First day out of the new year! What a better way than to get hooves trimmed?
Since the farrier was out today, nothing really exciting happened. Nina and Brie got trimmed, Nina while tranquilized and Brie was, in the farrier's words, "awesome" because she picked up all her hooves for him without being asked. Harry, though, apparently had really bad front hooves. I know a couple weeks back he got that big chip on the inside of his front left hoof that Paco cut off because it was just hanging. The farrier pointed out that Harry's been riding on his frogs because his hoof wall is in such poor condition. We made the decision to put shoes back on his front hooves. He had to be tranquilized to do that because he got one shoe on and then started trying to rear. But overall, they're all fixed up pretty now and I can't wait to ride Harry tomorrow to see if this changes anything even a little bit.
What I am mad about, though, is Paco riding Harry without telling me beforehand. Actually, I don't like Paco riding Harry at all. It's a really tricky situation because we're friends, but I just don't want him interfering with what I'm trying to accomplish with Harry -- building up his confidence. I know that Harry is really energetic, hyper, and stubborn, but I don't believe that he's mean or is confident. I believe that horses are the same on the ground as they are in the saddle. What I mean by this is that Harry is a spooky horse on the ground, therefore he's a spooky horse in the saddle. I can prove this with Brie. She's like bomb-proof on the ground and is pretty much bomb-proof outside (whether or not she wants to cooperate is a different story). I believe that Harry's spookiness stems from his lack of confidence and while I don't get to work on that on the ground so often, I'm really trying to build up his confidence in the saddle by the work I've been doing that past couple of weeks by trying to get him to collect his own feet and maintain his own speed without me doing all of the work for him, sometimes the wrong way and making him upset. If Paco is going behind me and doing God knows what while I'm not there (not that I think that he's harming him), then how is what I'm doing supposed to stick? It's bad enough that I get ridiculed about doing Parelli techniques and hounded about wasting time while I'm doing them so I can't improve him on the ground, but I have to be working double on riding too? No, I don't appreciate this. And Paco, being older, of course thinks I'm just being a stubborn kid and not wanting to listen to him and his help, but honestly, Paco contradicts himself all of the time. If he's not someone who's consistent in what he's trying to "teach" me, then how am I even supposed to believe what I'm doing is right if the next day what I'm doing is wrong?
Take for example, yesterday when Paco rode Harry he changed the bit. I have no idea what bit he used and he didn't want to show me, but when WE wanted to change the bit, Paco told us No, No, No. Now suddenly it's okay? He can get into our tack room, why couldn't he just use our bit? I want to tell him and I know it shouldn't affect our friendship, but I know that it will. It just comes down to my own horse's well being and the progress I'm trying to make. I know that I should appreciate him exercising Harry because he doesn't get trained and it's cold out, but honestly, that's another thing. Paco should be putting them outside. So what if it's cold? As long as it's above freezing and there's no ice on the ground, I fully believe that they all should be out in the fresh air. It drives me insane because I know they aren't getting out.
This is why I need to, as much as I want to quit, stay in school and force myself into a good job. That way I can get my own barn and my own land and take care of my horses the way that they're supposed to be taken care of.
Showing posts with label spooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spooking. Show all posts
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Day 192
0
comments
Posted by
Lexa
at
6:31 PM
Labels:
confidence,
eyes on the prize,
Farrier,
Paco,
shoes,
spooking
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Equestrian Team Fall - Day 7
Tuesday
This was officially my last lesson of the quarter! It was spontaneous. One of the girls was able to get her car and drive us out there, and I'm glad that I got to end my quarter on such a good note.
I rode Wonder, this little white mare. She was kind of hard to get going, but Stacy had me working on transitions more than anything else. I wish I could just pick up the right diagonal when I start posting, I always have to switch and it bugs me that I know that I have to switch right as Stacy's telling me to. Ugh! I wish there were some trotty horses at my barn so I could practice for free over the winter without going out to lessons, especially when I'm not working over break, paying every week for lessons sure adds up!
At the end of the lesson, Stacy said that she thought that Wonder was "too much horse for me". I'm not really sure what she meant by that, because I thought I was handling her fine. She got spooked twice on one end of the arena because of construction noises and although I could have handled it like I would've the Pasos, I didn't know if I would get yelled at for flexing her far to the side into a circle to stop, so I did a big-ish circle to calm her down. It's not like I was going to fall off. I mean, yeah they shouldn't spook, but I don't know if they've worked under construction before, so it could've been okay for them to be scared of the noise. I thought I had a great lesson because I was able to recognize the wrong diagonals and not have to wait until Stacy told me when they were wrong and that as the lesson continued I got better at asking lazy Wonder to pick up her trot and canter.
Oh well. I can't wait to show Stacy how much horse I can handle! She's going to come out and ride at my barn over the break! I can't wait to show her what I deal with, where my roots are. I'm sure she'll just be amazed at how much we stress being like rubber-band flexible, because every time I circle a horse in a circle that I think is huge compared to what we do, she's always like "Not so small! You don't do that on these horses until at least third level dressage!"
Oh and a random note -- that show I was going to go to this upcoming weekend, yeah we're not going to it anymore. There aren't any gaited classes. I supposed I could take Brie for the barrel racing class for fun, but it wouldn't be worth giving up a day of training just for that, especially since it'd be the first time we'd ever do that!
This was officially my last lesson of the quarter! It was spontaneous. One of the girls was able to get her car and drive us out there, and I'm glad that I got to end my quarter on such a good note.
I rode Wonder, this little white mare. She was kind of hard to get going, but Stacy had me working on transitions more than anything else. I wish I could just pick up the right diagonal when I start posting, I always have to switch and it bugs me that I know that I have to switch right as Stacy's telling me to. Ugh! I wish there were some trotty horses at my barn so I could practice for free over the winter without going out to lessons, especially when I'm not working over break, paying every week for lessons sure adds up!
At the end of the lesson, Stacy said that she thought that Wonder was "too much horse for me". I'm not really sure what she meant by that, because I thought I was handling her fine. She got spooked twice on one end of the arena because of construction noises and although I could have handled it like I would've the Pasos, I didn't know if I would get yelled at for flexing her far to the side into a circle to stop, so I did a big-ish circle to calm her down. It's not like I was going to fall off. I mean, yeah they shouldn't spook, but I don't know if they've worked under construction before, so it could've been okay for them to be scared of the noise. I thought I had a great lesson because I was able to recognize the wrong diagonals and not have to wait until Stacy told me when they were wrong and that as the lesson continued I got better at asking lazy Wonder to pick up her trot and canter.
Oh well. I can't wait to show Stacy how much horse I can handle! She's going to come out and ride at my barn over the break! I can't wait to show her what I deal with, where my roots are. I'm sure she'll just be amazed at how much we stress being like rubber-band flexible, because every time I circle a horse in a circle that I think is huge compared to what we do, she's always like "Not so small! You don't do that on these horses until at least third level dressage!"
Oh and a random note -- that show I was going to go to this upcoming weekend, yeah we're not going to it anymore. There aren't any gaited classes. I supposed I could take Brie for the barrel racing class for fun, but it wouldn't be worth giving up a day of training just for that, especially since it'd be the first time we'd ever do that!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Illinois State Fair!!
Just a heads up, this is gonna be a long one. Hope you make it through it!
I usually like to do posts in present tense like it was the day, but I'm gonna reflect on this one.
Harry did amazingly getting in the trailer both coming and going, which is something we were all kind of worried about. Seems like he's getting the hang of going places! The show was Friday and Saturday, and I decided to enter him in both performance and pleasure classes. I normally wouldn't have done pleasure classes with Harry, but I figured it would be good experience for him to get used to more time in the show ring. Plus the classes were cheap, so even if I didn't do all that well, he'd be getting exposure.
Friday were the performance classes. My brother had two and my mom had one and I had three. I rode against each of them at some point. My mom got 4th on Harry in the class she rode him in and I got honorable mentions and a 7th. My brother got 5th on Nina and my mom got 2nd in the trainer's class.
That day, we had a cake for the judge. While we were eating, I took the opportunity to ask her what she was looking for. She basically just told me consistency in the gait, which I found out later both by other people's conversations with her and how she was placing horses that it meant ONLY consistency in the gait, nothing to do with headset or even overall manners, which I think is COMPLETE bull. But whatever.
Harry was having a difficult time getting warmed up on Friday. He kept skipping around anxiously and not wanting to work. I found out that Paco had "rode the crap out of him" on Wednesday and it was supposed to be a surprise to help us win, but I don't know what kind of bit he used or anything and that had me really upset. I like Paco and all, and I really don't have a problem with him riding Harry whenever, I'd just like to have known, you know? I'm not sure what I could've done, but I still would've like to have known.
Every time Harry came into the show ring, he skipped right in front of the judge. I was trying to be loose on the reins, but he would then try to take off with me instead of doing his usual lovely corto and when I'd try to pull him back to speed he'd skip again. This went on for every class I had both Friday and Saturday until the last class, but I'll get to that.
Friday comes and goes, Jane visits with John and we find out that Paco will be hitching a ride with someone to visit on Saturday. We have a great time with one of the trainers, Paul, who is stalled next to us. Once upon a time, I ranted about a certain Randy, who seems to win every class. But after being stalled next to him as well, he and his family seemed to have gone complete 180 from ignoring us to being super friendly. After having the time to watch him and his horses in the some classes I wasn't in, I hate to admit that he's actually really good. I have to give him credit -- his family does everything. The other barns bring people to clean the stalls and help tack up, but he owns, trains, and did all of the cleaning while counseling his clients.
I have a certain nemesis who I won't even name, but she always beats me in every class I'm in (except for that one time Brie won 3rd place), and she's a client of Randy's. It just annoys the heck out of me that she just pulls up in the middle of the day, not sweating, in her show clothes, hops on her horse that Randy's prepared, and wins.
Saturday comes the pleasure classes. I have on in the afternoon and get honorable mention again. Harry skips a whole ton in the largo because I'm pushing him for speed which is what the pleasure class wants. It's very hard because I can't hold him back enough without him skipping in the corto for there to be a noticeable difference in speed between the two gaits. Then on top of it, there's a little gait on one wall of the arena that you KNOW you're not supposed to go through while horses are in there. Well we're going into the lineup and I'm doing my final lap around and some lady comes waltzing through it into the arena, spooking Harry halfway across the arena in one swoop (I don't know if the judge saw), so I turn my head and yell at the woman. The indecency of some people!
After that class, Paul comes up to me and my parents and makes a super generous offer -- he wants to take Harry with him when he leaves Springfield down to St. Louis to train him for a month for free. Then we would meet up at Nationals in Memphis, I would show him and then take him home. After much conversation, we decide not to. I'm still very torn about it. On one hand, it would give us a huge help because Harry would be ridden every day by a real trainer (not counting Ray who doesn't really work, or Andre who just broke him), Paul could figure out his problems, and address them. Then on the other hand, I don't want to be like my nemesis. I take pride in saying that I've gotten him this far. It's only his first year of showing and if he's qualified for Nationals that's certainly an achievement! Then there's the problem of his shoeing. Our farrier (who is currently MIA) was doing a particular job. But then any farrier could maybe see it and pick up where he left off. I feel like I'll be battling with this up until Springfield, but I can't go back and change what happened now.
Onto the night classes. These are the Stakes classes where I could win money. My mom was in one with Nina and I was in two with Harry. I rode against the horse in the neighboring stall, Entrenador and my friend Allison. Entrenador is a 3 year old stallion and I was kind of miffed when he beat me both times! But then I have to remember that Colin trained him for Allison before he left the state.
Both classes were huge. I made the cut in the first one and got honorable mention while Allison got 7th. The second class was the one I really thought I'd do well in. I had Harry collected, he wasn't skipping and his largo speed was perfect. But I didn't make the cut in that one. Later someone told me that the judge didn't even look at me the whole class, which is like what the heck, how could you already have passed judgment on me from the class before?! There was a huge difference in his gait and everything between the two and to not even be looked at is very upsetting.
But such is life. This is why I want to be a judge.
One thing that we all thought was hilarious was when Paco rode Tormenta, a horse that Ray considers to be garbage, against Ray on a horse he considers to be amazing, in a Stakes class, on a whim, and BEAT HIM. Paco's not even a trainer, he's the help around the barn, and he beat Ray on a horse that is supposed to be insane. What a kick =]
At the end of the day, I'm happy with Harry's final performance. Even though it was the last class and he wasn't looked at, the improvement from the first class on Friday made me extremely proud. I left with some final advice from Paul -- stop cortoing and LARGO LARGO LARGO until he gets it down pat. I have 8 rides between now and Nationals, so I'll leave the collection until the last 4, maybe 3 rides. Something else I want to work on and perfect -- longeing! It shames me to not have longed him because I was scared he'd embarrass me by running out. So we're going to work on listening to me on the longe line, not stopping when he feels like it, and largoing our butts off.
A final note: after seeing the gaits, performances, and placing of the horses in performance classes, I've decided I'm going to put Brie in performance next year. She's had her arthritis shot, which may have been part of the problem later in her show career and seems to have really calmed down with her age, even going out on trail rides. I hope there will be a couple of fun shows around the area that I can haul her too in the fall for some practice. But after watching my nemesis's horse win class after class, that horse is really no different in performance and appearance from Brie. I would love to kick her butt. All I'd have to worry about is actually making it through the class without her refusing to move and trying to run over the judge. It's a chance I'm willing to take.
I usually like to do posts in present tense like it was the day, but I'm gonna reflect on this one.
Harry did amazingly getting in the trailer both coming and going, which is something we were all kind of worried about. Seems like he's getting the hang of going places! The show was Friday and Saturday, and I decided to enter him in both performance and pleasure classes. I normally wouldn't have done pleasure classes with Harry, but I figured it would be good experience for him to get used to more time in the show ring. Plus the classes were cheap, so even if I didn't do all that well, he'd be getting exposure.
Friday were the performance classes. My brother had two and my mom had one and I had three. I rode against each of them at some point. My mom got 4th on Harry in the class she rode him in and I got honorable mentions and a 7th. My brother got 5th on Nina and my mom got 2nd in the trainer's class.
That day, we had a cake for the judge. While we were eating, I took the opportunity to ask her what she was looking for. She basically just told me consistency in the gait, which I found out later both by other people's conversations with her and how she was placing horses that it meant ONLY consistency in the gait, nothing to do with headset or even overall manners, which I think is COMPLETE bull. But whatever.
Harry was having a difficult time getting warmed up on Friday. He kept skipping around anxiously and not wanting to work. I found out that Paco had "rode the crap out of him" on Wednesday and it was supposed to be a surprise to help us win, but I don't know what kind of bit he used or anything and that had me really upset. I like Paco and all, and I really don't have a problem with him riding Harry whenever, I'd just like to have known, you know? I'm not sure what I could've done, but I still would've like to have known.
Every time Harry came into the show ring, he skipped right in front of the judge. I was trying to be loose on the reins, but he would then try to take off with me instead of doing his usual lovely corto and when I'd try to pull him back to speed he'd skip again. This went on for every class I had both Friday and Saturday until the last class, but I'll get to that.
Friday comes and goes, Jane visits with John and we find out that Paco will be hitching a ride with someone to visit on Saturday. We have a great time with one of the trainers, Paul, who is stalled next to us. Once upon a time, I ranted about a certain Randy, who seems to win every class. But after being stalled next to him as well, he and his family seemed to have gone complete 180 from ignoring us to being super friendly. After having the time to watch him and his horses in the some classes I wasn't in, I hate to admit that he's actually really good. I have to give him credit -- his family does everything. The other barns bring people to clean the stalls and help tack up, but he owns, trains, and did all of the cleaning while counseling his clients.
I have a certain nemesis who I won't even name, but she always beats me in every class I'm in (except for that one time Brie won 3rd place), and she's a client of Randy's. It just annoys the heck out of me that she just pulls up in the middle of the day, not sweating, in her show clothes, hops on her horse that Randy's prepared, and wins.
Saturday comes the pleasure classes. I have on in the afternoon and get honorable mention again. Harry skips a whole ton in the largo because I'm pushing him for speed which is what the pleasure class wants. It's very hard because I can't hold him back enough without him skipping in the corto for there to be a noticeable difference in speed between the two gaits. Then on top of it, there's a little gait on one wall of the arena that you KNOW you're not supposed to go through while horses are in there. Well we're going into the lineup and I'm doing my final lap around and some lady comes waltzing through it into the arena, spooking Harry halfway across the arena in one swoop (I don't know if the judge saw), so I turn my head and yell at the woman. The indecency of some people!
After that class, Paul comes up to me and my parents and makes a super generous offer -- he wants to take Harry with him when he leaves Springfield down to St. Louis to train him for a month for free. Then we would meet up at Nationals in Memphis, I would show him and then take him home. After much conversation, we decide not to. I'm still very torn about it. On one hand, it would give us a huge help because Harry would be ridden every day by a real trainer (not counting Ray who doesn't really work, or Andre who just broke him), Paul could figure out his problems, and address them. Then on the other hand, I don't want to be like my nemesis. I take pride in saying that I've gotten him this far. It's only his first year of showing and if he's qualified for Nationals that's certainly an achievement! Then there's the problem of his shoeing. Our farrier (who is currently MIA) was doing a particular job. But then any farrier could maybe see it and pick up where he left off. I feel like I'll be battling with this up until Springfield, but I can't go back and change what happened now.
Onto the night classes. These are the Stakes classes where I could win money. My mom was in one with Nina and I was in two with Harry. I rode against the horse in the neighboring stall, Entrenador and my friend Allison. Entrenador is a 3 year old stallion and I was kind of miffed when he beat me both times! But then I have to remember that Colin trained him for Allison before he left the state.
Both classes were huge. I made the cut in the first one and got honorable mention while Allison got 7th. The second class was the one I really thought I'd do well in. I had Harry collected, he wasn't skipping and his largo speed was perfect. But I didn't make the cut in that one. Later someone told me that the judge didn't even look at me the whole class, which is like what the heck, how could you already have passed judgment on me from the class before?! There was a huge difference in his gait and everything between the two and to not even be looked at is very upsetting.
But such is life. This is why I want to be a judge.
One thing that we all thought was hilarious was when Paco rode Tormenta, a horse that Ray considers to be garbage, against Ray on a horse he considers to be amazing, in a Stakes class, on a whim, and BEAT HIM. Paco's not even a trainer, he's the help around the barn, and he beat Ray on a horse that is supposed to be insane. What a kick =]
At the end of the day, I'm happy with Harry's final performance. Even though it was the last class and he wasn't looked at, the improvement from the first class on Friday made me extremely proud. I left with some final advice from Paul -- stop cortoing and LARGO LARGO LARGO until he gets it down pat. I have 8 rides between now and Nationals, so I'll leave the collection until the last 4, maybe 3 rides. Something else I want to work on and perfect -- longeing! It shames me to not have longed him because I was scared he'd embarrass me by running out. So we're going to work on listening to me on the longe line, not stopping when he feels like it, and largoing our butts off.
A final note: after seeing the gaits, performances, and placing of the horses in performance classes, I've decided I'm going to put Brie in performance next year. She's had her arthritis shot, which may have been part of the problem later in her show career and seems to have really calmed down with her age, even going out on trail rides. I hope there will be a couple of fun shows around the area that I can haul her too in the fall for some practice. But after watching my nemesis's horse win class after class, that horse is really no different in performance and appearance from Brie. I would love to kick her butt. All I'd have to worry about is actually making it through the class without her refusing to move and trying to run over the judge. It's a chance I'm willing to take.
1 comments
Posted by
Lexa
at
11:48 AM
Labels:
Allison,
Brie in performance,
Colin,
Jane,
John,
judges,
largo,
Paco,
Paul,
Randy,
Ray,
spooking,
State Fair
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Days 153 & 154
Saturday
We finally got a farrier to come out! We have a new one, but he got lost for 3 hours, so by the time he got there it was already 5pm. We don't have to leave early on the weekends any more and that makes me super happy, especially because it's summer!
We rode a little bit before he got there. I rode Harry while my mom rode Brie. Harry was pretty good but did a lot of pacing. I took him in the outdoor arena and he paced some more while I was trying to practice our largo. I went to take him out to walk around the property a little bit and when I wanted to take him over the little hill next to the outdoor arena, he got really freaked out and side stepped his way down the hill and ran back to the arena. I thought that was super odd because I'd taken him out by himself before in the back and over the big hill. Brie and Nina came out with my brother and mom and we all rode around the property and Harry seemed to calm down a little bit while Brie was acting like a giant, just stomping around every where, completely not listening to my mom. I guess she feels better!
After we made it back and waited around a while for the farrier, he got to work. Brie was a perfect angel for the trim and shoeing until he got to her back hooves when she started dancing around a little bit, so we had to twitch her. I felt bad because she was being so good and he even commented on how well-mannered she was, then we ended up jinxing it because she started shuffling and jumping around! Our goal was to put shoes on everyone, but that ended up not being the case.
When he got to Harry, you could tell that Harry was nervous, but he stayed still for the trim. He got front shoes on but when the farrier went in back to fit shoes back there, Harry started shaking like a leaf, so the farrier said he'd just leave him with half a set and finish it this upcoming week.
Nina, as you all know, is HORRIBLE with the farrier because of some bad past experiences, so she was fighting with him the entire time while he trimmed her and didn't get any shoes on. The farrier said that he'd rather just have us get some sedative to relax them than stand there and fight with them, risking them or him getting hurt and he wouldn't be able to do that good of a job. Plus, if he stood there and wrestled with them, it'd only reinforce that every time the farrier come out they'll get pushed around. It makes pretty good sense, although I'm not too keen on the sedative. But if they're calm and they're sedated but still alert and get used to trimming and shoeing and see it's not such a big deal, maybe they won't even need it in the future.
Sunday
Brie was sure feeling good today! I can tell that the shoes make her so much happier. Everyone's been barefoot for the longest and finally the chips got so bad that we decided to put shoes on. I'm happy we did!
With the combo of the steroid injection and her new shoes, Brie was flying at her largo! I figured I would just let her celebrate while still making sure she didn't break into a canter. She seemed super happy to finally be out and moving around again. When she went across the board she sounded like thunder, it was so loud with her shoes on!
My mom rode Harry and you could tell that he was different even though he only had front shoes on. You could see in his eyes that he was thinking about how he needed to pick up his feet a little more now that the shoes were on. I can only imagine how phenomenal he might sound when he has a whole set!
We all walked around outside again and Brie was ready to fly again, but we all walked calmly together because Harry was very nervous. I don't know what the sudden fright is with being outside! Yesterday he spooked at a butterfly landing on the fence! If it weren't for Nationals, I would be only concerned with getting him used to all the different outside demons, such as trees or sunshine, and especially those butterflies!
We're going to call our vet this week and see if they'll sell us the sedative or if they need to come out so we can finish up the shoeing job. Hopefully it'll be all taken care of by Thursday!
We finally got a farrier to come out! We have a new one, but he got lost for 3 hours, so by the time he got there it was already 5pm. We don't have to leave early on the weekends any more and that makes me super happy, especially because it's summer!
We rode a little bit before he got there. I rode Harry while my mom rode Brie. Harry was pretty good but did a lot of pacing. I took him in the outdoor arena and he paced some more while I was trying to practice our largo. I went to take him out to walk around the property a little bit and when I wanted to take him over the little hill next to the outdoor arena, he got really freaked out and side stepped his way down the hill and ran back to the arena. I thought that was super odd because I'd taken him out by himself before in the back and over the big hill. Brie and Nina came out with my brother and mom and we all rode around the property and Harry seemed to calm down a little bit while Brie was acting like a giant, just stomping around every where, completely not listening to my mom. I guess she feels better!
After we made it back and waited around a while for the farrier, he got to work. Brie was a perfect angel for the trim and shoeing until he got to her back hooves when she started dancing around a little bit, so we had to twitch her. I felt bad because she was being so good and he even commented on how well-mannered she was, then we ended up jinxing it because she started shuffling and jumping around! Our goal was to put shoes on everyone, but that ended up not being the case.
When he got to Harry, you could tell that Harry was nervous, but he stayed still for the trim. He got front shoes on but when the farrier went in back to fit shoes back there, Harry started shaking like a leaf, so the farrier said he'd just leave him with half a set and finish it this upcoming week.
Nina, as you all know, is HORRIBLE with the farrier because of some bad past experiences, so she was fighting with him the entire time while he trimmed her and didn't get any shoes on. The farrier said that he'd rather just have us get some sedative to relax them than stand there and fight with them, risking them or him getting hurt and he wouldn't be able to do that good of a job. Plus, if he stood there and wrestled with them, it'd only reinforce that every time the farrier come out they'll get pushed around. It makes pretty good sense, although I'm not too keen on the sedative. But if they're calm and they're sedated but still alert and get used to trimming and shoeing and see it's not such a big deal, maybe they won't even need it in the future.
Sunday
Brie was sure feeling good today! I can tell that the shoes make her so much happier. Everyone's been barefoot for the longest and finally the chips got so bad that we decided to put shoes on. I'm happy we did!
With the combo of the steroid injection and her new shoes, Brie was flying at her largo! I figured I would just let her celebrate while still making sure she didn't break into a canter. She seemed super happy to finally be out and moving around again. When she went across the board she sounded like thunder, it was so loud with her shoes on!
My mom rode Harry and you could tell that he was different even though he only had front shoes on. You could see in his eyes that he was thinking about how he needed to pick up his feet a little more now that the shoes were on. I can only imagine how phenomenal he might sound when he has a whole set!
We all walked around outside again and Brie was ready to fly again, but we all walked calmly together because Harry was very nervous. I don't know what the sudden fright is with being outside! Yesterday he spooked at a butterfly landing on the fence! If it weren't for Nationals, I would be only concerned with getting him used to all the different outside demons, such as trees or sunshine, and especially those butterflies!
We're going to call our vet this week and see if they'll sell us the sedative or if they need to come out so we can finish up the shoeing job. Hopefully it'll be all taken care of by Thursday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)