Day 254

Brie might be due for her next arthritis shot soon. She was skipping today and now she's fighting with picking up her one arthritic leg when I want to clean her hoof, so I think that's a sign that she is uncomfortable. The vet is supposed to be coming out this week, so we'll have to ask his opinion. Brie and Harry are also out of their supplements, so we need to order those too. I want to put Harry on a bulk-up supplement. He's so thin and he needs more muscle mass too, but working him and creating muscle also burns off a lot of his fat and he just looks too skinny for my tastes. He is like a toothpick to get my legs around, he is much more narrow than Brie and Nina.

There is construction going on in the indoor arena, so we didn't ride in there. Instead, we rode in the newly finished round pen! It's decent sized, and although I was just going out there with Brie to lead Jane and my mom out on Taco and Harry, I ended up staying with them because Taco and Harry were pretty nervous about the whole thing, being in a new riding environment and what not. Eventually they calmed down and I switched with my mom for Harry, which leads me to this puzzle.

So, he is not wanting to collect himself lately. My mom thinks that we should put a draw rein on him, but I think that he's something going on with him physically. If he's relaxed, he should be setting his head, but he doesn't want to set his head and just wants to bump along in his gait. This makes me think even more that we might need to bring out a chiropractor. While he was not wanting to really do anything, I asked him for a canter.

He couldn't even canter. I thought that cantering was a natural thing for horses, but Harry just seems like he never ever learned how to use all of his legs in sync. He would go for a few strides and then seem like he was tripping over his own feet and then have to start all over again. We never got an even rhythm. Then, he was doing this weird bit when he would start bopping from not having a rhythm and throw his butt up in the air, not like he wanted to buck, but more like a twitch. I'm thinking that maybe there is some discomfort in his back that's preventing him from figuring it out in his legs. My first instinct after his ride today was to go back to basics and work in the round pen and on a circle a lot at varying speeds so that he develops more of a rhythm, but I don't know if that's what I should be doing or calling out a chiropractor. At the end of our ride, he got a good rhythm going, after his bad take at a canter and then walking a bit. So I don't know. Maybe he is just really uncoordinated. How do you build coordination in a horse?

Day 193

I get Harry today and we do a little Parelli. And by a little, do I mean a little. We were playing the friendly game and he keeps running away from the rope when I go to swing it over his butt and wants to start longeing. I can't tell if he thinks that's what he's supposed to do or if he's scared of it, but we'll keep working on it. We played that for quite a while until he stopped flinching and started just to stand still while I rubbed him with his leadline. He's still really good at the YoYo game, so I'm happy with that. We ended on that good note before I actually started longeing him. He did so well today! I had a loose line and he was walking when I told him to walk and trotted a bit when I asked him to speed up instead of cortoing, which I guess means he was super relaxed. I did all this before I tacked him up, and when I longed him while tacked up, he was just as good!

But then I got on to ride him...all he did was tap dance! And what's worse is now I can't even tell if it's something I was doing or from Paco riding him the other day. Ugh! That just really gets me. I tried my best to work it out, but he was still tapping a little at the end. We ended with a very nice pass on the board though, so I was happy with at least that. I traded him off to my mom who said he was a little more cooperative and I just plopped around on Nina. Oh Nina. I love to ride her because she actually walks! I know that I complain a lot to my family about not being able to ride her because my brother hogs her all the time, but I really don't want to gait her. I enjoy just being on a horse who walks at a normal pace every once in a while!

Day 180

I really want to start working Harry first again.

I worked with Brie, which was fine. She was a firecracker today and even cantered on her longe, which she hasn't done in a while. But it took me a while to work out the skip in her step in the beginning and then we flew around the arena in a corto much faster than I wanted, so I was working on slowing her down. The fun show is in 3 weeks and I'm not expecting to win or anything, it would just be nice to make it through the class alive and not excused! So maybe I'll just keep working her first the next three weekends.

But I miss working Harry first. I got him second today and didn't really know how to handle him. We're supposed to be working on his largo, but I really enjoy his collected corto so I never want to and then when I go to, I don't know fast he can go without breaking or pacing so it's frustrating. Just as I was started to get frustrated with him, my brother decided that he wanted to play horse show with everyone riding. This ended up being a good thing because it took my focus off of being frustrated with Harry and put it on listening to my brother's speed commands.

I feel bad that I was angry with Harry. He's really a good boy and I know he's trying. It's just me who doesn't know how to get what I want out of him. This is why I want to work him first, because I feel like after my mom rides him, I feel like I can't work him as much because he's tired and I feel bad asking him to do a lot. I wish I could ride every day...then I'd have so much time to figure him out.