Day 149

I have some good news and some bad news.

Good news is that Harry and I had a very successful ride today. We worked for about 2 hours! I never get him to myself for that long. I was super happy with his behavior at the start -- he walked! He's usually like a little freight train and just goes goes goes, but he was very relaxed at the start. We walked around and flexed for a while in the indoor then ventured to the outdoor where his attention started to get away from me, but was still pretty good. We kept our walking.

Then we traversed through the inside of the indoor and went out back in the huge pasture. That's where he lost his attention to me, instead too freaked out about everything going on outside. He got a little spooky and started spinning and trying to run back to the barn at one point, but we stopped, stood for a while and then headed towards the big hill and went up it, looked around, then went back into the barn.

Then we started to really work. The entire time I was focusing on keeping my hands quiet and properly positioned...I have a really bad habit of having piano hands, because, surprise, I play the piano. It's just natural. But I really focused on that and sitting deep and back today and rather than relaxing he seemed to want to go more and more until I started sitting more forward. Once I was a bit more forward he definitely settled into his gait better. After working on his gait, we started doing a little bit of transition work on the wall where it wasn't too successful, so we did in a circle. When he got transitions down in a circle, I started walking him to cool him down. I dropped my stirrups because my ankles were killing me today for some reason, probably from sickle-ing, and we walked pretty calmly. He was still super hot when I got off so I hand walked him for a good chunk of time before I gave him a nice bath, after which he was still hot, so I walked him some more until he was completely cool before I put him in his stall.

Now for the not so good news. The vet came out for Brie today. If you don't remember, she's been having some lameness in her back right leg for a while now. It kept going and coming, but even though we had her on stall rest for a while, she was still kind of limping when I rode her last week. Now, the vet came out and looked at her lunge (she was limping), gave her a full exam, noted a bit of warmth in her leg, and took lots of X-Rays. He said that seemingly at best she has arthritis and we can manage that with steroids. It's either in her hock or her stifle, and he kind of said that if it's in the stifle, it's not too good.

He basically told us that her show career is over. Depending on what's actually wrong with her, we'll know whether we can still ride her or not. If this is all from kicking her stall, I'm going to be so mad! I just hope she's okay. At first I was sad because I have to stop trying to do dressage and jumping with her now, and then I was sad because I wouldn't be able to really fulfill the goal of this blog: to blog until I won a 1st place in a class of at least 10.

But then, I realized that all of that has lost its value. As long as she's okay and healthy, even if she can't be ridden very much, it won't change how much I love her. She means the world to me, she's taught me everything I know about handling horses. She's given me a tough skin for the show ring. She's taught me patience and responsibility. Even if she can't be ridden, it doesn't mean I'll stop showering her with love.

And if she can be ridden, then I'll just have to work out being a great trail horse and I might still have costume classes to look forward to. Who knows -- maybe she'll win Nationals for costume. She's always been a looker =]

Day 145

Brie was still limping today, so we let her rest. We put them all out in the paddocks and she didn't want to do much, so we put her in the round pend and asked her to lunge and her limp wasn't noticeable at a walk, but when she started trotting/gaiting, you could see her limping. So we decided that another week of rest would be good, and if she's still limping next weekend, we'll call the vet out.

We also found out that the baby across the aisle from us was weaned yesterday. How horrible, of course Ray had to do that for Mother's Day. Jerk. I mean, horses don't know the difference, but still. It was sad =[ He was watching us and kept crying when we took all of them outside or in the arena to ride.

My mom warmed up Harry and then I got on. He gaited super fantastic until Ray came in the arena with his horse, then he tensed up really badly until Ray left. He's got to get used to distractions! Personally, I think it's just something he has against Ray. Luckily, Ray doesn't have any geldings to ride in show =] After we gaited some more when Ray left, we worked on WALKING! The hardest thing in the world! I worked with him for about a half hour trying to make him walk. Every time he started to pull me forward, I made him stop and he was getting very antsy about me on his mouth almost constantly because of that, but as soon as he realized I'd lay off the pressure when he slowed down, he was a doll. And he went in the trailer like an angel today too! We didn't even need to nose chain lead to walk him in! Now watch, he'll magically forget everything when we're trying to come home from Springfield, right? Isn't that how luck goes?

Next weekend the farrier is supposed to be out, and then it's off to Springfield the week after! I'm so excited, but I only get to be entered in one class now that I'm no longer a Youth competitor, so I'm just going to be in Amateur Owner's class. We better get a ribbon!

Day 144

Usually I hate waking up early, but I loved waking up early today. I actually got to be relaxed and not rushed when I rode!

I am very worried though -- Brie is a bit lame. She keeps kicking her stall, I don't know what's her problem. It's not like she's cooped up in there all day or next to a horse she doesn't like. All of them go out whenever it's sunny now and she's next to Nina. We're increasing her food now because she's starting to look a little bony. We usually like to keep her a bit underweight because of her insulin resistance, but her hips are starting to noticeably stick out now that it's getting warmer and she's going outside and spending all that energy up from the winter. Maybe that'll cure her kicking, maybe she's just hungry.

I rode her today, because I thought that she would work it out. Usually she's a little skippy when we start working, she always has been, but her skip lasted all throughout the ride, and we just mostly walked the entire ride anyways. When I got off and brushed her and hosed her off is when I noticed how much she was favoring her hind right foot -- she wouldn't even put weight on it for me to clean out her other hoof. So I put some liniment on both of her back legs after I showered her and I hope that she gets better...Mom said that if it's a ligament or muscle damage from kicking too much she might have to have the entire summer off and I'm not looking forward to that possibility. I hope she's okay, but otherwise we'll have to call the vet out tomorrow.

Apparently Mom had a really rough time with Harry today...He wasn't paying attention to her at all and it was like "some ghost was chasing him from behind" and he kept trying to bolt. We should've known...he went in the trailer like a perfect angel, so of course he would give a bad ride! I hope he's better tomorrow. He needs to get his act together tomorrow and next week because the week after that is Springfield! We need to beat some people! Any body! We just need to beat them!