Day 48

Late post. Sorry guys. This one's for Saturday. I didn't make it out yesterday because I got a new puppy, Bella! You can read more about that here.

Got to the stable and, as usual, Brie doesn't want to come out of her stall right away. This really bugs me, you know? She comes out very easily for everyone else, just not me. She's playing mind games and it's not fair! I will win though, however long it takes. Then sometimes I feel bad because I feel like she doesn't like me, but that's not true, she loves hanging around me. It's definitely just because I've always been the one she messes with, even when we first got her. I was the most challenged because apparently we're on the same wavelength for these mind tricks. Oh Brie. So she was a good ride, didn't really do much with her because I started riding Harry and Nina today! Yay! Especially for Nina!I rode Harry right after Brie though, so I'll start with him.
We only took forever to get Harry's jaquima put together and figure out how do you cinch a non-button-holey girth. For those of you who don't know what a jaquima is, it looks like this:It's kind of like a hackamore, and is actually very practical. It amazes me why more people don't use this, but that's beside the point. My mom's friend bought one from Colombia and it's very nice, except we wanted to change it up and it just wasn't working. So about a half hour later, we end up with the same set-up we started with. Harry's snout and mouth are very small, so we weren't sure how tight to make the bit hanger. We set it to what we thought would be the correct setting and off I went. I lunged him and he was pretty good, then I got on him. He was very excited so I just walked and walked and walked to calm him down. All was going well until suddenly, near the end of my ride, he rears up. Now I'm not talking little hop, I'm talking full on rear. Now I could've panicked like my dad, but even though I felt him toppling backwards losing balance, I pulled him to the side and he went back down, shaking, and I pet him to calm him down. Turns out the bit went under his tongue and he freaked because of it. I called my mom over to adjust it for me and once it was tightened, he was perfectly fine and we ended our ride on a good note.

Onto Nina. I can't see what we paid for in training, honestly. She still won't gait and her head is all over the place up in the air. It looks like she's swimming! I'm just worried that we may have lost our shot at her being a Fino horse due to this lack of proper training. It just frustrates me so much! She was trotting the entire time! I'm aware this sounds silly, since most horses trot, but Paso Fino's are not supposed to trot. They're supposed to look a little something like this:


So you can see why trotting is bad!
I'm just so frustrated. It looks like we won't even be showing. Even Brie, because my parents would rather bring Harry and get him into the showing setting to desensitize him, which makes sense, but I'd really rather bring Brie and show her. We may just end up going to Memphis to see Carmello and spend the weekend with him and he can give us some pointers on how to get Nina to gait better and what is opinion is of Harry.

Awards! & Equestrian Team Day 6

First off, let me say:

THANK YOU KYLE FOR THIS AWARD!

I'm so excited! This is the first award I've gotten for this blog (which I didn't even think people actually read, by the way) and it makes me super happy. Now, onto the rules.

Here are the rules!
Rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

Step 1? check.
Step 2? Here it goes!

1. I love my horses to death! (if you couldn't tell)
2. I hate the favoritism in the show circuit, but I guess it's the same in any sport. You pay your dues.
3. I've been "training" since about 8 months after we bought Brie because that's when Andre we moved from that horrid place that we were at so it was easier for him to get to work. We've pretty much been on our own since!
4. I'm starting to really not trust trainers as much as others do. Not really a bad thing.
5. I feel really bad/upset when I see people who keep training and training their horses and never actually learn how to do anything by themselves. Waste of money.
6. I want to have my own horse farm one day, just for private use probably. I'd just love to see my horses out back in the mornings as I ate breakfast.
7. I want to start to branch out of the Paso world!

Step 3? Okay, I definitely don't have 15 horse blogs I follow, so let's see who I come up with.

• Suzie and Echo @ Diary of a Young Horse
  
• SillyPony @ Diary of the Overanxious Horse Owner
• Sianc18 @ Riding and Training a Young Horse
• Michelle @ Michelle's Blog

I absolutely adore all of you and can't tell you enough how much I look forward to reading your posts. =]


Step 4? I'll do that after I post.

Now! Onto the real post!

Now I know I haven't been updating about my adventures on the Equestrian Team. I haven't posted for like a month about this. But I was so excited today that I just had to tell the world!
Basically for the past 4 lessons I've been getting my diagonals easily confused (I can't help it! I just can't see it and can't feel it for that matter). So I get a little bummed out after lessons. Especially after last week on an especially bumpy and difficult *ahemCROPcough* ride on Jimmy so I wasn't to thrilled about sharing that. But then this week =] Oh this week. Today as a matter of fact, I had a very good ride. I cantered around a bunch of times and it felt fantastic! I definitely built up my confidence in staying on a humongous horse (compared to a Paso!) while cantering around. Even better? Our instructor, Nell, promised me that if I'm that good cantering on a couple more horses I'll start jumping!

*happy dance*

I can't wait! If I get the next three months of school we have left with jumping and then the entire summer with my mom's friend? I'll be super ready to kick butt at shows in the fall.
And guess what? I'm also making friends =] with girls on top of that! I pretty much don't get along with girls at all, so I'm super happy to be making friends with them, it's nice. Today was such a good day, and now I can't wait for Saturday and Sunday to start FINALLY working with Nina, because I pretty much have been banned from riding her since she began under saddle *glareTRAINERglare* and then I'm also really eager to work more on increasing Harry's flexibility and overall making Brie happy. I'm a little bummed it's going to be cold this weekend, I was hoping that this warm weather would carry over and I could ride outside.. =/ But we'll make it work.

Day 47

Didn't go to the stables yesterday because I was at the Black Eyed Peas Concert! Whoohoo!

Onto today,
predators trainers never last long.
In short, Ray contradicts himself a whole lot.
Firstly, he caused an uproar when he announced that he wants not only his hotel paid for at the Memphis show (understandable), but he wants his food and drink paid for too ("I go to party with my friends, too"), is charging a "show fee" and wants to be tipped (but will disagree if he is tipped too little). Secondly, after telling us last week that we had the best horses in the barn potential-wise (Nina and Harry), he turns around and says he has no idea why we bought out horses because basically they're crap and he could be doing better things with his time. Seriously. WTF.

Brie was pretty angry today. Maybe it's because tomorrow's her birthday and she's like every other woman who hates birthdays. So I didn't ride her and instead stuck her outside for the first time since it started snowing. I like to think that made her extremely happy.

So after Ray was done getting in an argument with my dad which resulted in him saying that he would train Mon-Fri and we could do whatever we wished on Sat & Sun until April 1st, I got on Harry and rode. Ray rode him first though to explain the problems he was having with Harry, which was basically just excess energy and a lack of flexibility, so I'll be working on that. He was very antsy and I walked him for a good hour so hopefully I'll make some more progress this Saturday.

As for Nina? Well. Ray rode Nina and said that she's been giving him problems with rearing. Hold the phone: Nina. Rearing? I couldn't believe it! It looked more like he was making her rear because when my brother got on she was perfectly calm. Admittedly she is having problems collecting her head when gaiting, but that is a problem we can easily fix.

So it sounds like we're just riding this deal out until April 1st and then finally, we start the real training. And oh, won't I be looking forward to that.

Day 45 & 46

Day 45

I wasn't originally planning on going out to the stables this weekend, but my parents came and kidnapped me.
So the farrier did their hooves on Friday, but we didn't ride. I worked Parelli with everyone. Nina is learning really quickly! All I want to get down pat is the Porcupine game and then I'll move on to the next games.
Harry is still really nervous about the carrot stick. He's kind of okay with the stick and rope alone, but when you put the rope on the stick, he gets really freaked out. So I'll keep working with that before I go to teach him another game.

Day 46

I rode Brie today. She was very good for not being ridden yesterday. I didn't canter her, as I've given up trying to teach her for right now. My aunt came out to visit, so it was mostly a picture-taking fest. Too bad all of the pictures were on her camera! I would've put them up!
There's not much else to say today. Harry's legs are getting better and we can start riding him next week, which I'm majorly looking forward too! When I start riding, I'll have more interesting things to talk about.
This is a first, and I apologize.

Sweet Girl

A nursery of foals running around in the pasture, wobbly on their new legs.
This is how I first met Dulce Nina, who we just call Nina for short. I met her as a foal one weekend, she had been born during the middle of that week. Not really standing out from the lot, my brother and I just enjoyed watching them play because they were so adorable.
We never took particular notice to Nina until she was kept in the stall over the winter because she had an eye infection. More like 'Shy Girl' instead of 'Sweet Girl', she stood facing the corner, refusing to look at us, no matter how hard we tried to lure her out. Once she was released from the infirmary, she was let back outside to grow.

We never really planned on getting another horse. It just came spontaneously. When we heard that Lorraine wanted to sell the barn and auction off all of the horses, we asked Andre which one of the babies was the best. At the time, it was down to three babies: Obrero, Futuro, and Dulce Nina. He said that out of them, Nina had the most potential other than his own baby, Elegante, that he recently bought from Lorraine at the auction at Nationals that fall.
Auction day was a blur. We walked in to find a crowd of people seated on hay bales in the arena; all the horses were lined up and wearing numbers on their flanks. My brother and I approached Nina in her stall and my brother promised her that he would buy her. A whirlwind of bids later, we were the proud owners of Dulce Nina. My brother and I rejoiced and took about a million pictures of our new family member. Nina was just over a year old.
So now we have this baby horse. What do we do with her? The first step we made was desensitizing her. We worked on our bond with her, my brother connecting with her the most. Andre suggested that we do Bella Forma with her. Bella Forma is a class in shows where you have either one or two people and you walk the filly or colt around the arena to show her or his gait. It's kind of like a dog show, only with a horse. The first year we competed with her, my mom was by herself with Nina because Nina was still little. As Nina grew, she went on double lines and my brother joined in. We won a few classes, I believe we qualified for Nationals, but we decided not to go.
This past year was Nina's first year competing under saddle. We did well, but not as well as we would have liked to. Andre told us that she had a lot of potential and was even turning out better than Elegante. He told us that we had a pretty good Fino horse on our hands and we were thrilled. What luck we had to have a Fino horse bought at an auction! But something went wrong, and Nina became angry and unwilling to work. We thought, maybe Andre was over working her? But none the less, she flat out stopped in the middle of the sound board when we were competing in Kentucky this past year. She became angry and wanted nothing to do with us anymore. Shortly after that, we stopped training, and after that, Andre was fired from our current stable.
Now Nina is getting down to work. After having quite a few months off to play, bond even more with Brie, and not do really anything, she is very eager to learn under Ray. Ray tells us that at the least, we will have a very high quality performance horse, but that he doesn't want to make any promises about whether she is Fino or not. We're all very eager to see how she turns out, but she has now grown into her name none the less. She is certainly a sweet girl.

Harry Potter (or rather, Harry Gardener)

A nicker, a whinny, and a look that you can't really see underneath all that hair. This is how Jardinero greets us as we walk in.
My parents just bought Jardinero, who we lovingly call Harry, on Valentine's Day. It was technically a present from my dad to my mom, but I think my dad wanted him for himself.
We first met Harry when Andre was still around and we were up at our last stable. Known to us then as Ghandi, he peaked my brother and my curiosity because of his gorgeously long hair. We'd only seen a mane that long on a horse in pictures! It was a huge difference from Brie's short mane and Nina's average locks. He'd stand by the gait watching us ride Brie and run around with Nina and we'd always braid his forelock before we left or style his forelock into an Elvis-style pompadour.
There's much to learn about Harry and much to work with. A young horse, only 5 years old and a year older than Nina at this time, he has a fear of one corner of the arena, has only been showed once, and already has gotten into a hay-trailer accident. He even bolted at a show once when someone tried to test him out in the aisle, which was a stupid idea to begin with. That's not to say that he's bitter about everything that's happened to him. He rivals Nina in the affection department. He's just a young horse that needs patience and understanding, like all horses.
He has a vast amount of potential. He might even rival Nina in that department as well. At the very least, he'll be an outstanding performance horse. At the best, he'll be an exceptional fino horse. Only time will tell and I'm looking forward to sharing show tales.

Day 44

I took pictures! But I'm in class right now and haven't uploaded them, so when I get back from work tonight I'll have to upload them and show you Harry.

Written on Sunday, 2/28/10

I worked more with Harry and Nina today than Brie.
After trying to get Brie to canter, I realize that I have no idea what I'm really doing and that I don't even have my balance, so I'm giving up on this goal until I get my balance on school horses. It's not worth messing up Brie so that I can learn how to balance when I can practice that with the school's team.

Speaking of Brie, I've found out that she most likely won't be going to the Memphis show. =[ I really wanted to go, but now it gives me even more time to calm her and experiment riding with lots of horses in an arena. Hopefully this means that I'll win a blue ribbon this season!

I have a feeling that even when I win this blue ribbon, I'll continue to write, because until I feel like I've made a total bond with all three of my horses now, there is still much work to be done.

So anyways. Let's start with Nina. I taught her the Yo-Yo game and she learned it fairly quickly! I was proud of both her and myself. It also impressed Paco and my parents. Shows them! Patience always pays off. That's really all I did with Nina, I wanted to end on a good note. I myself have to watch the next Parelli DVD this week to learn how to do the remaining 3 games, then I just have to practice them until they're really good and somehow acquire the money to buy the next level of DVDs.

Onto Harry. His legs are getting better; the injuries are not as bad as expected. Now I believe I've told you about his phobia of one corner of the arena. First off, I started doing Parelli work with him playing the Friendly Game (basically being able to touch the horse anywhere without any discomfort or resistance from the horse). He got very uncomfortable at first when he saw the Carrot Stick and started lunging to get away from it. I got him to stop fairly quickly and after about 5 minutes he relaxed when as I rubbed the stick over him. By then end of the session, he was completely relaxed except for when I went past a ticklish spot on his stomach. I decided to end my time with him here and not going on to the Porcupine Game. Lastly, I walked with him and halted every couple of feet in the corner that he didn't like and hopefully this helps when I ride him this weekend, if he's better.

Brie. Oh Brie. Well I got her out of the stall! It took a little while. I went in and pet her, she gave me her butt. This happened a couple of times and eventually she gave me her head to put the halter on, but then I missed and she ran into the corner again! Eventually, I got it on without being rude. I decided to get her out of the stall last, since Nina and Harry have no problems coming out of their stall. I guess every family needs a spirit like Brie don't they? Just to keep us on our toes.