Days 297 & 298

Saturday

Only two more days left!!!

Thursday was Nina's birthday! Happy 7th Birthday, Nina! =] She still is a little baby horse to me <3 p="">
I didn't really work Brie today. We mostly just kind of walked around a bit to stretch out in the indoor and then went outside to go find where my mom and brother went. My mom was working Harry in the round pen and he looked good! If there was a round pen class, he would win it. I don't get how he is perfectly okay going in a circle and pretty much okay going around outside, but when he is in the arena, if he largos, he has a tendency to pace.

After my mom was done, we went for a walk around outside. All was going well until we started to come back. My brother just lets Nina go wherever she wants to outside, even if it's away from us, but Harry always wants to be by Nina so if she starts to go away, he wants to catch up to her. Well Nina started to walk back to the barn and Harry was back with me and Brie, a ways away from Nina. We were walking back to the barn too, but Harry wanted to catch up to Nina. My mom let him go into a largo but he tried to start cantering. First of all, Harry doesn't even have the coordination to do a canter. Really, it's true! He never picks up the right lead! And it takes him a while to pick it up. So as he was trying to pick up his canter, my mom started bouncing in the saddle and started to fall over. She almost righted herself, but not enough, so she rolled out of the saddle and into the grass. Thankfully, she is okay.

When that happened, Harry turned around and looked at her on the ground and backed up a little bit before standing still and putting his head towards the ground. He was looking at her like, "Momma? What are you doing down there??" It was the cutest face! I was scared he was going to bolt, but he just stood there as I got off Brie and went over by him to hold him and help my mom up. She got back on and rode Harry back to the barn by the outdoor arena and worked him in there for a while, but he was pretty shaken up after she fell off so he wasn't really cooperating. We brought them all in and brushed them off before we gave them some giant carrots for Nina's birthday.

Sunday

Happy Mother's Day! I made my mom pancakes today before we went to the barn.

I worked Brie today. She was a little canter-y on the corners, so I was working on slowing that down. She was coming along great! I really want to show her at Michigan.

Mom and Harry worked more in the round pen before we walked around outside for a bit. Brie has gotten this nasty habit now of trying to race to the little hill in the back as soon as we get out the door. She likes to look over everything. But she has to know that she can't do that if I don't want her to do that! No one fell off today, which is great =]

We came in and Jane was having a hard time with Taco. She just got a new jaquima for him and he was acting up and cantering the board and generally not listening to her. My mom adjusted it because it was pretty tight and then raised the bit because that was pretty low. No wonder he was being weird, he was uncomfortable in the face and lax in the mouth! After that he was a little better for Jane, but still was being weird and spinning the reverse back onto the board, so my mom offered to get on.

Taco was super good with my mom! He was gaiting and looked fantastic. Super fabulous. I forgot how pretty he could look. And he sounded like a train! If that was a class, he would've one first place. After my mom got off, Jane got back on and he was better for her, but she needs to work on faking him out before he reverses back onto the board because he anticipates it and spins it, which could lead to Jane falling off if he goes too fast. After her short little trial, she was satisfied with him being nice to her and got off.

Then she offered him to me. I haven't ridden Taco in a long time, not since last year when I was trying to train to bring him to the State Fair because Paco was complaining about it. Paco didn't want anyone else to ride Taco and complained to Jane that I was screwing Taco up, even though he was getting better with me at the time. So I got mad and just stopped. So I was iffy when Jane asked me to ride him, but I did after my mom pressed me on. Taco was like a dream! He wasn't pulling like he used to, he was practically floating. I would love to show him, but I don't know if I want to deal with the sass and remarks from people about what I do when I ride him.

Finally, I don't know whether we're going to go to a Parelli clinic or the Michigan show...if we went to the Michigan show, I could show Brie for the first time in years, and I'd really like to because she's coming along great. I would also miss my friend's graduation...If we went to the Parelli clinic, we would bring Harry, and I think it would be beneficial for him in the long run. I could then potentially go to my friend's graduation. I really don't know what to do. I was so set on showing Brie this year and I'm not sure if I'll have the chance to again this season if I don't go to Michigan. I don't know what to do.

Equestrian Team Summer - Day 6

There's a first time for everything.

Today's lesson was going super well. We went outside because there was a Saddlebred show going on inside, and (one of) the outdoor arena(s) was superrrr nice. I loved being outside with Tommy. We're bonding and he's learning me like the back of his hoof (does that apply to horses??).

So we work lots on trotting -- mostly sitting trot, to two-point, to posting, repeat. This is just for my benefit. Learning where my body is supposed to be over jumps and everything, getting some sense of balance. I feel really great about it. My back is straight, my shoulders are back, I'm sitting tall and feeling awesome.

Then we go into canter transitions. Cool. Not the best, but I'm getting them. I want them to be BAM CANTER, so I'm working on that. Tommy starts pulling his head. Okay, try to fix it. Start feeling myself falling forward. More cantering, falling forward more.

Now we're cantering and acting like we're approaching a jump. I'm going into two-point (or trying to). Not working at all. I can feel my legs swinging backwards towards his butt and my top falling forward and Tommy's like "Oh we're going forward?! Cool, lemme pull my head down to help you." I'm not getting myself back enough to correct him, lose contact with my leg and he starts trotting. We're going around a turn and I know I'm not balanced and start to feel myself slipping over to the left side of the saddle. No longer posting, know I'm going off, and fall/jump out of the saddle as Tommy just decides to stop because he clearly has no idea what I'm doing anymore.

I somersault over his head and catch him looking at me on my way down kind of just like:

As I roll away, freaked out he's going to step on me. I guess I layed in shock for a while, not believing that I just fell off a horse for the first time in my entire life. I could only think of this one girl from an old stable who constantly fell off horses as I lie there, trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

After Stacy grabs Tommy who is clearly confused as to why it's now nap time, she runs over to me and my mom who ran down the arena fence to see if I was okay. I roll over to sit on my knees and it occurs to me that my left shoulder and side of my neck really hurt like I cracked it really hard, which I prolly did on my way down. I wanna cry more because of humiliation than pain, so after I get over myself and Stacy informs me that I now must make cookies (as that's the barn rule -- you fall off, you make cookies for everyone), I stand up, check myself out, don't feel like anything's wrong, so I get back on for one final trot around the arena (post, sit, two-point, repeat).

And boy, did I feel like a loser until I realized that 1) at least it wasn't on my own horse, 2) it could've been a bigger horse, 3) it could've been muddy.

Now I'm more keen to practice not freaking out when I start losing control over a canter and not try to go into a fetal position on a horse (which is basically what I was doing as I was failing getting control) and correct these school horses the minute they start giving me crap! My mom pointed out to me in front of Stacy that I never let Harry, Brie, or Nina get away with ANYTHING, so why should I let these guys? Stacy agreed and said even if I don't think I know how to correct one of them to just do something to let them know that they're being rude.

Oye vey. I've just been so worried about doing the right thing by the horse and not screwing them up since they're not mine and totally let Tommy walk all over me until I was on the ground (thankfully he didn't actually step on me). I can't wait to get back out there next week and have experienced what I want to avoid at all costs and be adamant on not ending up on the ground ever again.

Day 132

Sunday

I had my camera today but it was super low on battery and only let me take a few pictures =[

Harry running in the paddock

We let them out to play again. We're waiting for the big paddock to dry out that way they can really run around!

Brie in mid-buck

Winner of cutest picture! Don't they look like they're kissing?

And what angers me the most about low camera battery is that I thought I got this great video of my brother freaking out and jumping off of Nina, but it just got the end and beginning shots.

We dared him to get on Nina bareback in the paddock.

After he got on, we were like "Okay! Make her walk!" so off she went, but then Harry saw her walking away and got crazy and started bucking, so Nina got excited and bolted around the paddock. My brother got freaked and jumped off and onto the fence border next to Brie's paddock. It was hilarious (and pretty dangerous) and I wish I had gotten it on camera! All I got was this.

Great picture, right?

While we were outside, we also went by the trailer. Everyone went in and out except for Harry, of course. But we played the YoYo game until he got super close to the ramp (after about a half hour) and decided to call it quits.

I also have a picture of the baby for you. He's getting so big!

He loves to come up to the bars and rub his head on your hand. So cute!!

Now here's my mystery. I wrote about this last week, but got pictures of it. These are the weird things on his back legs.

This is his left foot. Those spots are kind of raw and get kind of icky like these next pictures.

This is his right foot. That little gunky on the bigger spot comes off when you rub it, and he gets kind of bothered when you do that. We don't really know what they are. We think they might be scars from when he fell through the hay trailer. The little gunks kind of look like plantar warts, but I don't know, can horses get warts??

Onto training, I rode Harry today. Colin was there for a while, and I was so embarrassed that by the time he was leaving I still hadn't gotten Harry to stand still next to the mounting block. Even though he's tiny enough that I don't need one, it's still a good habit to have, and it took forever for him to do it! He started off in a circle very relaxed and gaiting nicely, it's just that when I tried to go on the wall he kept pulling me towards the sound board and rushing forward. It wasn't the greatest ride, so I decided that we'll stay away from the sound board for a while. Manners are more important than having a great board, at least they are for me! And I believe that once the wall-calmness comes, so will the relaxed gait, so we won't need to keep practicing over the sound board. It really bothers me when people make a big deal over the board instead of actually riding anyways.

After we rode, we hosed them all down and had some of Brie's birthday cake! I can't believe she turns 10 on Tuesday! 7 years has gone by so fast. We like to describe her as "growing up to be one of those old ladies on their porch with a shotgun."

So we sang her Happy Birthday and tried to feed her a little bit of frosting, which of course she ate. Harry and Nina both spit it out and made faces once they tasted it. It must've reminded them of wormer!

Post bath with her carrot cake!

My mom's car is acting kind of funny, but hopefully she fixes it soon that way I can drive it out sometime during these next two weeks while I'm home! It's supposed to be 60 during this week and I would love nothing more than driving out and giving them all a good scrubbing one afternoon.