Day 97

We are the owners of the reincarnation of Houdini.
That's right. Harry Gardener is actually Harry Houdini, but I'll get to that.

I lunged Harry for about an hour total between me and my mom. I went out in the round pen and lunged him out there. I'm going to ask Gary if we can move the round pen inside once it gets cold out before it starts snowing. After that, we reverted back to lunging on the pole. First, he snapped the pisador again! So I tied that back up for decorative purposes, since it's pretty much shot now, and got my Parelli line to lunge him with. He only pulled out a couple of times, but boy those times were strong! The first time, he almost pulled the pole out of the ground! It rotated!

The second time Harry pulled back, he slipped out of his jaquima and his bit and just stood there looking at me with my jaw dropped and a rope in my hand, all "haha you look stupid, but my trick was magnificent!"

After that, I tightened the jaquima and my mom wanted to lunge him. He pulled out a bit on her but then he calmed down, so I got on.

I was a tiny bit nervous and, again, kept telling myself "I won't get hurt, I won't fall" until I relaxed myself and forgot. He didn't want to reverse clockwise, so my mom suggested working on one wall reversing into the wall, that way he was up against a corner when he reversed clockwise. I did that for a good 20 minutes or so and then took him back out in the rail.

In order to keep him on his toes and prevent him from thinking about all the ways to make me cry those strange, yet amusing noises of yesterday, I made him write words in the sand. It's really weird: he doesn't like going in circles clockwise, but he has no problem turning clockwise to make a letter I have in my mind.

Then, the ultimate test: we went on trail. We all went out into the wooded trails in the back of the property and rode around. He actually behaved quite well, even better than Brie! After some time playing back there and getting bitten up by bugs, we headed in. Mom gave him a bath while I rode Brie.

We worked inside mostly, because she was kind of cuckoo today for my mom. I got her to calm down by relaxing back into a walk like we usually do before we start, and then we went out into the outdoor arena. This was a little bit of a challenge that i Sanhedrin fix because Brie likes to sidestep out the door, running over everyone in the way. After she did that, I made her march right back in and go out straight. I just walked down to one end of the arena and wanted to walk back out straight into the indoor, but again she sidestepped almost into a lawnmower, so we turned around and she actually walked calmly back in. After one more round in the indoor, we went out straight again and into a grass paddock, then back. She was kind of hoppy, so I had to keep stopping her and going, but she went straight! Then we just walked and cooled. I was so proud of her! It made me feel all happy and warm inside knowing that I accomplished that little thing with her.

I only got to brush Nina today. I'm perfectly happy with that, because usually I never even get to do that. I wish I could ride her, but all my time is consumed with Harry's craziness. I barely get to ride Brie. As long as Nina still gives me her horsey hugs, though, I'll always be happy with her.