Day 251

During the past week, I signed back up for Parelli Connect after reading a bunch of articles from their blog archive. As I've said, recently I've been feeling a little lost with what to do with Harry and Brie. I didn't really have a goal or a purpose with either of them and that was not making any of us feel too great, so with Parelli Connect, I have a bunch of goals that I want to meet and they give you guidance through reading and videos on how to get there. Now my goal is to basically build trust and further our relationship in order to add performance on top of that in the next show season. This goal was really established after reading this article on enhancing performance naturally. It discusses how so often competitors get so caught up in the competition that the horse suffers through lack of guidance or becomes bored or strung out, which I think is what is happening with Harry. In a way, building up to your best performance is like baking a cake -- it can look really nice on the outside, but can taste terrible when it comes down to it. The only way to really perfect it is to make the best batter and only then is it worth it to decorate.

Source

After thinking about all of that, I approached Harry in a very different way today. Instead of throwing on the jaquima as usual and having him longe, I put on the rope halter and lead line underneath his first bit, along with the saddle. Then we went into the outdoor arena because there was construction in the indoor. I figured between the two distractions, the construction might be scarier. Instead of longing him, I took a long time playing with him. I played the Friendly Game and rubbed him all over and then tried to swing the rope at him, which he was not having anywhere past his shoulder, so we need to work on that. We played the Yo-Yo Game, which he loves. Then we just did some follow the leader and I walked backwards and forwards around the arena in zigzags and through the poles and once he realized that I didn't want him to longe, he snorted and just went along with what I was doing. Once I felt like he was calm enough, I got on.

He was a little scared because it was very gusty out, but I made sure to do my best to keep a loose rein and not let myself tie up with him because that makes him very anxious. So with a loose rein, we tried to calmly go around the arena. He was going a little fast and tap dancing because of the wind, so every time he started to get anxious, instead of pulling back and making him stop, I let him go in a little circle and went into it very calmly and he followed. We didn't have the best performance across the board, but he was calming down, so that's all I really cared about.

Meanwhile, my mom and brother were riding Brie and Nina and my mom wanted to go outside to walk around, so we all went. Nina was voted trail leader and she stayed in the front while Brie was in the middle and Harry was in the back. I made sure to keep a manageable rein on him and he was totally fine! Then my mom wanted to venture out along the road, not very far, just down the neighboring field and then come back. We were all a little hesitant, since we never have really gone outside of the property with them, but we put on our brave faces and guess what...everyone WALKED! Even Brie! Harry didn't get scared of anything, even a sports car that zoomed by! We were so amazed and proud and it was just the best feeling. No one got crazy, even on the way back. It was such a beautiful ride and I think it really did something for their confidence as well. 

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.

Days 230 & 231

Saturday
I started off with Brie again and was determined to have as nice of a ride this week as I did last week. It was nice enough out, so I went into the outdoor arena. They did some renovations to the outdoor last weekend. In the outdoor, we only had a sound board  going along the length of one of the walls before. Now, we have a pole in the middle of the board, along with a pad of cement shaped in a circle with a diameter of about 20 feet. This is supposed to be used to longe horses. Don't even get me started on it. There are also two poles off to the side for figure 8s and three long wooden mini-fences in another spot. These mini-fences are supposed to be used for serpentines. I saw them as a double-use for cavaletti. So I started Brie off in the outdoor and after I had her longe, I wanted to see if she would go over the cavaletti. She was a little hesitant, but she made it over them. She was walking over with the front feet and then hopping over with both of her back feet. I wanted her to just walk over with her back feet, so I had her continue. 

Now maybe this was stupid on my part, but these makeshift cavaletti have a trough in them, like for a flower planter. I didn't think that it would pose any problem. But anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and as Brie was finally going to walk over the fence with her back legs, one of them tripped in the trough. It's not a very wide trough, but still. Her eyes widened and she knew that she had gotten a little stuck, but thankfully, as I was going over to pick her foot up and out, she lifted it up calmly and stepped over. Then she snorted and wanted to back up over it and got a little stuck with her front hooves as she tried to stand on it going backwards, but she backed off just fine. After much snorting, I didn't want her to think that it was scary (even though I'm not going to send her over those again until they're filled or fixed), so I had her go over them one last time and she was okay. 

Once that was done, I got on to ride and start out with some wide figure 8s, but she was feeling very stiff, so I decided to let that go and let her loosen up on the rail before I asked her to bend. Usually she likes to charge the outdoor arena, but she was content with a corto before she slowed down to a walk. I only had to check her at the corners to make sure she didn't start into a canter. 

I went in because she was getting pretty hot and find my mom having trouble with Harry. After a couple of laps walking around the arena (a miracle!) on Brie, my mom asks if I would see why he's not cooperating. So I get on, do all my pre-ride checks with him like flexing and wide circles, and go out on the wall asking for a walk (since he was fighting my mom about it). She and I noticed immediately the problem -- he was limping. He was favoring his front right leg and even though I got off and stretched him and checked his hooves for any rocks, he continued to limp, so after a walk around, I got off and bathed him and put on some liniment. Hopefully he will be better tomorrow! Poor Harry.

Sunday
 Starting off with Brie again in the indoor today. She is doing super well. She's responding so nicely to my legs and my seat and I have to wonder if it's a change in her or a change in me that has caused this nice behavior! I know that I certainly have changed in my riding style since the beginning of this journey and gone from wanting to make the horse do what I want no matter what to really trying to build partnerships and find a middle ground when I can't convince the horse that I'm right for a reason. Because of how great she's been the past couple of weeks, I'm seriously thinking of bringing her to the State Fair this year if we can find a space for her in a trailer. I feel like now that I've changed my attitude about riding, I know more how to approach a competition situation in order to ensure that Brie stays calm. Thinking back on how I warmed her up in the past, I know that everything I did (forcing her to walk, letting her gallop to "get it out of her system", making her longe for an hour, attempting to give her Calmex that didn't end up working...) was insanely wrong and I would like to try again and make the experience a great one for both of us, even if we don't win any ribbons. My goal is to make her comfortable in the show environment and even if we end up scratching the class because she isn't calming down, I would rather do it at State Fair because the classes are cheap enough to scratch!


Harry was doing much better today. No signs of limping! He was acting a bit wonky because he didn't want to ride on the rail. I think that his gait was great today and his demeanor was nice too while I was riding. It's hard to judge how he's doing sometimes when I ride him after my mom because by the second rider, he's usually tired or annoyed. Even so, it's good that he's getting two riders again because it's almost the same as going through multiple classes at show, which he definitely needs to do. 


I've also gotten another horse ward. Jane is feeling pretty discouraged about Taco's abilities and he's been a downright brat the past month for her. He does this thing where he sticks his head really far down or flexes it back behind the stirrup and runs to the middle of the arena and stops. So I asked Jane if I could show him at the State Fair. She said yes and that I could ride him whenever I wanted. Today was the first day of preparation. Jane was having a horrible time because Taco was doing his usual tricks. I try to longe him before I ride to see how he's acting and he is absolutely terrible. He's just about as bad as Harry was when we first got him! He has no respect for the human he's working with. I was going to use the carrot stick to help longe him, but I didn't know if he'd be scared of it, so I decided against it. Since trying to longe him was a joke, I did a quick round of the Porcupine Game to try and establish my authority and he was okay with that.


Then I got on him. I wasn't on for two seconds and he pulls me into the middle. My leg is useless against him, he's so strong. I try to get around the arena a couple of times to no avail, so I decide to go out into the round pen. In the round pen, he's just as bad, but has less space to act up in. My mom brings me over a second rein for the barbada and almost immediately he stops trying to pull his head in and spin into the middle of the pen. It takes a long time before he starts listening to me, but when he finally settles down, he walks really nicely. He has a hard time staying in gait because he likes to go into a canter and canters in place. That would be nice for a Trote y Galope class in Puerto Rico or Colombia, but not in the Paso Fino shows in the United States. I have to break him of this habit. I have to check him a lot in order to keep him in gait and it takes a lot of stopping and starting over when he breaks into a canter, but the last couple of laps around the pen are beautiful. He's listening and not breaking and not trying to pull me anymore. I determine because of the stunts he pulled during his ride, he doesn't respect the bit, so I would like to try and change his bit. I'm thinking of the straight bar that Nina had a couple of years ago that made her head set too high up. I think that this might be a good solution to his tendency to always be pulling his head down in an effort to get away from the bit. 

Taco is a highly trained horse, once a National champion, so I definitely think he has seen it all. This is also why I think that getting a bigger bit is the wrong answer to his problems because he is very soft in the mouth. I also think that a harsher noseband is the wrong answer because his nose has been so scarred by different bosals that he won't even care that it's there. I think that possible a braided rawhide barbada might be a good answer, but we can only use the bit rein in shows, so we need to start with the bit. I'm not entirely sure if I'll make it to State Fair with him. It depends on how well he responds to the bar bit and how calm I can get him. It would be nice to go to the show and prove that this old coot can make a comeback, but I would rather have him safe and happy for Jane to ride for her own enjoyment.
 

Day 212

I decided I wanted to ride Brie again today, for real this time. My mom took Harry and she changed his bit since apparently he had a "baby bit" still on...bits are so confusing. I wonder if it's just the Pasos that are this difficult and have this many bits. So she changed his and that in combo with the soft bosal we changed to yesterday had him looking phenomenal! His board was magnificent, probably the best board we've heard in a while, and his headset was perfect! I can't wait to ride him next weekend and feel it for myself.

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.

Day 139

What a GORGEOUS DAY!
Of course I forgot my camera =[ It was warm and sunny and there was a warm breeze and everything! We let them all out to romp in the paddocks and they loved it! They all got a pre-riding grass snack and we worked with Harry to get him into the trailer. He was a little bad today, but we got him in without very much fuss...in and out 3 times in a half hour is way better than no times in 2 hours!

I got Brie saddled up and headed out to the outdoor arena for some warm-ups before we roamed around the property today. She walked so nicely in the arena, just taking in all the sunshine and warmth. She was pretty good when we went outside too -- she didn't really pull on the bit at all. I have to keep remembering though that whenever we go outside, I have to rely on my legs more than my hands because once we're out in the grass she's pretty unresponsive to the bit unless it's a yank and I only like to keep those for the most dire of consequences (like almost running into the creek). We even cantered a bit and I was so surprised that she didn't try to take off at a gallop outside! She normally likes to do that.

After a while, Harry and Nina came out into the outdoor arena and Brie and I went back in there with them for some follow the leader games and just generally cooling down. She hit that arena and slowed down like nothing else, like she knew "Okay, arena time means work". I would've ridden Harry but I was just having too much fun on Brie since she was being so good today. Harry and my mom were going to go out in the front pasture for some walking and I was going to join them when my brother said that Brie had blood on her foot. Sure enough, she did. After much inspection and a full bath later, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't her blood and that it must've been a frog or a toad she stepped on. Ick! I feel bad now.

We gave them all baths and fly sprayed and show sheen-ed and MTG'd them, and let them on a leadline for some grass before we let them in. My brother and I brought out the big exercise ball we bought to sit on and everyone except Harry was completely fine with it! We had to move extra slowly and not wave it around in order for him to not be scared and eat his grass. The funniest thing happened though: just picture it. He's chewing absolutely obnoxiously with his mouth open and a gust of wind comes by while his mouth is open and out flies the grass! He looked so confused! That'll teach him to eat properly!

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?