Day 133

Saturday

We rode in the outdoor arena today. It was so nice to pull into the barn and see that the horses were all outside! I hope that it doesn't go back to freezing for a long time!

I figured that, since Brie goes kind of cuckoo outside, I would give my mom a break and ride her and she could ride Harry.
Ha, yeah.
Brie was kind of antsy warming up, mostly wanting to take off screaming "I'm free! I'm free! Look birds, look grass! I can run!", but she calmed down and I actually got a superrrr nice canter out of her! It's exactly what I've been looking for! She did almost run over Taco though, who Paco was riding (haha, Paco and Taco)--while I was slowing down to pass them, she decided that she wanted to play bumper cars and smacked him with her but, then when I pulled to turn her away, she pushed her butt into Paco's leg before she finally moved over into the inside of the arena. I felt so bad and kept apologizing! So after that we had a little lesson about passing other horses nicely.

But Harry was psycho. I could plainly see that he wanted to dump my mom a couple of times, once while he was stopped on the soundboard, which would've been horrible, because it's wood and if he slipped, my mom would be under him. Even if he is only an 800lb horse as opposed to one of the thousand pounders, that would've been bad!!

After much struggling, we were pressed for time and my mom sent us in to hose off Brie and Nina while she went into the indoor to end on a good note. Then he pulled his "I won't go into the wash rack" trick, so I had to get out the carrot stick and prod him in there. I think that maybe it's time for Harry to get a refresher course in manners because he's gotten very naughty lately!

Tomorrow Colin is supposed to be out. It's also supposed to rain tomorrow. The last time it rained, it stormed, and Harry was a ball of nerves. That should be interesting to ride in. I also want to pull the trailer in and do some desensitizing with that because really, two hours before we get going to a show that's two hours away is beyond ridiculous. If Harry doesn't shape up soon, my mom wants to give him away to Colin for a few months to train. I guess I have to put my small dressage/non-suicidal trail riding dreams to the side with Brie for a while and really start working with Harry again for manners and overall safety, not to mention he's supposed to be our flashy showhorse! How will that ever happen if he's too anxious to get through a class without bolting?