Day 243

I rode Brie first today, since my mom wanted to try Harry again because of everything that happened with him yesterday. She changed his bit back to the one that he was wearing about a year ago to see if that would make a difference, since he really seems like he's not respecting the bit anymore. I didn't pay much attention to Harry at first, but apparently he was pretty antsy.

Meanwhile, I was trying to walk Brie around outside. I don't understand her. We've gone outside a million times, but every time is like the first time we're going out. I wasn't planning on staying out as long as I did, but I didn't want her to charge the barn. So I would make her stop every time she started to get crazy. Unfortunately, the flowers weren't saved....we were walking by the pond in back and she stepped into the flowers by accident. I tried to get her out of there with both my legs and the reins, but she wasn't having it and ended up side-stepping all the way across the flower bed.

I feel very defeated with Brie. I know she's come a long way in manners in the arena, for the most part, but she still is crazy outside and I'm pretty sure she has the same attitude about shows, but that I can't be certain of. Should I just give up? I don't know what else I could do to try and make her not as excited outside. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing works.

After I managed to get back to the barn without killing myself, I got on Harry for a bit. He's a whole other problem. I don't understand where he went wrong either. Ever since May or April, he has not been the same. He hasn't been as good and I don't know what we're doing wrong, because we're doing the same things. At one point long ago, he got over his aversion to one wall in the arena. Now, suddenly he remembered that he's scared of it and will not for the love of God walk straight on it. When I first got him, he had such a hard time flexing, and we got over that. Now, he won't flex at all easily without giving a fight or trying to rear. Part of me thinks that there's some anatomical problem going on, but I don't know how to find out what it is. Everyone else thinks it's just his attitude, but why would he change so quickly back to being horrible? No one's done anything to him.

In part to end on a good note, I got off of him and walked him outside by hand. We walked around the pond because I know he's scared of it, and he got pretty close to the water's edge by the end of our walk. Then I lengthened his line and ran over the little ditch and he followed me over and although he was hesitant, he jumped right over it. If he couldn't settle his brain inside, I hope that readjusted it outside.

Lastly, I rode Taco outside for Jane. He enjoyed it and after I got back to the barn, Jane got to talking about letting him canter, since he won't be showing for another year, if he even shows next year. Everyone says not to canter Paso Finos, because apparently it messes up their gait, but Taco has a really smooth, slow canter that Jane likes. We wanted to see if it was a 4-beat canter, since there are classes in Colombia called Trote y Galope where the horse trots and canters and they're judged on that instead of the corto, largo, or fino. I took him across the board at a canter and it was in between a 3-beat and a 4-beat, depending on how his back feet landed each stride. Jane's settled on not listening to the people who bring her down and just having fun with Taco. He's had a lifetime of showing and pressure, so now he gets to relax and have fun.

Day 225

I have some lovely pictures for you all today!

This is Harry's beautiful jaquima!

Sleepy Harry is sleepy.

A close up of the shank of his bit...I should've taken a picture of the port, but I forgot. Notices the double reins!

Our very first saddle. It's from Colombia and is perfect for training.

Harry wondering why I'm taking a picture of his butt. This is the so-called "fruit basket" a.k.a rear end collector

 So as you can tell, I did in fact use the training saddle and the fruit basket on Harry today, hoping that it would get him a little more collected and remind him that he can't just string out like a Quarter Horse (nothing against them, though!) This is the first time that Harry has been very energetic at a longe in a while, since he's pretty pokey, which is okay with me because I'm not getting pulled around. But he was actually very good and responsive.

My brother and Nina exploring.

Brie peeking between the fence while she's eating.

He was a little stiff in this direction, but we worked at it the entire ride and he eventually loosened up. 

 Look at that adorable sashay!

 Now here you can see that he is really collected. He ended up working very nicely. I was able to keep a loose rein on him after the warm up and he was happily snorting along. He stayed pretty collected the entire ride, but he tap danced a little. We didn't work on largo, since we're trying to collect the corto before we can extend the largo at the same time. He was a very good boy and really gave me all he had today. He was definitely listening to me, as his hears were facing towards me the entire ride. He was responding well to my leg and to my reins and while he tried to get away a little bit with his head, after a few quick corrections he settled back like a charm.

Afterwards, we went out exploring without the fruit basket. Once he walked over that little ditch he calmed right down.

We even got to walk near the pond again! So proud of him. Now for some adorable shots of Brie in between bursts of partaking in her favorite activity: eating.

Afterward we came inside, I rode Taco really quickly because he kept pulling towards the door for Jane, so after he calmed down and was able to walk past the doors without wanting to run out back to his stall, I got off and let him go into the stable. Then everybody got a nice, thorough bath and tail scrubbing. Of course, everyone was dirty within 5 minutes, but what can you do.

Days 205 & 206

Saturday

First, let me show you how I longed Harry last weekend.

I made this little loop around the pole so that he couldn't pull me when he fishtailed out. So that was that!

Here is another picture from last weekend. Nothing too special, just using double reins! His little braid looks so funny =]

Last two pictures from last weekend. We turned walking over the poles into jumping over the poles! At least he was enjoying himself...I remember when he was too scared to even go anywhere near them! And I have to say that I'm proud of my posture, it's gotten way better!

Now, to photobomb you from today! Compared to last weekend, it was beautiful out! I can't even believe that I had to wear a turtleneck last week, today was gorgeous! As it being so beautiful out, we let everyone run around and play before we started to work today.

Harry wins the award for most photogenic today. I have tons more pictures, and he's in the majority of them! He's such a cutie, as soon as I walked into his pasture he ran over to me to see what I was doing.

Running towards the camera.

Being a model.

Then I hopped over the fence to Brie and Nina's paddock. Nina was adamant on playing tag the entire time, so I didn't get very many stills of her. This is my favorite though.

In between chasing Brie to make her stop eating and do something interesting for the camera, I got this one. I'm just bugged that I didn't get her whole face in the frame! She looks so dirty!

Doing her favorite activity -- eating!

Finally some movement!

Harry looking over at me in the next paddock, sadly. He gets sad when he can't play with Nina, but Brie really doesn't like him, so we generally don't put them together unless we're making a Christmas card or something.

My dad caught a frame of Harry and I. He was following me around the pasture when I walked in. I like how both of our hair looks crazy.

This is my favorite of the two of us so far!

 

 I tricked Harry into giving me a kiss. He is clearly disgusted by it! Girls have cooties =]

Now that the photobombing is over, let me tell you about my marvelous weekend! Harry's 7th birthday was this past Thursday and we planned on celebrating but forgot the apples...oops. Anyways, after tacking him up I thought of longeing in the corner of the arena and using the two walls as a buffer for fishtailing. He was super calm and looked great and never fishtailed. My mom even asked, "Wow, what did you do to Harry?" I think it was probably because he ran around outside first, but at least he has this calm idea in his mind now. Hopefully this will work for a while and we can progressively move away from the corner and into the middle of the arena.

My goal for this weekend was to work on the largo. We had a beautiful ride pre-largo. He was collected and calm and gaiting wonderfully, doing everything I asked of him. I couldn't have been happier.

When we got into the largo, he lost all sense of calm and normalcy and began pacing and tapdancing. I tried everything I could think of ---flexing into the wall, stopping to let him rebalance, slowing and speeding back into the largo, pushing him forward...at the end I even pushed him into a canter and he wasn't having that. I was totally out of ideas and discouraged by that point, so I calmed him back down to a walk and collected him back into a corto, passed across the board, and finished on a good note. 

Disappointed, I was talking to my mom about what to do with him. Should we send him to training? I just would hate to do that because I have so much of my own efforts invested in him and even though I can't see it at times, we really have come a long way. Think of those poles, for example! So I made a deal to give me until my birthday next month and if he's not doing better, then we should send him to training, either by Nick here or by Paul who offered it to us last fall at the State Fair. I just hope that we can get somewhere on our own!

Sunday

Today I should have really taken pictures, that way I could have shown you what I did.

While in the car, I started talking to my friend Melody about my situation with Harry and how I've tried everything I could think of. She suggested heavier shoes (but that's not happening) or maybe slightly pulling him off the wall and doing some random shapes to refocus his mind on what he's supposed to be doing and calming him down, then letting him go back into a largo. My mom suggested putting on the rear end collector (a.k.a fruit basket) and the weighted bracelets on his back legs. So I decided to combine the three.

I was expecting hell on legs when I longed him today, but happily, that was not the case! He was just as good as yesterday, and it has me thinking, maybe he doesn't need to be longed before I ride. Maybe longeing is what is working him up with anticipation? As soon as we get the largo down, I'll test out that theory. Until then, our corner will work just fine.

The past two days have been our longest rides since I can remember. They're wonderful. The first part of our ride was him getting used to the collector and the bracelets, so he was pretty bouncy. After he calmed into that, our corto was a little tap dancy. I started the shapes first with circles, but then found that he thinks circles are just the greatest thing ever and loves to spin around and started doing it on his own, so we stopped circles and started doing triangles and squares and stars. He was better with those. His corto relaxed and he was feeling pretty confident and our board was phenomenal.

Feeling good, we started going at the largo. It was tricky and we definitely did more shapes than not, but at the end of our ride, we had an absolutely BEAUTIFUL couple of passes across the board at a largo, no skipping or tap dancing or pacing. He was just giving me all of his effort and it felt amazing. Beyond proud of where we were at, I took off his contraptions and we headed outside, because today was even warmer than yesterday!

I joined everyone in the outdoor and was only looking to have a little fun, so we corto'd around and across the board, where he got a little too excited and danced across it, so I had to refocus him and go across it again, where he did really nicely. Then my mom and I headed out into the front pasture where he was just an absolute doll walking around out there, while my mom was stuck with Brie in her monster mode, trying to run into the trees and fences. Harry was wonderful throughout our whole ride out in front, and after spending 10 minutes trying to close the gate we came out of when we went back into the arena (and failing), we headed inside where my mom was adamant on making Brie walk.

While Brie was trying to walk, Harry and I were cooling down. Feeling especially adventurous because of all our progress today and because I was using the training saddle (which has a horn), I took my feet out of the stirrups and was determined to not fall off. He worked surprisingly well! He didn't get scared that the stirrups hit his side a little bit and walked as if I had them in. 

In all, today was by far one of the most progressive days in my training with Harry. These are the days that I need to remember when he's throwing me around the arena and yanking ropes out of my hands. He is beyond willing to learn, I just have to improve my methods to understand him.

At the end of the day, we hosed everyone down and gave out Harry's belated birthday present - golden apples! Brie's birthday is coming up this Thursday, so I wanted to get to the store to buy these granola oat balls that you hang from the stall that they can munch on, although I have a feeling Brie's will be gone in a day. Hope you all had wonderful rides today as well!

Day 164

Harry pulled some fishtailing on me today while lunging. I hope it doesn't turn into his bad habit again, I was happy to finally be over that with him.

Also, I learned that lunging is spelled longeing. Show how good of a speller I am!

But aside from the fishtailing, he was pretty good. I'd like to work more with him outside once Nationals are over because even though it's kind of cute that he's so attached to Nina, it's really not good when he starts freaking out and trying to yank me in her direction, even when we're in the indoor arena.

We had a good ride, his gait was as good as last weekend. A little more work on the largo tomorrow and we'll be set for the State Fair next weekend! All I can complain about was that at the end when we came in from walking around outside, he started to get antsy when I wanted him to reverse to the left and started pulling me around to the right because Nina had already gone into the wash rack outside the arena and he wanted to follow her. I managed to just get him calm enough to go into a left flex and decided to end it at that. Always end on a good note, even if it's not what you expected. =]