Day 218

I have everything, as promised! Here are some more pictures of Nina's cut.

Right after we took her out of the stall. Getting ready to clean it.

Front view. It goes all the way into her nose.

After cleaning it.

This is the blue stuff I'm talking about!!

After seeing it today, we've decided to call the vet tomorrow and have them take a look at it. From there, it'll be their decision to put stitches in it or not. My poor Nina. Maybe the stitches will be out before the show.

Once we made that decision, we played some more, since we didn't get to play for as long as we wanted to yesterday. I did some walking around and Harry followed me wherever I went. We got further with the Friendly Game and he'll now let me swing the string at the end of the carrot stick against him. Next goal: getting to swing the string over him and around him. Then my brother set up the tarp. I was pleased that I managed to keep Harry's attention and relative calmness while my brother unfolded and put the tarp out. He made Nina longe over it, which Nina thought was the most fun thing ever, and my mom made Brie go over it, which Brie thought was the biggest waste of time ever. I decided to take Harry over by the poles that my brother had set up and we tried to walk over them. He walked over them once, but then everyone else wanted to, so we started with the tarp.

Thinking about it

Smelling it

There are literally 90 other pictures of him sniffing the tarp. He was snorting the whole time. Once in a while, but not often, we got shots like this.

You want me to do what, now?!

 The important thing is that I never forced him into anything. Although this picture shows me pulling him with the lead line to prevent him from rearing, I only pulled this hard in times like this. Otherwise I had a very gentle tug and immediately released when he moved his neck or foot closer.

Circling around the tarp.

The final sniff

Stepping on the tarp!!!

Finally he stepped on it! I'm so proud of him. It certainly took a while, maybe close to an hour, but next time it will be even less and before you know it, he'll be able to longe over it like Nina!

I worked Harry first, since by the time he stepped on it, everyone else was already tacked up and riding. He was very good on the longe, no fishtailing, and was pretty calm. Maybe a little too calm. He paced a lot when I rode him today, unlike yesterday. Maybe he was tired too from mentally exerting himself over the tarp. But he wasn't bad. He just needed a couple corrections. After much riding, here is the final video!

Day 200!

A couple of days late, but Ta-Da! My first ever vlog post, made especially for Day 200 of training!

In short, I only rode on Sunday. I now have to wear crutches and a boot cast because I may or may not have a stress fracture in my foot and I made a horrible decision to ride on Sunday in order to get footage for this, but I'm glad I got to make the video. After this post, I'll be on leave for a while because I won't be able to ride and therefore won't be able to train. But I might be able to get some lessons in with this one girl I want to instruct who hangs around our barn a lot. We'll see!

Basically, I didn't actually train very hard on Sunday because I was more concerned with taping. But Harry was awful. He was so bad at longeing! You can get a glimpse of this from the clip. I think that while I'm sitting out at the barn and watching everyone else ride for the next couple of weeks, I'll be reading up on how the heck to finally get this longeing problem solved, once and for all, because it's one of the most aggravating things on the planet. Other than that, he really was a doll.

I even rode Brie for a little bit too. We cantered (as I show you) =] She's getting better at it with me, although I think my mom asked a little too hard because Brie kept trying to bolt out! Then again, my mom uses double reins on her now and Brie clearly thinks those are for babies, so I can tell she's mad about that too all the time.

Nick and his family are officially moved in! Now they just have to paint and arrange their apartment just the way they like it and Paco is waiting for his new apartment to finish being constructed so he can move out of the downstairs office into a real home! Nick seems super nice, but I'll just be wary of him until I see him ride.

Days 84 & 85

By the time I post this, I going to feel really bad for keeping this for so long. I've just been waiting for a chance to put up the videos and pictures on my computer.

Day 84 - Saturday

Today was the day to face the scariest thing ever: the trailer.
We weren't even going to bother with Brie because we all know we would've been there all day and we already have a great way to get her in without any problems: We blindfold her! Now I know some people might say "Wait, you have to blindfold your horse to get her in the trailer? That hardly seems like she trusts you at all!" Well to you I say this: Can you blindfold your horse and get them into an enclosed, tight space, while still trusting that they won't freak out and squish you? Yeah...didn't think so. To me, that represents the ultimate in trust on both ends.

Anyways Nina just waltzes in as usual. No problems. Harry's been in a trailer before but we've never loaded him or brought him anywhere so we wanted to test out his skills before the State Fair in a couple of weeks. He went in perfect the first time and then we realized that must've been a fluke. He did the typical planting his feet in the ground and wouldn't go up the ramp.You'd think it'd be less scary because we have a ramp on our trailer right? Wrong! So after much grunting and bribing, he still wasn't moving. Annie and her friends showed up for a bit to gather up Jane and we found our solution to get Harry in the trailer: Jump up and down behind him like a bunch of crazies and he'll load in just fine! Now all we need is a mob on trailering day...

After locking him in there for a bit by himself (we weren't too sure about locking Nina in there with him just yet...) we let him out and after he nervously stepped down the ramp we turned him out into the grassy pasture that I've ridden with him in. He ran like crazy and shook off his nerves. I then walked in and he proceeded to follow me everywhere around the pasture (except into the shed) like a total sweetheart. I think he likes me. =]

Riding was great, as it has been for the past couple of weeks. I'm so pleased with Harry. His lunging in the arena is getting there, but it's a HUGE improvement from last month when he kept trying to run me over and rear up and escape. I even got a nice canter out of Brie. She was happy as a clam after that.

Day 85 - Sunday

We brought the camera today! Yay! My dad, the unofficial camera man that he is, took a bazillion pictures of us but I'll show you the best.

 On our Borders trip this past week, my mom picked up this adorable book.

The idea is that you read it every day for a year. It's full of all sorts of knowledge, from breed characteristics to health issues, it's such a great buy. I recommend every horse owner or lover buy it. On the weekends, it gives you fun activities to do with your horses. For the first weekend of the book, it told us to just go on a walk with our horses. That's exactly what we did.

Nina and I

Harry in his natural state.

 I think this is the funniest picture. Look at both of their faces! My brother and Brie.

It was fun and different. Mom got Harry, my brother got Brie, and I got Nina (yay!) and we walked the back of the property. It was a great bonding experience for all of us. My brother got a taste of what handling Brie is like (mega hyper and NEEDS TO BE IN FRONT AT ALL TIMES or she might explode), my mom got to get to know Harry outside of just brushing him and I got to bond with Nina outside of just feeding her carrots!! As we walked back to the stable, Paco and Ray pulled up getting back from Ohio this weekend. Paco came out and watched us as we all took turns lunging Nina, Brie, and Harry like I'd been working with Harry: just a carrot stick and a round pen. Nina and Harry went along just fine, but Brie was being a stinker about it. She's so spoiled and never asked to do anything like that (she automatic lunging in the arena) so it was good that she got to use her brain a bit today.

I started off as usual on Harry. My mom has given Nina up to my brother for him to start and train (it's about time that he learn how on his own!) and she worked with Brie. It's the first time that I can remember her starting Brie in a while and Brie was, of course, being spoiled and trying to get away with everything and anything, including running Harry over and trying to kill him. She does not like boys...or horses other than Nina. So we're working on that, but not pushing it very much because we don't want any injuries. Harry's actually scared of her! She's such a bully.

Then my brother and I switched. Our words to each other before we started: "Don't do much, he/she's really simple and just goes." YEAH RIGHT! Nina was trotting! Not gaiting! And my brother was complaining about some problem with Harry. Sound board? We both sounded horrible!

Switching, our words: "YOU SCREWED UP MY HORSE!" But we got them back.

It took a little longer to get Harry back. He gets so excited when he hears the sound board. But he finally did it.

Afterwards, mom cooled Harry and I got on Brie. Canter city, baby!

After she was all tired out, my brother and I just roamed around the arena, reminiscing about Andre and Nina and Brie played tag as we rode without reins or stirrups. They finally got that full bath I'd been promising all of them and after smelling wonderful for about 10 minutes, they all promptly rolled. Oh well...it was nice while it lasted!