Days 284 & 285

Saturday

Yesterday was Harry's 8th birthday!! Naturally, today we had to celebrate =] We bought him special cookies, not those cheapie treats that they sell in the feed stores. They're called Stud Muffins!

He definitely enjoyed them. They seemed kind of sticky like peanut butter is when dogs eat it, because he kept sticking his tongue out.

Today was also farrier day. Nina had to be tranquilized, so we couldn't ride her, but my mom and I rode Brie and Harry for a short time after they were trimmed. I rode Brie, and she was super full of energy today! Her head is coming down better and I need to look for supplements that will help her gain muscle in her back end, because her butt is not as round and muscular as Harry's and Nina's. Her's is kind of not hollow but not filled in either. I think that increased muscle will also help with her arthritis.

Sunday

Today I got to ride Harry AND Nina!! What a treat! I rode Brie first. I'm really working on sitting back and deep in the saddle and not letting my hands get to high or lean too far forward. I think it helps with her balance. I feel weird, I constantly keep changing my seat with Brie. I feel like this current trend is going more back to her roots whereas I was sitting more forward during my jumping lessons and then a little further back after those ended. Now I'm finally really sitting back and deep again and I think it's helping with her headset a little bit.

Harry, we've decided, is going to go into Pleasure class. Rather than trying to work him up to be all excited for Performance class and risk him losing his gait, we'll settle for the pokey relaxed gait he seems to like right now and put him in Pleasure and see how he does. If he wins, it'll be a good choice! He is a lot more calm when I'm not trying to get him to move quicker but stay in gait. He didn't break much at all so that was fantastic. He is also walking very nicely finally. All we have to work on now is getting him to largo!

Nina was a blast. She is so funny, she will get into races with Brie if they're going side by side. She has a pretty fast largo! Not as fast as Brie though, but she will do wonderfully in Pleasure and Performance.

For the shows this year, we're seriously talking about bringing Brie! Our first show is the Midwest Classic in May down in St. Louis and we're thinking of bringing Harry and Nina to that one, since it's more competitive. Then the second show is in Michigan in June and we're thinking of bringing Brie and Nina to that one because it's more relaxed and while it's still competitive, not a lot of the big barns go to it so it's more smaller barns and families for a calmer atmosphere that I think Brie will like. She was in Michigan before though...tried to run back to the barn while I was still on her. But that was years ago. We have a little system in place. I think that as long as I longe her on the line for a bit and keep myself calm and just go in with the goal of making it through the class and staying as relaxed as possible, we will do well.

Days 240 & 241

Saturday

First thing when I got there today, I was bothered. Let alone that it was almost 100 F, but I show up and Paco is riding Taco. And then, to add to it, Samantha's dad is now learning how to ride on Taco. Taco is not an easy horse to ride and aside from the fact that he is not the starter horse, I was upset because I didn't want a complete newbie doing anything to screw up Taco. I never got the chance to say anything, and wasn't quite sure how to, but it stayed with me.

I tried to ride Harry, but it was a total failure. I'm not sure if it was because it was hot outside or because he was stiff or because of my sour attitude about Taco going into riding Harry, but he was just not behaving. He was bad, like trying to buck me off bad. I didn't want to give up, so when I finally got him to just go around without being terrible and make a nice pass across the board, I got off. I wasn't in the mood to fight with him today. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Sunday

I went in wanting to say something to Jane about Paco and Samantha's dad riding Taco before the show, but again I never got the chance to because Paco was always with Jane and I didn't want to just call him out in front of her, even if he does undermine me quite often in front of other people. I just can't be that confrontational. So Jane rode Taco and then Samantha's dad got on for a lesson while I was riding Brie. I made the mistake of taking her outside before she calmed down in the arena first and that set the tone for her whole day, with me and my mom afterwards. She's also hiking her back right hip up and I'm thinking it's because of her arthritis. If it keeps getting worse, I suppose we'll have to give her another shot or talk about other options with the vet, but I hope that it doesn't get worse...she's only 11. I would hate to have her unrideable at this young.

I plopped around on Nina while I was waiting for Samantha's dad to finish, and I love her more every time I do! She has such a relaxed walk and she's so focused on what she's doing. She's like a little steam boat. If we make it to State Fair (as now that's up in the air as well), I would really love to do a Pleasure Stakes class with her because I know we could win some money =]

Also more excitement! My dad rode for the first time since he was thrown off of Harry right after we bought him. That's about two years ago! He rode Nina and I knew that he was trying to look like he knew what he was doing as far as making her gait, but she's so automatic that even if he was doing something wrong, she just went on about her business and gave him a really great ride. I think it definitely made him feel better about coming out to the barn with us all the time.

Jane hopped back on Taco after Samantha's dad and so I got on Harry. He was so much better today. He had a wonderful largo and a great board. I think he's super sensitive towards what attitude you have when you get on him, because I was feeling much better today, even though I was still ticked at people other than Jane and I riding Taco. But rather than try and kick everyone else off, it would be more of an accomplishment if I could overcome the obstacle of having other people screwing with Taco and still place...that is, if certain people don't try and take credit for my win, saying that it's because they rode that Taco did so well. Taco might not even be going to the show, because he has to wear pads on his front hooves and that's against the rules, so if the farrier can't put shoes on the back feet or doesn't clear him to take the pads off, then he can't go.

I finally got my chance on Taco and had a bit of a hard time getting him to gait and he did try and pull me into the middle, but after those hiccups had passed, he settled into a wonderful, slow corto and really listened to me. He's even doing better on the corners and isn't cantering as often as before. After he worked (and he was sweating!), we went and walked outside around the pond to cool off. I went with my mom and Brie, and I couldn't believe that Taco was so good outside! He was very relaxed and calm and Brie was the crazy one. I had just anticipated that he would be a handful, but it was a really pleasant surprise to both enjoy the ride and cool down.

I'm really excited for this Friday because the kids that I babysit during the week are coming out. They're little ones, all under the age of 7, and it'll be so great to spread the love of horses with them! Of course, they're only going to ride Nina =]

Days 236 & 237

Saturday
Unfortunately, we've decided not to go to the Florida show. On Thursday, my dog got injured and after going to the vet, we've learned that he tore his CCL. The common response to this is to undergo surgery, but since he is so old (He's 11, maybe older, since we adopted him) and he has an existing liver problem, we can't put him through surgery, so all we can do is manage his pain with medication. We've been looking into braces, but haven't gotten far with it yet. We might not even go to State Fair now, because how could we put him in a kennel? He would be so freaked out. The only place he might be able to stay is at the vet's office where it's quiet and he's being watched for his problems all the time, but that's only if the vet says that it's okay for him to move out of the house for that time. It just kills me, because I was finally getting him out on walks since I was home over the summer and he was having such a great time, and now he can't go on a walk again, as far as we know =[

With that said, Harry was pretty okay today. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't super awesome. It's kind of what should be expected on a Saturday, since he hasn't been worked all week. His gait was nice, but now we're working on the largo again since he is back to pacing. He'll get there, I know he will. The calming supplement also arrived this week, so he will be going back on that again as well.

I rode Taco today. Jane bought this calming paste, B Kalm, and wanted to try it to see if it would help Taco and give her an easy ride. She said that he was still pulling tricks, but he listened to the corrections quicker than usual. I got on and saw that he was responding quicker. He is still having trouble breaking into a canter, but I know that as we work at it, it will get better. Near the end of the ride, he settled into an extremely smooth corto, which was great because I was able to get him to slow down for this corto and really make his default speed his largo. His board was phenomenal! But we will have to see if it was this paste or if he is really starting to listen to us.

Sunday
 I am so proud of Harry! He got over one fear today (although it wasn't the tarp). I took a leaf out of my brother's book today when I warmed Harry up by walking in a circle and flexing instead of just walking or just flexing. I followed my mom and Brie outside as opposed to working a lot in the indoor before going outside and I was pleased that Harry only had a couple of bumps getting out to where Brie was and then he settled down wonderfully. He didn't jump or spook or pace at all, just this adorable little gait, and he kept it up when we went back inside. He had a great board, and my last goal for the day was going to the outdoor arena and around the serpentine posts then over the board and coming back inside. He did the serpentines nicely and got on the board nicely, but then we got to the huge concrete pad that they decided to put smack in the middle of the board and he got scared. He jumped off the board and walked around the concrete, snorting. I went on the other end of the board and asked him to go across again and he just did the same thing.

Instead of sitting there and continuing to bother him to go over the concrete, I got off and tried to get him to walk over it on foot. At this point, everyone saw me trying to get him to follow me over it, and my brother and Nina came outside to show Harry that it wasn't so scary. Nina stood on the concrete and after Harry walked around it a couple of times, I lead him on to the board and kind of zig zagged over to the concrete and he walked on it with no problem! After a couple more times of doing this, I was able to walk and approach it on the straight without him bawking at it, so I got back on and after we went all the way across the board and concrete and back again, I got off and told him how good he was. I'm so proud of him!

I also rode Taco again today. I can't tell if the paste helped or if he really is turning over a new leaf in his book of life, but he was great today! The cantering is still a problem, but he is getting better. His board was great and as long as we get the canter out of him, if we go to State Fair, he will definitely do well.

Day 221

Happy Mother's Day! My mom got the great present of being able to come out to the barn today. It was nice having someone to watch and correct my riding from the ground.

Everyone is back to being okay. There weren't any after effects of the whole commotion with the vet yesterday, so that was insanely relieving. When we got there, we let them all out to play in the pastures. They ate for a little bit and then we chased them around and played. Harry is so cute to play with. He'd play when I'd chase him and then knew exactly when I wanted him to come back to come inside. His hair was a mess today, so that took forever for me to brush through it all. He was very calm when I went to longe him. I love this calm Harry. It's great being able to longe without him fishtailing or backing up or charging at me or anything. I love it!

We did a lot of circle work today and flexing, since he didn't ride yesterday. I mostly worked on trying to collect his corto better and my mom was helping me with that, telling me that I keep my hands a little too low and too close together on his neck to support him, so I had to change that. After his corto was where I wanted it to be, we worked on the largo. It was pace-y again, but we kept working at it. I had to keep checking him and flexing him with the outside rein. We eventually found out perfect speed and remained in gait, so I was happy with that.

Since he was such a good and patient boy, we wandered around outside by ourselves, since my brother and Nina were already done. I was so proud of Harry! He's scared of walking close to the pond that's in the back of Gary's place, but today we walked around it on our own! Not very close, but still, it's progress! He was such a doll outside and was absolutely calm. He likes to run up the little hill in back too =]

Afterwards, I showered him off and let him out in the paddocks with Nina and Brie, where Brie stayed the entire day today. I also found out that a horse will not see a carrot if you throw it at them and won't sniff it out like a dog and eat it from the ground. It has to be literally in front of their noses.

Day 217

My mom has to have surgery next week on her spine, so she's trying to take advantage of as much time with the horses as she can. Today she rode all three horses and tomorrow she plans on doing the same thing. I hope that everything goes well for her in the surgery and there aren't any complications.

After looking at some stuff on Parelli Connect this past week, we went in with the intention of playing as many of the Seven Games that we know. I was more focused on getting Harry to play the Friendly Game because he had such a hard time with it last week. My brother and mom were playing the YoYo Game when Samantha's mom pulled in and started talking to my mom. Harry was making wonderful progress, coming in closer to see the carrot stick and letting me pet him with it when my brother called my mom and I over in a panic.

As we came in, he showed us a gash on Nina's nose that we hadn't seen when we came in because of the dirt covering it. It looked pretty gross, but not very bad. He took her out of the arena we were playing in to go into the wash rack and wipe off the dirt. My mom followed. I played with Harry a little more and heard some banging and my mom came in to ask me for help.

Nina was having a fit in the wash rack when you tried to touch her nose. I put Harry on the cross ties and went over to look at it. They were just trying to press a compress onto it to make sure that it would stop bleeding. It looked a lot worse once it was cleaned. The cut is about three inches in length and about half of a fingernail deep, but it's not bleeding. After much calming and talking, I can get the washcloth on her nose for about a minute before she starts thrashing around again. My mom took the hose and just let it run over her nose (which Nina still didn't like) and then I poured some hydrogen peroxide in my hand and pushed it onto Nina's nose. I got it all in one try because the length of her cut started to bubble white like cuts do when you put peroxide on them, so now it's disinfected. We put this blue stuff we have on it (I really need to learn what it's called) and only after then did I remember that I should take a picture.

Not a very good picture of the cut, but still. Maybe I'll get another shot tomorrow.

After inspecting her stall, my brother found that she must have cut her nose on her feed bucket. It was kind of shoddy looking before and I have mentioned it to Paco when Harry was living in that stall, but he never changed it. Well Nina must have cracked it and then went in to eat and sliced her nose on it. I'm just thankful it's not on her eye or her entire face or something worse like that. I am worried though that it won't grow back together and that there will always be a separation. I don't know if she needs stitches or what. Someone suggested butterfly closures, but she'd need to be sedated anyways for us to do that, and if that's the case, stitches might be the better option. We'll see how it is tomorrow.

Once we found out the bucket was the cause, my dad took down all three of the horse's feed buckets (their waterers are steel automatic) and put in new ones. Much better.

We all rode after that. I rode Brie first and she was kind of limping. I guess it must be time for her to have another arthritis shot. I was trying to get her to walk because of the limp, but she didn't want to. So after a while of struggling with getting her to walk, but a little bit of calming down, I let her corto the rest of the ride and she seemed content. Then my mom switched with me and I got Harry.

This largo is the kind that we've been looking for. He is so ready for show in a couple of weeks, I can't wait! He was absolutely flying in his largo without breaking gait (only a couple of times in the counterclockwise) and had a very nice, high-stepping, collected largo. Hopefully I can get some pictures and a couple videos tomorrow!

In the end, I ended up riding Taco a bit for Jane, because it was muddy out and she didn't get to let him out in the round pen to longe, so he was being a bit naughty for her. It took a couple of laps to settle into his tweaks, but he worked nicely for me after that. He likes to break into a canter though. If I were training him, I'd definitely have to work on that, even though his canter is gloriously smooth, it's unacceptable in show. At the end of my ride, John asked if I would show Taco. I sure hope that he was serious! I would love to! And it would give me an excuse to get a different show jacket =]

I really hope that Nina is okay. Please keep both Nina and my mom in your thoughts!

Day 216

Yesterday we went to the Midwest Horse Fair and it rekindled my interest in Parelli. So we bought two more halters and leadlines and their Hit the Trail DVD (especially interested after last weekend's fiasco with Brie) and set out today to play some of the games we knew.

We went in the outdoor arena because the indoor was pretty occupied. Brie is a pro at the 3/7 games I've taught her so far. I found out today that we never taught Nina the YoYo Game, so my brother spent the time teaching her that. Harry, while he knows the YoYo Game, sucks at the most basic of all -- the Friendly Game! He's just so scared and thinks that when I swing the rope over by him that I want him to longe so he takes off. We really need to work on that before moving on with anything else. It's really opened up my eyes to how much he doesn't know and just to the extent of how scared he is of everything. I didn't think he would be that scared of the end of his lead rope. Although he did think that the carrot stick was amusing, he kept trying to bite it when I would rub it on him or swish that rope around a little bit.

After everyone played the YoYo Game and we finished freezing in the wind outside, we tacked up to ride. My mom wanted to see how Brie would react to her baby Myler bit, but put it under her tongue and I didn't notice for about 15 minutes into my warm up. So I had to fix it. After I fixed it, she was just not listening at all, so I switched back to her bit that she's been using for a while. She never really wanted to calm down and give me a walk, so I had to keep circling her. Then she didn't want to back up straight, so we did that. My mom decided to switch after Harry bucked, but Brie still wasn't behaving.

Brie apparently got a little better while my mom was on her and Harry calmed down while I was on him. He really is doing nicely. We largo'd today and it was fantastic. Just to feel him go with such a difference in speed, the difference we've been working at, without breaking gait was a great feeling. I can't wait to show him next month! So starting next week we begin preparing for the Midwest Classic. I think that next weekend is our last full weekend of practice before the show, because the week after that the farrier comes out one day and the week after that the vet comes out and by then it's the show the following weekend! I can't wait. I hope we do well.

Also, when we bought the DVD and halters, we signed up for ParelliConnect! I'm using it under my mom's name and will definitely be exploring it during boring parts of class my free time =]

Days 209 & 210

Saturday

We got a call this morning from Paco about Nina. He said that Nina looked like she wasn't feeling well, but wasn't rolling around like she was colicking. We rushed out and by the time we got out there, she was looking better than Paco had said, but we got her out and made her run around the round pen until she pooped just to make sure that she wouldn't colic. Thankfully, she did! And remained okay for the rest of the day.

While I didn't exactly "do much" today, I think that today was one of the most influential days I've had with Harry.

After trying to work with the tarp last week, I decided that the first task I would do was confront him with it again. We went out into one of the small paddocks (it's more like a pen) and I held the tarp, folded up. He was not having any of it. He kept running around and away from it and me. Eventually I got him and tried to rub it on his nose, but he didn't like it much. Rather than chasing him around some more, I laid it out on the ground, clipped him to a lead line, and we tried to walk very close to it. He was getting kind of close, but the wind kept picking up and moving it, which would scare him. I hung it on the fence and unclipped him and hoped that he would eventually go by it on his own, but he wouldn't.

After this, I had Paco help me. I've seen Nick doing this trick. He ties the horses short enough to the pole in the arena that they won't get tangled up in it, and swishes a rod with a plastic bag on the end around the horse until they stop fighting and trying to run away from it. Then he goes closer to them with the bag and eventually tries to rub it on them without them being scared of it. Basically, it's the Friendly Game with a bag, not a rope, and tied up so we won't get trampled. So Paco helped me with that. Harry was so scared though! By the time he finally relaxed and let us touch him with the bag, he was soaked with sweat. I didn't ride him, just hosed him off after that and let him relax in his stall.

So no, I didn't do much, but I really think that was one of the best things I could have done for Harry. It's something that will build our trust. Once he knows that I won't let bags hurt him, he'll be more comfortable with tarps, and then other things that come our way will be less shocking.

Sunday

Nina is still looking good! She pooped 3 times before we got there, so she must be feeling better.

No tarps today! Although, while my parents were talking with Paco, my brother and I put everyone outside and got the huge exercise ball that we bought a while back and wanted to play with the horses. Brie was totally unenthusiastic about it, which I guess was good? At least she wasn't running away from it! She was just letting us bounce the ball off of her sides until we felt bad that she looked so bored/sad by the fact that we were throwing a ball at her. So we moved on to Nina.

Nina usually loves playing with the ball, but not today! She kept running away from it. We didn't know if she just didn't want to be bothered or what, so my brother held her while I just rubbed it all over her. She wasn't scared of it, so I guess she just wasn't in the mood.

Then we moved on to Harry. What a baby! No matter how many times we kept coming back to him, he just wasn't having it! We did eventually get to rub it on him, though, which is progress. =]

After all that, I rode Harry starting inside. I didn't put any bracelets or the rear end collector on and just wanted to check any progress we had made in the past two weeks. He was very calm in the indoor, but then when we went in the outdoor, after our little herd of riders broke up to do our own thing after walking around the arena for a while, he got really upset and kept tap dancing. Frustrated (and hot), I decided to go back inside and work with him. He calmed down and gaited really nicely, and then we worked on largo without pacing. Every time he paced, I would just bring him back a little or even stop if it got really bouncy and let him start over again. We ended with a beautiful largo pass over the board and I ended with it so that he could hear what I wanted him to do.

I switched with my mom and then rode Brie outside with my brother, Kimmy, and Samantha. Of course, Brie was their leader! And after we ran into a few branches, raced up a couple of hills, and chased John's car down the driveway, our day was done.

Now back to school =[ It was so nice being on break! I wish I could ride every day.

Days 207 & 208

Saturday

The beautiful weather makes prime picture sessions! We had a little bit of fun with my hat today.

Surprisingly, they all kept it on!

Since it was so beautiful out, I decided that Harry needed some fresh air and we were going to work outside the entire time. He was good longeing again, which is awesome! He was pretty good walking around the outdoor arena too, but once I started to ask him to work, he was all jumpy. Between the wind and seeing everyone else working, he was totally unfocused. After trying to get him to calm down and get his attention for well over an hour, I finally just settled for a semi-calm walk around the arena both ways and called it a day, but not before making him walk up to Gary's house and back to the barn...all by himself. He might have gotten eaten by a caterpillar or something, but he made it!

Sunday

More pictures! No hat today, though.

Decided against riding outdoor first. Before we left, we uncovered our patio furniture from the winter and I brought along a tarp to play with Harry after our ride. Today I wasn't getting much cooperation out of him either, and apparently his head was not set very well, so I got fed up with the rear end collector and bracelets and took them off and just rode and focused on collection. At the end of a very, very long ride, we had a perfect largo. No skipping, no pacing, just a really great largo. I couldn't have been more proud.

After our successful ride, I decided to take out the tarp. I wanted him to walk on it with me on his back rather than getting off and letting him step on it by hand first. He made a lot walks around it, staring at it apprehensively. Then when he started to bend down to sniff it, he was snorting. He let out a really big snort, the tarp moved from his exhale, and he scared himself, jumped up, farted, scared himself again and hopped over about 8 feet, all without me falling off! Haha, it didn't even feel that bad, but Gary was watching and told me to probably try that from the ground first, so I did just because I didn't want him to say something about my "circus antics" in the future. After about 40 minutes of standing around, he finally stepped onto the tarp, scared himself with the rustle, and backed up. At least he stepped on it! I'm glad we made a little progress, he needs to get over himself.

My mom ordered some new supplements and they're supposed to be calming. She got some for Brie and Harry. We'll see if they work at all! Something else I'm concerned with is showing now. It seems that the pleasure horse is being eliminated in the eyes of the judges, or at least, switched with performance. It's very strange. But apparently now performance is being judged on speed while pleasure is being judged on collection...which would make Harry a pleasure horse instead of a performance, which is what I planned on showing him as, and would make Brie and performance horse instead of a pleasure...I want to start working with Brie more and get her ready for show...I can only hope that she'll get with the program and not want to run everyone down in the show ring like the last time I showed her!

Day 194 & 195

Saturday

Now I can finally tell you my exciting news! Ray is leaving!!! Yep, he is no longer training for our barn and we're getting a new trainer hopefully soon. I can't wait to see who is coming up. This might not seem very exciting, but trust me when I tell you I'm overjoyed.

Since it was super cold today, no one wanted to ride for very long, so I just got Harry to walk calmly around with Brie by his side and got off after about a half hour. We finally got two more coolers, so everyone was nice and toasty after their rides, and by everyone I mean the horses, because after I stopped moving around, I started to turn into a popsicle! Jane came by as we were getting ready to leave, so we stuck around while she started to ride Taco. She put his bit under his tongue unknowingly and he started backing up and starting to hop when she got scared and jumped off. I fixed the bit for her and my mom offered to teach her how to longe, but she got dizzy, so my mom longed Taco for her. He had a ton of energy, but calmed down after his little burst and then I rode him around twice to show her that he was better now and she didn't have to be scared, so she got back on and was happy with her ride. I love helping other people ride. =]

Sunday

It was so great seeing Ray pack up.

I rode Brie today thinking it'd be a break. As usual, I was wrong! She wasn't bad, just wanted to go really fast. She was really tight on her turns and it made me think if she could be a good barrel racer...my mom thinks that she's getting sore in her hock again, so when the vet comes out to float teeth in May we're going to have another steroid injection in her leg. We rode for a little longer than yesterday, but not by much. In the end, Nina and Brie had a largo race. I'm surprised how little Nina is getting faster! She was beating Brie up until the end when she ran out of steam. Until yesterday, I hadn't known another horse who could keep up with Brie's largo!

I'm so excited for this weekend. Now that Ray is gone, we can turn out the horses in the arena and not have to worry about turning them out in the snow and possibly ice. We're also going to have a huge feast! I'm in charge of baking the desserts!

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 187

 Sunday

Whenever I get told I'm doing something wrong, I feel insanely stupid. I feel even worse about it when I came up with it on my own and wanted to believe my hardest that it was working.

Longeing Harry today was kind of hard. Apparently, it made Paco nervous as he watched, so he came over and intervened. Grumbling, I did what he told me to, which was to throw the carrot stick on the floor, tie up the pisador, and longe Harry from his noseband like he had said two weeks ago. Sigh.

Harry is entirely different from Brie and Nina in that he won't longe if you push him from behind and he'll only go if you literally lead him by the nose.  It's really weird and I have no idea how to get him to do it the proper way, but if this works, then I guess I'll have to go with it.

Once we got the longeing out of the way, his ride was great. Sundays are (almost) always better than Saturdays because we've had Saturday to warm up and remember "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be working". He was going a tiny bit faster in his largo than yesterday which was great! The only thing is it wasn't entirely in gait, but it was closer to gaiting than pacing, so that's progress. I'm just gonna keep pushing the speed until he's confident that he won't lose his step.

Brie, on the other hand, is still kicking the wall. Jane heard her the other day when she was visiting Taco and said she was going to town on the wall. So we've decided that, if it's okay with Gary, that we're going to install rubber mats around Brie's stall. Oh Brie, she's going to live in a padded cell!

Day 186

I knew this day would come, but I was really hoping winter would put off the below freezing temperatures for just a couple more weeks.

I worked only with Harry today. While I was grooming him, he unzipped my coat. Silly horse, I need that to stay warm! I got the carrot stick again and went out to longe him and he was sure feeling the nip in the air when he tried to take off before we even started! I got him back and moderately calm and then Ray came in the arena with Ken, the colt. I mentioned it before and I'll say it again: Harry does NOT like Ray at all. After Ray came in, Harry was a nervous wreck. He finished longeing quietly while Ray longed on the opposite side of the arena. When I got on Harry to do circlework, Ray was also riding around, and Harry was running out from under me and skipping and tap-dancing...everything. I was trying my best to keep him calm and make him pay attention to me. I would be lying if I said it worked, because he was only slowing down as I pulled the reins, but still skipping and jumping. He only calmed down when Ray left the arena.

After Ray left, Harry and I flexed and worked serpentines. We went out on the wall and it took a lap or so to get him in gait without jumping or pacing after we walked, but once he got there, he was beautiful. He felt confident in his step and perfectly in gait! We're trying to work on lengthening his largo now and it will definitely take some time for his confidence to build while largoing, but he was doing well today. He'll to even better tomorrow! Hopefully it's not as cold!

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!

Day 184

Harry had a reintroduction to the carrot stick today.

First, let me start off by saying that Taco is now on our side! They were all set up like I described last week, but Paco told us that Brie is still kicking and kicked out a board in the front of her stall this past week, so we moved her back on the end so it's just her next to Harry and a wall. I hope she stops kicking. I don't know what to do! We're gonna look for toys to put in her stall to occupy her from the kicking, and if that fails then we're gonna have to suck it up and buy some rubber matting for the walls. If you have any suggestions on how to deal with this, please tell me!!

Back to Harry. I worked him today. We started out longeing on his bosal (noseband) like we had decided last week and he was doing okay in his usual direction and then started pulling me around the arena in the clockwise direction. After about 20 minutes of being slowly dragged across the arena by his fishtailing, I had enough and got the carrot stick. Using it behind him was such a transformation! He didn't run away from it and he just walked, observant of it behind him. After doing that for a while, we stopped because that's all I really wanted from him at that point, to not drag me around anymore and go about it calmly! Then I put it on the ground and he was scared to step over it. *shakes head* What a strange horse.

Getting on him, we worked lots of circles and spirals and serpentines to warm up first, then we went at a walk. He started out nicely and then started speeding up, but I managed him. Going into his corto, he was tap dancing a lot and I had to play around with my weight and position until he stopped and was happy. Then I started trying to push him faster into a largo and we go faster counterclockwise than clockwise...makes no sense! But we'll keep working at it. I'm so confused as to how to go about this with him. Should I work on collecting his corto or should I keep pushing him to go faster? I don't know. All I know is that I watched a video today of when Paco used to ride him as a stallion and he was sure speeding around (in comparison to how he goes now) without breaking gait! Is it the bit? Is it me? What is going on?! I have no idea. Maybe tomorrow I'll take off the jaquima rein and just work the bit and see how that goes.

Days 182 + 183

Saturday

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! While I'm sad that today was probably the last warm day of the year, it's a good thing because it's supposed to be cold in November. Unfortunately, that means that my horses will be quite stinky until it warms up enough to give them a bath. I can only shudder when I remember how dirty they got last year.

I thought that Brie was perfect today. She was responsive, well-mannered, and flexible. Perfect in every way --- until she hit the board. It was the most bizarre experience, being on Brie when she sounded like she was pacing. She's never been out of gait since she finished training 7 years ago. I thought, "Could I possibly be doing something wrong? Could she not really be as flexible as I thought she was being?" So we did circles and she still wasn't gaiting. My mom suggested that I ease up and let her just walk because it might have been her arthritis acting up. I felt so bad after that! It's so hard to remember that she might be in pain...my poor baby is getting old. =[ But after a nice (most likely) final bath of the year, she seemed pretty happy to go back and continue eating, as usual.

The reason why her leg could be bothering her is because she's KICKING THE STALL so much!!! I don't know what's her problem! Is she hungry? Is she bored? She has a salt lick and a Jolly Ball to play with. She gets outside. It's the saddest thing, especially when it looks like we'll have to be replacing the boards on the wall soon!

Mom worked with Harry today. He was being such a brat longeing! Paco had to step in and we've now made the decision that he won't be working off of the pisador when he's longeing anymore. He'll be working off of his noseband. I do not understand him. It's not that he ever wants to go too fast to stop him, it's that he speeds off and then fishtails out and back, pulling you forward. You would think that after a year of working on this, he would get the picture without having his nose held.

Sunday

Exciting news today! Taco is going to move over to our side of the barn! But now the baby has to take his place on the other side. I'll miss him =[ We don't usually go over there because it's where Ray keeps all of his horses and where the Gary keeps his and Ray just generally excludes us, but we'll have to wander over now and then to visit the cutie pie!

So now that Taco is moving over, we have to rework the stalls. Going back to Brie's kicking, Paco mentioned that maybe even though Nina and Brie grew up together, it's just a mare thing. It's funny that we never thought of that before because we humanized them so much. "Oh they love each other! It must be something else." But it's worth a shot. We know that Brie hates Harry from when she first started kicking to make damage to her stall and it stopped when she was on the end next to Nina for a while, but Paco says it's gotten horrible lately. So we're going to try moving Brie in between Taco and Harry and then putting Nina on the end. It might make her mad that she's next to Harry, but she seems to like Taco and hopefully her like for Taco outweighs her hate for Harry.

She was much better today, gaiting like normal. It must've been her leg bothering her yesterday. We worked more on flexibility today and keeping her corto contained after a largo, because usually after she largos she just wants to fly at a corto, but that won't do if I want to convince my parents to bring her along to shows this year!

I also got to ride Harry today after my mom worked with him. We put weighted bracelets on his back legs again to see if they would help with his tap-dancing, but I don't think they did...Anyways, we're figuring out what we want to do with his largo/corto difference and we're trying to collect his corto a little more and push is largo a little bit. Just a little in each direction. Going counterclockwise he works phenomenally, but clockwise is a little harder (just like longeing). After some fighting on the counterclockwise, we settled into a super collected corto and a smooth but not very fast largo. Clockwise, I fought with him the entire time until Paco told me to just walk and then quit after he gave in at a walk. I have a feeling that if Harry were a person, we wouldn't get along very well, we're both stubborn. But he did give me a nice walk at the end, so I'll give him that.

The farrier also came this afternoon. We did Brie without tranqing her, which is what's normal. She's 10, she's used to this, but he wanted her tranq'd every time he came out before this. I'm glad she was able to show what a good girl she is for the farrier. We started Harry but when he got to the front feet Harry started to try and rear, so we had to tranq him. Of course we needed to tranq Nina. I wonder if she'll ever be able to do it without being drugged...maybe we should lessen the amount each time until she can remember that it's okay? They're all going barefoot for the winter time, so I hope they don't get any cracks!

Day 179

Happy Halloween everyone! Well, almost Halloween anyways. Harry was sure in the mood today.

We rode for such a long time today. I started off on Brie. I need to work on her flexibility because yesterday when Paco rode her he said that she was very stiff on her turns. This could be something that I had just gotten used to, but I need to work on it. I don't want her to be sore after riding just because she's not flexible. So we did lots of circles, spirals, serpentines and reverses and she was compliant. She had a bit of a fast streak, but she never broke into a canter on the corners, so I was proud of her for that. Apparently she was worse off for my mom later on when we switched, but I think it might've been just that she was angry because she was getting tired.

Before my mom rode her though, my brother and I switched. I just got to walk Nina around, which is all I ever want to do when I ride Nina. She's so laid back and relaxed. I would just bring her out on trails all the time, she's perfect for it. But after a short time on Nina, I switched with my mom who had been working Harry for a good chunk of time.

She's been trying to work on Harry's largo since he paces when he goes too fast because his legs can't keep up with his brain, so he was flying around the arena today. I wanted to get him a little bit more collected so we did our corto and crossed the sounding board and then walked to cool.

While all this is going on, Samantha, this little girl who comes for lessons, was riding Tobacco and Jane was riding Taco, while Kimmy was riding Sadie. Jane insisted that I ride Taco because John was popping in and out through out the day to see how Taco was doing. So I hop on. First thing Taco does is speed away with me and start cantering down the long wall! I try my hardest to remember to not pull on his mouth because he manages to get a hold of the bit between his teeth and pull away with the rider, so I'm quickly pulling and releasing to try to get him to slow down the first lap around the arena and then pull up to Paco, who directs me to pull his head to the wall to get him to slow down until he realizes I mean business.

So after a couple of laps around, I finally settle into Taco and we understand each other. He performs beautifully! This was probably the best ride I've had on him to date. He takes the board perfectly and I'm so glad that John was there to see it. He sent me this picture he took of me and Taco.

I would love to show him for John and Jane. He's so much fun once you know how to handle him. There's a fun show coming up in December and I fully intend on dragging Brie down there to get back in the hang of showing again since we need to beat our nemesis this year!

Day 175

Didn't go out yesterday because I went to our rivalry football game. We lost =[

Yesterday, though, my mom told me that Harry was working super well next to Brie in the arena and that he's finally getting his speed and coordination down in his largo. My mom wanted to warm him up today, so I rode Brie, who is getting along just fine. She really does hate the double reins though -- she thinks they're for babies!

When I got on Harry, he tried to take off. There were a couple other horses in the arena, so I was not having that. Suddenly he got scared of the sunshine, that goof. So after a couple of halts, circles, and tugs, he calmed down and settled into a really collected corto. It was magnificent to ride. It could almost be Fino, but he could never compete against, say, the stallion who just won Nationals. I would put up a video, but it's not on YouTube yet. He was mindblowing. But to compete up here in shows, Harry would be great in Fino. And when we let loose into a largo, he never tap danced! I'm so happy with him and how my mom's been working him to get him like that. Now if we could just keep this up until the Spring when showing starts again!

What I thought was really cute was that he really wanted to go outside. After we went across the board indoor and outdoor and came back in to cool, he stopped in front of the door and looked outside all sad-like. So my mom hopped on Brie and my dad got on Nina (!!!) and we went out into the trails in back of the property. My dad's starting to ride, since he really doesn't, and I think it's great!

Day 174

These past two days experimenting with the fruit basket on Brie have made me realize on thing: she's perfectly fine. With the basket on, she kept pacing and was out of gait on the board for the first time in 7 years. She rode beautifully when I took off the basket. I think that I can just work on flexibility without the basket.

Harry appeared to have worked better today for my mom. She didn't put the bracelets on today. What we really have to work on is getting him to collect his corto so that his largo appears more extended. He can't go very fast at a largo without getting confused, which I think is caused by his early Fino background. It's good that we're figuring this out early because now we have all winter to perfect both him and Brie.

Nina is doing better. Her skin came off when we washed the wound again so it's slightly pink now but it doesn't look very deep. My brother longed her and then put her out in the pasture. When we were done riding, we walked by her and then behind the trees and she started screaming and running around looking for us, so we had to turn right back around and go back by her so she wouldn't hurt herself. I've never seen her act like that! It was cute and kind of sad.

I won't be able to go out and ride this Saturday, but I can't wait to ride on Sunday. Hopefully the farrier calls back and they get their hooves trimmed on Saturday!

Day 166

Soooo beautiful out today.

I took a bunch of pictures on my new DSLR, but I'll post all of those tomorrow as I'm sure there will be more!

So taking into account Paul's advice of more largo and double reins, that's exactly what I did today.

Boy do we have some work ahead of us. Harry is awful at largo-ing. He doesn't gait, all he does is pace and skip and is unsure of his step. Honestly, I don't understand how it's any different, it's the same walking pattern just faster. Who knows what goes through their minds.

I warmed him up longeing (which was fabulous by the way) and got on for some flexing. He was super while with the double reins on. Then we walked a little bit to warm up and started straight for a largo. Well he skipped pretty much across the entire arena, so we went out into the round pen. I thought he was gaiting and calming down in there when my mom told me that he was still pacing. So we went back into the arena to practice smaller circles and go over the board to hear if he was gaiting or not, and he wasn't. By this time he'd already been (attempting) flying around in a largo and failing, hot and gross, so we did a corto around the arena once, over the board, and went outside for a nice relaxing walk around then a cool bath.

This might take a while. I can't believe he doesn't know how to do this! It's just like power-walking but he isn't getting it! So tomorrow I think my mom's gonna ride him with the fruit basket on and see how he goes with that.

Brie was limping today, probably because she's been cooped up and unridden for a week, so my mom just tried to get her to slow down, because even though she was limping she was all GO GO GO! I put lineament on her arthritic leg after she rode. Hopefully she feels better tomorrow.

And Nina was perfect, as usual.

I have some exciting news! But I'll wait for a week or so to see if it plays out, and then I'll tell you =]

Illinois State Fair!!

Just a heads up, this is gonna be a long one. Hope you make it through it!
I usually like to do posts in present tense like it was the day, but I'm gonna reflect on this one.

Harry did amazingly getting in the trailer both coming and going, which is something we were all kind of worried about. Seems like he's getting the hang of going places! The show was Friday and Saturday, and I decided to enter him in both performance and pleasure classes. I normally wouldn't have done pleasure classes with Harry, but I figured it would be good experience for him to get used to more time in the show ring. Plus the classes were cheap, so even if I didn't do all that well, he'd be getting exposure.

Friday were the performance classes. My brother had two and my mom had one and I had three. I rode against each of them at some point. My mom got 4th on Harry in the class she rode him in and I got honorable mentions and a 7th. My brother got 5th on Nina and my mom got 2nd in the trainer's class.

That day, we had a cake for the judge. While we were eating, I took the opportunity to ask her what she was looking for. She basically just told me consistency in the gait, which I found out later both by other people's conversations with her and how she was placing horses that it meant ONLY consistency in the gait, nothing to do with headset or even overall manners, which I think is COMPLETE bull. But whatever.

Harry was having a difficult time getting warmed up on Friday. He kept skipping around anxiously and not wanting to work. I found out that Paco had "rode the crap out of him" on Wednesday and it was supposed to be a surprise to help us win, but I don't know what kind of bit he used or anything and that had me really upset. I like Paco and all, and I really don't have a problem with him riding Harry whenever, I'd just like to have known, you know? I'm not sure what I could've done, but I still would've like to have known.

Every time Harry came into the show ring, he skipped right in front of the judge. I was trying to be loose on the reins, but he would then try to take off with me instead of doing his usual lovely corto and when I'd try to pull him back to speed he'd skip again. This went on for every class I had both Friday and Saturday until the last class, but I'll get to that.

Friday comes and goes, Jane visits with John and we find out that Paco will be hitching a ride with someone to visit on Saturday. We have a great time with one of the trainers, Paul, who is stalled next to us. Once upon a time, I ranted about a certain Randy, who seems to win every class. But after being stalled next to him as well, he and his family seemed to have gone complete 180 from ignoring us to being super friendly. After having the time to watch him and his horses in the some classes I wasn't in, I hate to admit that he's actually really good. I have to give him credit -- his family does everything. The other barns bring people to clean the stalls and help tack up, but he owns, trains, and did all of the cleaning while counseling his clients.

I have a certain nemesis who I won't even name, but she always beats me in every class I'm in (except for that one time Brie won 3rd place), and she's a client of Randy's. It just annoys the heck out of me that she just pulls up in the middle of the day, not sweating, in her show clothes, hops on her horse that Randy's prepared, and wins.

Saturday comes the pleasure classes. I have on in the afternoon and get honorable mention again. Harry skips a whole ton in the largo because I'm pushing him for speed which is what the pleasure class wants. It's very hard because I can't hold him back enough without him skipping in the corto for there to be a noticeable difference in speed between the two gaits. Then on top of it, there's a little gait on one wall of the arena that you KNOW you're not supposed to go through while horses are in there. Well we're going into the lineup and I'm doing my final lap around and some lady comes waltzing through it into the arena, spooking Harry halfway across the arena in one swoop (I don't know if the judge saw), so I turn my head and yell at the woman. The indecency of some people!

After that class, Paul comes up to me and my parents and makes a super generous offer -- he wants to take Harry with him when he leaves Springfield down to St. Louis to train him for a month for free. Then we would meet up at Nationals in Memphis, I would show him and then take him home. After much conversation, we decide not to. I'm still very torn about it. On one hand, it would give us a huge help because Harry would be ridden every day by a real trainer (not counting Ray who doesn't really work, or Andre who just broke him), Paul could figure out his problems, and address them. Then on the other hand, I don't want to be like my nemesis. I take pride in saying that I've gotten him this far. It's only his first year of showing and if he's qualified for Nationals that's certainly an achievement! Then there's the problem of his shoeing. Our farrier (who is currently MIA) was doing a particular job. But then any farrier could maybe see it and pick up where he left off. I feel like I'll be battling with this up until Springfield, but I can't go back and change what happened now.

Onto the night classes. These are the Stakes classes where I could win money. My mom was in one with Nina and I was in two with Harry. I rode against the horse in the neighboring stall, Entrenador and my friend Allison. Entrenador is a 3 year old stallion and I was kind of miffed when he beat me both times! But then I have to remember that Colin trained him for Allison before he left the state.

Both classes were huge. I made the cut in the first one and got honorable mention while Allison got 7th. The second class was the one I really thought I'd do well in. I had Harry collected, he wasn't skipping and his largo speed was perfect. But I didn't make the cut in that one. Later someone told me that the judge didn't even look at me the whole class, which is like what the heck, how could you already have passed judgment on me from the class before?! There was a huge difference in his gait and everything between the two and to not even be looked at is very upsetting.

But such is life. This is why I want to be a judge.

One thing that we all thought was hilarious was when Paco rode Tormenta, a horse that Ray considers to be garbage, against Ray on a horse he considers to be amazing, in a Stakes class, on a whim, and BEAT HIM. Paco's not even a trainer, he's the help around the barn, and he beat Ray on a horse that is supposed to be insane. What a kick =]

At the end of the day, I'm happy with Harry's final performance. Even though it was the last class and he wasn't looked at, the improvement from the first class on Friday made me extremely proud. I left with some final advice from Paul -- stop cortoing and LARGO LARGO LARGO until he gets it down pat. I have 8 rides between now and Nationals, so I'll leave the collection until the last 4, maybe 3 rides. Something else I want to work on and perfect -- longeing! It shames me to not have longed him because I was scared he'd embarrass me by running out. So we're going to work on listening to me on the longe line, not stopping when he feels like it, and largoing our butts off.

A final note: after seeing the gaits, performances, and placing of the horses in performance classes, I've decided I'm going to put Brie in performance next year. She's had her arthritis shot, which may have been part of the problem later in her show career and seems to have really calmed down with her age, even going out on trail rides. I hope there will be a couple of fun shows around the area that I can haul her too in the fall for some practice. But after watching my nemesis's horse win class after class, that horse is really no different in performance and appearance from Brie. I would love to kick her butt. All I'd have to worry about is actually making it through the class without her refusing to move and trying to run over the judge. It's a chance I'm willing to take.