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.

Day 256

I wish I knew what I was doing wrong and how to fix it.

So, I've started really trying to work on my seat and posture while riding. I had this terrible habit of sticking my butt out when it's supposed to be in, and while it's been proving useful on Brie and she is responding very nicely, Harry is just not having it. He thinks that when I do that, he is supposed to go faster, even when I half halt him. Do I need to just have a bad seat in order for him to perform? I don't think that can be so...

Before we rode, we took them all out in the grass out back to longe and play with them a bit. Mom put Brie on the longe line, the really long one, and had her longe around the field and up and down the hill, working her back legs. Brie was like a pro, she even had this beautiful trot going, which meant she was super relaxed. Harry at first didn't really want to do anything except eat the grass, so I just held up the carrot stick and he wiggled it every time he wanted to stop and eat and he was going nicely. Nina slipped and had this dramatic slow fall onto her butt in a muddy spot, but she was okay. When my mom took Harry to go on the longe line, he was like "Oh my god! What do I do!? I'm free! I'm free! Oh no! Why am I still on this rope?! I want to be freeee!" and she had to end up reeling him in quite a bit...I think we will be practicing in the arena with that one for a while until he gets used to being so far out away from us. Then she tried to get him to longe on the hill and he got mentally stuck trying to come back down, so after much encouragement, he tiptoed back down the hill. While she took Nina to longe on the hill, I took Harry to a less steep part of the hill and had him longe over that and he went okay.

By the time we started riding, it was raining. Thank god the heaters were all installed yesterday so we could ride indoors! I put the rear end collector on Harry today because he's been floating out for a couple of weeks and tried to use the draw reins on him as well. They did make his head set really nice, but I felt like I had no contact with his mouth and couldn't really control his speed. Plus then I realized in my autopilot state that I had put the wrong bit on, which might have added to the unresponsivemess, so I took the draw reins off and switched bits and just kept the rear end collector on. He was still a little fast, and he was a little touchy when I was flexing him before I got on, so while I tried to get him to do nice, big, slow circles, he ended up spiraling into tiny medium speed circles. He must not have been that sore if he spiraled in on his own. Then it started thundering and he got a little spooky, but I was determined to finish my ride. He wasn't too great on the board today, he was a little poopy and I don't know how to get him in that right spot where I can keep my leg on him and not have him take off. It's just really such a puzzle to me why he was so good for that 2-3 month time in the spring and now he's like just confused seeming. Am I trying to change too much with myself and he doesn't know how to accomodate that? All the changes I'm making to my posture, my legs, my hands, they're all supposed to be for the benefit of his comfort. Sitting further back and deeper in the seat, not letting my legs swing out in front of my knees, not letting my hands get really high off of the pommel area...and he just isn't doing too great ever since I started those changes. Brie has been reacting so nicely, but Harry...I don't know. I don't think that I should compromise what is supposed to be good for him, but if he doesn't like it, maybe I should go back to riding more sloppily with him. I hate to go back there, but if he performs better....

In the end, we got a good board and walked and while everyone left and we were still cooling, he was circling around the door trying to get out, so I decided to activate his brain a little by dismounting at the mounting block. He wouldn't stand on the correct side to dismount, and barely wanted to stand for the wrong side to dismount, but he did for a bit, so I got off. They built a new sounding board area, and it has patio blocks, a little fountain, and a little raised deck in between the boards, and my dad was sitting on the deck and I wanted to walk over to him, but Harry didn't want to go. I couldn't tell if he was bothered by the mounting block or the fountain, as the block was in front of the fountain, so I told him if we went by the fountain we could go inside. Well he went there and walked around it and then I said "Okay, one more time" and he looked at me like "you've got to be kidding" and just planted himself in the dirt a foot away from the fountain. So I sat down on the edge of the fountain and told him I wasn't moving until he came over by me. I must have sat there for 20 minutes, and at one point my dad left to go close the arena doors. Harry thought that my dad was going to go and push him from behind to go onto the patio to go by the fountain, so he backed up frantically, but I didn't move from the fountain, just gave him more pisador line, and waited. He took little baby steps towards the patio, and instead of going the close way to get to me, he eventually decided to go all the way around to come by me. Then I told him he was good and we left, much to his relief.

Nina was still pawing at the ground when we were leaving, so I gave her a bit of hay to occupy her until it was dinner time. I hope that she doesn't keep doing that all week, or we'll have a serious problem come the next weekend.

Day 253

Sunday

The farrier came out today and surprisingly he wasn't more than an hour late! While we were waiting for him, we let everyone out in the paddock to play. Harry and I played "I'm gonna get you!", which is basically where I walk around all cool and calm while he's eating, then stop and look at him and he looks up at me, then I crouch down really fast and he takes off. It's really cute, I need to record it. He knows to come by me or not be bothered by me when I'm standing upright, but when I crouch down, he speeds away! It's adorable =]

We only had enough tranquilizer for Nina, so Harry didn't get his shoes back on. I just remembered that I forgot to bring them with to school for luck. I left them at home. I'll have to get them when I go back this weekend. Harry was a little nervous at first and kicked out with his front foot when the farrier was trying to pull the shoe off and he knocked the hoof stand and then got scared because it fell down, but after that I put light pressure over his nose with my hand when he started to get tense and he relaxed into the whole process. After that, there weren't anymore issues.

Kimmy was looking for someone to ride with, since Sadie doesn't like to ride alone, and Brie was already trimmed so I took her for the first ride we've had in a while. I hate getting preoccupied with one horse over another, but it happens. She was so calm today and I think a lot of it has to do with my attitude. I was determined to keep a light rein and steady contact with my legs and seat. I've been trying to rely more on my lower body than my upper body while riding. We walked for a long time, each time she started to speed up I only lifted the reins when she started to jerk forward in anticipation or if she started to steadily start trying to increase, I sank my rear down into the saddle and gently started closing my fingers more tightly around the reins and she would slow back down before I even closed my hands all the way. After much walking to make sure that she got all of the kinks out of her arthritic leg, we sped up for a nice corto and then again for a smooth largo. I could really tell that she was happy with today's work. I also focused more on my legs than my hands for some serpentines and figure 8's throughout the ride.

At the end of the ride I put both reins into one hand and just let it rest on the pommel all while trying to direct her solely from my lower half and she responded wonderfully. She never tried to take off, so eventually I just dropped my stirrups and my rein and let her walk herself around the arena to cool and then gave her a nice warm shower. In all, a great day.