Days 247 & 248

I completely forgot to write this over the weekend, so I'm going from memory here. I'm going to try to write it like it was that day.

Saturday

If there ever was a "best" day for riding, today was the day. It was absolutely gorgeous out and I wanted nothing more than to go around with my little Harry. I wonder what he's really thinking when I imagine he's looking at me with such love in his eyes. He was a little iffy in the warm-up, and wanted to go pretty fast, which is always a surprise to me. I changed his bit back once again and it's too early to tell how he's responding to it, although I can say that he is not having issues flexing anymore, so whatever his deal was with that must have worked itself out, although I still take extra caution stretching him before we start up.

After his ride, my mom, brother and I walked around outside, enjoying the weather. Not the ideal Quarter horse type walk, but enjoyable nonetheless. It was so cute, he couldn't keep up with Brie and Nina's power walk, so he broke into the tiniest canter I've ever ridden and didn't get psycho about it. After that, I don't mind letting him canter around outside a bit. He truly has gotten a lot more confidence outside.

Sunday

Worming day! And well needed, the horses have begun ripping their tails out. Poor things. They look so shabby now, but hopefully it will smooth out soon. Brie has been kicking the stall again and we have no idea why, Paco has supposedly increased her food rations. So we tried on one of Judy's trail boots and Brie didn't seem to mind it, and so she suggested that, since the impact of the kick must be affecting her arthritis, we should buy a boot of our own and just leave it on her all week. It's not so much as a boot, but more of a hoof covering. It doesn't go up on the meaty part of her leg at all. All we can do is give it a shot.

The Easy Boot, via Horseloverz.com

So since we're pretty much decided on not showing Brie again, I've been wondering about how she would react if I started riding her bitless again. When she was being trained, the only reason she started wearing a bit was because we wanted to show her, and it's required, but before she was age 5, she hadn't had one. I think that next week I'm going to try that out and see how she is. She was being pretty compliant today, but I felt like she could have relaxed even more. My goal for her now is to just get her into a calm mindset and keep her there for the entire ride. We walked around outside by ourselves, in which she didn't bolt, so that was a plus. I managed to keep her at a speed-walk the entire way through.

While I was waiting around by myself in the outdoor, I noticed that the serpentine boards had been filled in where the gap was that she got her hoof stuck in, so I hopped off and tried to have her walk over them. She wasn't too keen on the idea, but she walked over them a couple of times before everyone came out and we got back on and walked around some more. She's really doing well lately, I think it might be because she's getting out a little more since the heat wave has subsided. Her leg wasn't swollen at all this weekend and she didn't really limp either day too. I hope that as autumn sets in, she's much more comfortable.

Day 246

Sunday

I really didn't want to post this because of extreme embarrassment, but I figured that I should, as it is a learning lesson.

I brought my cousin out to ride today. She's been out before, when she was little, when we were still at the first farm, so she knows Brie and Nina, but not Harry. So they met and she seemed to click with him right away. It was just her, my brother, and me today, and when we got there, we each got a horse and let them out in the pasture. Good thing too, since Harry went crazy running around and kicking and bucking and flying in the pasture. Glad that wasn't me on him! So they played and my cousin and I went in and chased them around, then we all caught them and brought them back. We groomed and she chose Harry to groom. I helped her tack up Harry, but told her that I wanted her to hold Brie while my brother and I rode Nina and Harry and then she could ride Nina. No problem.

Harry was okay. He could have been better if I felt like I had the time to work with him, but since she was there, I wanted to make sure she got all the riding she wanted. Once Harry settled into an acceptable gait, I got off, my brother got off, and we put my cousin on Nina while I stood there with Harry and Brie on the ground. My brother took my cousin by the pisador around the arena and she was all happy. Then he said that she wanted to go outside, so I followed them out there.

My brother asked, once she got more comfortable, if she wanted to hop over the little ditch in the back and she said sure. So he was running with Nina over the ditch, back and forth, but Nina was just walking through it, but my cousin was laughing and having fun.

Here's the beginning of my stupid mistake. I said, "Hey, Nina isn't jumping, Harry will. Do you want to go on Harry?" And she gets on. My brother takes Harry and he's just running through it too and I say, "Let me take Harry, you're not giving him enough rope to jump. He doesn't want to trample you." So I take Harry. We run over one way and he hops a little. I was going to run back over towards the barn and then go in.

So I turn around and run over the ditch. Harry hops over it just fine. Then my foot catches on a divet in the grass. I stumble, try to regain my balance, but I go down, holding on the rope. I see Harry coming towards me, since I was in front of him, and roll out of the way, still holding on the rope, while my cousin pulls him away from me. He feels the tug of the reins and the pisador and, like a good boy, spins around to face me and wait for me to get up.

But my cousin was not prepared for that sharp of a turn, so she starts to lose her balance, the saddle slips, and she tumbles off, on her butt, thank god. Harry is standing there, slightly shocked, but standing there. I run over to my cousin and she swears she's fine, but I make her stand back up, move her limbs around, and then have her turn her neck and head to make sure there isn't any damage up there. She swears she just landed on her butt and that's all that hurts. She says that the first thing she did when she knew she was going down was pull her wrists in, since she pitches for softball and angled her butt out to catch the fall. After many hugs and asking if she's okay over and over again, I ask her what does she want to do, go back in the barn and get back on.

I was surprised that she wanted to get back on! So I helped her back on Harry after I fixed the saddle. I was mad that it shifted, I had tightened it before I got on too. He's a little buggy eyed, but I pet him and tell him what a good boy he was and then lead him of (AT A WALK!) back over the ditch and up the little hill in back, then around the pond and then back to the barn, where my cousin gets off and helps my brother wash Nina and Harry.

Now a little side note of appreciation: When there are days when I think Harry is the absolute worst, and when he's spooking at stupid little things, and when I'm trying to get him to walk over a tarp for an hour, it's days like today where I see how everything has really paid off. From his calm response, I can tell that he has built up trust in me and gained respect for me, because I can only imagine how terrible everything could have been had this been even a year ago. He would have bolted. I know he would have. But just the fact that when he saw me trip and fall and stepped away from me even before my cousin started to pull and that he turned, looked at me, and waited patiently through all of the commotion after my cousin fell off, it truly means that we are growing as a partnership and that's something I can't forget when I think he's just being a brat.

Afterwards, I hop on Brie and walk with Jane, who asked if my cousin was okay because she saw. She tells me Taco is being nasty so after I walk Brie enough both ways to stretch out her legs, I give her to my brother to wash and then hop on Taco, who is a little challenge, but he ended nicely with a beautiful board.

I can't imagine what my cousin is thinking, since she was still like "Oh I had a great time! It was so much fun" even though it was completely my fault that she fell. I feel absolutely terrible.

So the moral of this lesson is: Let the horse do the walking for me and we won't trip and fall! Guess I better put away my running shoes.

Day 245

Nothing too exciting today. The farrier came out (only 2.5 hours late). I'm hoping that soon I have enough money to call out the chiropractor for Harry. Brie is sore and was having a hard time balancing on her bad leg during the farrier session, so maybe she'll have to have another shot soon. It would just kill me if we had to retire her. She still has half of her life to go! Although I'm sure she wouldn't mind doing nothing but eating until she dies.

Day 244

I really have no clue what's going on with Harry. It has to be more than a simple attitude problem...I only rode him today and I was determined to be patient with him because I have this feeling that there's something wrong, but I don't know what. Before I rode, though, I let them all out for a little romp the in the fields.

So I took extra time with little things before I got on.  I made sure he would longe correctly for me, which was a total surprise. I thought he would be fighting, as usual, but I decided to go straight to the pole to help me so that way we wouldn't be set up for a fight, and he was very calm and nice about it. Then I made sure that I flexed and rubbed him really good on the ground before I got on and also stretched out his legs. When I got on, I didn't go after circle work since he was so good longeing, and I went on to the rail instead. I was just focused on getting him to walk and then stop and flex to the inside both directions around the arena with just the bosal rein. I left the bit rein tied up.

After he did that without any fights, I tied up the bosal rein and took up the bit rein and asked for a corto. It was like he had and epiphany. He was calm and gaited beautifully and stayed balanced and centered and didn't twitch of buck or fight. He even stayed on the wall. I didn't ride very long because I wanted him to remember this good ride and how happy I was with him.

I took him outside afterwards with Brie and Nina and we all walked around. It's funny, because when Brie starts getting ahead of everyone, my brother says "Nina, go get Brie!" and she takes off after Brie. I said "Harry, go get Nina!" and he took off after Nina. At first, he tried just largoing very fast, but he couldn't keep up, so he went into his very first mounted canter! I could tell as soon as he took off he wasn't balanced, so I slowed him back down while Nina and Brie slowed down. On the way back, in the back pasture, Brie and Nina took off again, and I let Harry go into a canter and he found his balance and it was one of the smoothest canters I've ridden! He was great!

I really don't know what to do about him. I want to call a chiropractor, but I don't want to call the chiropractor. Maybe I should wait a couple more weeks and see if he's any better?

Day 243

I rode Brie first today, since my mom wanted to try Harry again because of everything that happened with him yesterday. She changed his bit back to the one that he was wearing about a year ago to see if that would make a difference, since he really seems like he's not respecting the bit anymore. I didn't pay much attention to Harry at first, but apparently he was pretty antsy.

Meanwhile, I was trying to walk Brie around outside. I don't understand her. We've gone outside a million times, but every time is like the first time we're going out. I wasn't planning on staying out as long as I did, but I didn't want her to charge the barn. So I would make her stop every time she started to get crazy. Unfortunately, the flowers weren't saved....we were walking by the pond in back and she stepped into the flowers by accident. I tried to get her out of there with both my legs and the reins, but she wasn't having it and ended up side-stepping all the way across the flower bed.

I feel very defeated with Brie. I know she's come a long way in manners in the arena, for the most part, but she still is crazy outside and I'm pretty sure she has the same attitude about shows, but that I can't be certain of. Should I just give up? I don't know what else I could do to try and make her not as excited outside. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing works.

After I managed to get back to the barn without killing myself, I got on Harry for a bit. He's a whole other problem. I don't understand where he went wrong either. Ever since May or April, he has not been the same. He hasn't been as good and I don't know what we're doing wrong, because we're doing the same things. At one point long ago, he got over his aversion to one wall in the arena. Now, suddenly he remembered that he's scared of it and will not for the love of God walk straight on it. When I first got him, he had such a hard time flexing, and we got over that. Now, he won't flex at all easily without giving a fight or trying to rear. Part of me thinks that there's some anatomical problem going on, but I don't know how to find out what it is. Everyone else thinks it's just his attitude, but why would he change so quickly back to being horrible? No one's done anything to him.

In part to end on a good note, I got off of him and walked him outside by hand. We walked around the pond because I know he's scared of it, and he got pretty close to the water's edge by the end of our walk. Then I lengthened his line and ran over the little ditch and he followed me over and although he was hesitant, he jumped right over it. If he couldn't settle his brain inside, I hope that readjusted it outside.

Lastly, I rode Taco outside for Jane. He enjoyed it and after I got back to the barn, Jane got to talking about letting him canter, since he won't be showing for another year, if he even shows next year. Everyone says not to canter Paso Finos, because apparently it messes up their gait, but Taco has a really smooth, slow canter that Jane likes. We wanted to see if it was a 4-beat canter, since there are classes in Colombia called Trote y Galope where the horse trots and canters and they're judged on that instead of the corto, largo, or fino. I took him across the board at a canter and it was in between a 3-beat and a 4-beat, depending on how his back feet landed each stride. Jane's settled on not listening to the people who bring her down and just having fun with Taco. He's had a lifetime of showing and pressure, so now he gets to relax and have fun.

Day 242

Friday

So, it's official. We won't be going to State Fair next weekend. A whole bunch of things are working against us, the most important one being that we can't get ahold of our farrier and so we couldn't show Harry anyways because he only has half a set of shoes on right now. Plus, Jane found out some stuff that made her not want to go either, so I guess we'll just all stay home and have a picnic that day or something.

But today was so much fun. All summer I've been babysitting three kids, Dana (7), Nina (6), and Steven (2). Their mom works with my mom and they've been asking if they could come see my horses. We all finally settled on today and they came along and so did another girl my mom works with. It was so cute! Nina (the girl) absolutely demanded that Nina (the horse) be hers for the day, since they have the same name and are the same age, so she stayed with my brother all day and helped him brush Nina and give her a bath. Dana was kind of scared, so she stayed with me and Brie all day. Brie may be a lot of things, but she's amazing with kids. She never once misbehaved. We were hesitant to put Dana on Brie, since Nina was taken, but then we remembered that Brie is the one who taught my brother and I how to ride when we were only a bit older than Dana, and Brie's motherly instincts proved still intact. Dana was scared at first, going around the arena, but after the first pass, she didn't want to get off!

Nina (the girl) looked so cute on Nina (the horse). She was fearless and had the look on her face that showed it! She made my brother run with her around the arena and across the soundboard and was loving every second of it! Then she hopped off and got on Brie and made me do the same thing! Needless to say, it's much harder on the ground than in the saddle!

Steven fell asleep before he got to ride anyone, since he was so exhausted from chasing Paco's dog around the back and feeding peppermints to all of the horses. He would pet Harry's nose and his hair and then squeal with delight! Such an adorable sight.

After the girls were done and Steven was fast asleep, the kids' mom and the other girl took turns on Nina (the horse) in the arena while my mom rode Brie. They sure looked like they were having fun! It's so great to share the love of horses with others.

But! Harry was the only one who made the day not turn out to be perfect, as today was the first time ever my mom had to emergency dismount him. I don't know what his problem was, but he was not having work at all. Maybe because today was Friday, I don't know. But he is in for it tomorrow.

Days 240 & 241

Saturday

First thing when I got there today, I was bothered. Let alone that it was almost 100 F, but I show up and Paco is riding Taco. And then, to add to it, Samantha's dad is now learning how to ride on Taco. Taco is not an easy horse to ride and aside from the fact that he is not the starter horse, I was upset because I didn't want a complete newbie doing anything to screw up Taco. I never got the chance to say anything, and wasn't quite sure how to, but it stayed with me.

I tried to ride Harry, but it was a total failure. I'm not sure if it was because it was hot outside or because he was stiff or because of my sour attitude about Taco going into riding Harry, but he was just not behaving. He was bad, like trying to buck me off bad. I didn't want to give up, so when I finally got him to just go around without being terrible and make a nice pass across the board, I got off. I wasn't in the mood to fight with him today. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Sunday

I went in wanting to say something to Jane about Paco and Samantha's dad riding Taco before the show, but again I never got the chance to because Paco was always with Jane and I didn't want to just call him out in front of her, even if he does undermine me quite often in front of other people. I just can't be that confrontational. So Jane rode Taco and then Samantha's dad got on for a lesson while I was riding Brie. I made the mistake of taking her outside before she calmed down in the arena first and that set the tone for her whole day, with me and my mom afterwards. She's also hiking her back right hip up and I'm thinking it's because of her arthritis. If it keeps getting worse, I suppose we'll have to give her another shot or talk about other options with the vet, but I hope that it doesn't get worse...she's only 11. I would hate to have her unrideable at this young.

I plopped around on Nina while I was waiting for Samantha's dad to finish, and I love her more every time I do! She has such a relaxed walk and she's so focused on what she's doing. She's like a little steam boat. If we make it to State Fair (as now that's up in the air as well), I would really love to do a Pleasure Stakes class with her because I know we could win some money =]

Also more excitement! My dad rode for the first time since he was thrown off of Harry right after we bought him. That's about two years ago! He rode Nina and I knew that he was trying to look like he knew what he was doing as far as making her gait, but she's so automatic that even if he was doing something wrong, she just went on about her business and gave him a really great ride. I think it definitely made him feel better about coming out to the barn with us all the time.

Jane hopped back on Taco after Samantha's dad and so I got on Harry. He was so much better today. He had a wonderful largo and a great board. I think he's super sensitive towards what attitude you have when you get on him, because I was feeling much better today, even though I was still ticked at people other than Jane and I riding Taco. But rather than try and kick everyone else off, it would be more of an accomplishment if I could overcome the obstacle of having other people screwing with Taco and still place...that is, if certain people don't try and take credit for my win, saying that it's because they rode that Taco did so well. Taco might not even be going to the show, because he has to wear pads on his front hooves and that's against the rules, so if the farrier can't put shoes on the back feet or doesn't clear him to take the pads off, then he can't go.

I finally got my chance on Taco and had a bit of a hard time getting him to gait and he did try and pull me into the middle, but after those hiccups had passed, he settled into a wonderful, slow corto and really listened to me. He's even doing better on the corners and isn't cantering as often as before. After he worked (and he was sweating!), we went and walked outside around the pond to cool off. I went with my mom and Brie, and I couldn't believe that Taco was so good outside! He was very relaxed and calm and Brie was the crazy one. I had just anticipated that he would be a handful, but it was a really pleasant surprise to both enjoy the ride and cool down.

I'm really excited for this Friday because the kids that I babysit during the week are coming out. They're little ones, all under the age of 7, and it'll be so great to spread the love of horses with them! Of course, they're only going to ride Nina =]