Days 112 & 113

Saturday

Didn't go out last Sunday because of a huge snowstorm. No one's been let outside because the ground is icy, so of course Brie, Nina, and Harry loved running around in the arena while no one was here today! Ray is in Memphis and no one was out, so we let them all play. We let Brie run around first and she had a grand old time, bucking and squealing all on her own, then we stuck Harry in with her. She kept racing him and trying to make him run into the tractor in the corner! Thankfully he's quick and smart and never ran into it, though Brie did manage to stretch her leg in some ungodly direction to try and kick at him as she ran by! We let Nina in on the fun, poor little fatty, she only made it around the arena once before she stopped and wanted to just chill with Brie. Paco chased them all around and made them run. Once again, someone said that Brie should be put on the track. I swear, she was born the wrong breed! Should've been a Thoroughbred.

I rode Nina first! I was so happy! She has a very ploppy gait, kind of just moseys along but it's really cute. She takes some getting used to -- I never get to ride her so I have to figure her out! I knew she was having problems tossing her head when you're trying to make her flex, so I worked on that with her until she was being quiet about it. We did some figure 8's, some patterns in the sand, just things to relieve her boredom of going around in circles all day when my brother rides her (he stayed home, by the way. Sick.) and eventually she kept her head down and collected for me. Her gait sounded wonderful on the board, no breaks or bumps. She worked pretty hard for not doing so much by my standards! She was sweating up a storm!

Paco rode Harry. I didn't pay attention to him much because I was trying to concentrate on Nina, but my mom said that Harry looked nice. No problems, as usual recently. His speed was a little on the fast side, but that was Paco letting him have some fun. Paco must miss having him to ride, because he rode for a long time and then gave Harry a full bath! Thankfully the barn is heated, and we made him stand in the shower stall with a fleece cooler blanket on for at least a half hour to make sure he was okay.

My mom had some problems with Brie's gait going across the board. It was very odd and she was blaming it on my cantering her all the time. I figured that I wouldn't canter her today and just work on making her understand that when someone wants her to gait, she has to gait and not try to sneak in a couple canter strides. She was pretty good after some resetting of her mind doing some patterns. I rode all without stirrups. And when she went over the soundboard she sounded perfect. Since she sounded so good, I decided to do some cantering in a circle, not the entire arena, to work on speed, and she did really well (as did I, without any stirrups!). Hopefully she'll get the hang of not wanting to bolt into a canter/gallop and keep it more lopey and relaxed soon.

Sunday

Boy are my legs sore from yesterday's no stirrup riding.

I rode Nina again today. Pretty much the same deal as yesterday, except today I worked more on making her round her reverses instead of taking them stiff like a board. She's a smart girl, so it only takes a couple of tries with whatever I want and she gets the idea. She was a little excited today though! She tried to sneak a canter in the corner, except her's is so different from Brie's because it's so short and cute you barely notice it! Brie's canter stride is about 3 times the canter stride of Nina. It's pretty adorable, watching Nina canter because she has such short legs!

I rode Harry too today. In fact, I was the only one who rode at all today! Harry was MAGNIFICENT today. I haven't had a good, clean-gaited, high performance ride like that from him in about a month, so I was thoroughly pleased. It was like he gave me a Christmas present of a fantastic ride today.

My mom, Paco, and I were all talking about the horses and how far they've come. We talked mostly about Harry and how psycho he was when we first got him. Paco attributes a lot of it to the fact that he's gelded and most of the testosterone has calmed down, but it's definitely that we're so nice to him. We love on him and everything, but we don't let him walk all over us. He's definitely successfully turned into a family horse and turned out to be the cuddliest one out of all them and the most attached to us as a family. I feel like Brie and Nina, while they are attached to us a great deal, are more attached to each other in a human-like big sister/little sister kind of way, while Harry is more focused on everything we're doing. We like to walk them around in the arena every so often without leadlines and see if they'll follow us. Brie and Nina follow us but most of the time they get distracted by little things in the arena that they decide are more interesting than watching us run around the arena, but now no matter what else is in the arena or going on, Harry always follows us around. Always focused on us. It's really sweet to see that he's turned out to be such a good horse.

I was thinking about Brie too. It seems like impossible how hard she was for me to deal with when I first started this blog. Or the one or two month time period where she'd try to kick me every time I went in her stall to go get her and how now she comes up to the door to greet me when I go to halter her. Or how I used to beg to ride Nina after Brie for a "nice relaxing end to my day", when now I look to Brie for that because she's calmed down so much. It's just really rewarding to look back and see how far I've come with them. That's probably the best Christmas present I'll get this year.

I hope you all have a Happy Holiday, since I won't be writing again until after Christmas!