Brie, on the other hand, was over due for giving me a tough time. I spent the majority of my time trying to make her walk, and then when I got that, I stupidly made the decision that she deserved a canter for being good...wrong idea. After not practicing it for a while, she went back to taking off like crazy, and wasn't even responding to my leg or body weight when she decided to exit our circle and try to take off around the arena...then when we tried to calm down again and hit the board, she jumped off the end and wouldn't approach it straight on...I think that if I'm serious about getting her back in the show ring, I might have to stop trying to canter her...it just makes her so hyper! I'm thinking about changing her bit too next weekend.
After finally getting a good pass back in the indoor (we rode in the outdoor), I hopped off and, on a whim, decided that I wanted to ride Nina, as my brother was finished with his ride too. I wish every horse were like Nina! This is probably the first time in the 5 years that we've had her that I've actually ridden her to ride her, not just poke around the arena and enjoy a horse who actually walks. She is so powerful! I could feel her little hooves pounding beneath me. She is so willing to do whatever you ask of her. She's just amazing. We had an amazing pass on the board too, and after that we just walked around outside for a little bit with Harry (who was NOT calm) and went back inside to hose off.
After this ride with Nina, I'm hoping that I can ride her in the pleasure mares class if my brother lets me, since he's going to ride her in the performance mares class. I'm sure she'll do well wherever she's placed! Last time I rode her was spur-of-the-moment at the Michigan show last year in the pleasure class and we won a 2nd! And I hadn't even practiced on her! If I get her after I'm done with Harry every weekend until our first show, I'm sure we could be winning 1sts!
Now on a more personal note...I'm really disappointed with everyone at the barn...I feel like no matter where we go, we get laughed at for doing things our own way. When we were training with Andre, people laughed at us for using him. Since then, we've pretty much done everything on our own, and people always talk about us like we're some crazy people who don't know what we're doing...and even though we're winning classes (at least on Nina), they still don't have respect for us. I don't know if it's an industry thing or what, but it's hurtful to feel like you never really have true friends, or even allies, in this business. Like yesterday, I found out that Nick was laughing at me for trying to make Harry unafraid of the tarp last weekend...but I don't see any of his horses walking all over it and playing with it like Nina and Brie do! So what if it's taking Harry a little longer, we didn't go into desensitizing with him straight away like we did with Nina and Brie because, as a 5 year old, we had figured he had already been exposed to all of this. And I don't see too many other horses in costume class with dresses touching the floor (or dresses at all, for that matter).
Or even today, when talking to Paco. I made signs this morning for feed directions to hang on the horses' stalls so that it would be easy for him to remember because we change Brie's feed amounts around whenever she gets too high in sugar or too low in weight, but when my mom approached him about changing Brie's feed, he basically dismissed her and said that no matter what she said, he would do what he wanted to in the end. I was just angry and felt betrayed! Here he's supposed to be our friend, and then he goes and discounts us like this anyways? This is our horse's health we're talking about, and he's not exactly a specialist in horse health and certainly not in Brie's condition.
I hate feeling like we're at the mercy of someone else all of the time...and it makes me really appreciate what we had when Andre was taking care of our horses. Sure he got angry Harry that one time and might have scarred Nina for life in terms of being afraid of farriers, but at least we knew up at Brie and Nina's breeding farm that they were being let out and fed properly.
If anything is encouragement to stay in school and get a good job, this is it. I need to get a job that can support my horses on my own property that way I can ensure that they're being taken care of the right way all of the time.
