of those goals! I never had to pick up the second rein the entire time we rode and while we started off a little bumpy, Harry worked things out for himself beautifully.

When we first started out, he was tap dancing and skipping and speeding around the corners, and apparently he wasn't looking too show-y according to my mom. But as we worked and as I gave him more freedom to find his place in what I wanted, an energetic and collected corto, he grew right into the part! We even went for a largo that was surprisingly well collected! Even my mom complimented me on what I did with him when she got on him to ride afterwards. I'm so proud of Harry and proud of myself for letting my overbearing tendencies go and letting him figure it out for himself, because he's really a smart boy! I hope that today was an indicator of things to come!

Then afterwards, I got on Brie and we had some fun for a short ride. Going from Harry to Brie is like night and day! Maybe part of it is going from a Passier saddle to a Wintec, but she's like a mountain compared to Harry, and they're only really a hand's height of difference! She wanted to run run run, but I calmed her down and kept her back in a manageable corto. We ended nicely and they got another bath! I thought that the last of them would come last weekend, but it was warm enough in the barn to get them wet. I really do think that this week we need to prepare some vinegar to spray them with to clean them this weekend, since it's expected to snow this week!