It felt SO weird, but in a good way. It's like feeling right at home again, but for not being "home" for over three weeks, it did feel different.
He was being such a pain when I bought him in to brush him down. Then, he reared up and flew back when I started to tighten the girth, so that was that. He hung to a tree with the flyback on his face and landed on his butt a few times too. I worked him in the round pen for another half-hour and he finally settled. I hate having to get after him when he acts like an idiot, but he's just not getting it. He can be such a good boy most of the time, but it's when he flies back and breaks stuff that's a problem.
After his little temper tantrum was over, I rode him - finally - just in the round pen for a while. Can we say angel? They're always so good when they knew they were naughty earlier. We did some work on transitions and then I jumped him a bit. Yup, little 'ole Brooksy can jump. He did okay too. The PVC pipe was probably only about two feet off the ground but he hopped over it 95% of the time and it made me smile. =)
I've been "taking it easy" for what seems like forever.
The doctor told me it was a high ankle sprain in my left foot, gave me a boot to wear, and told me to stay off of it, a.k.a. NO RIDING, for the rest of June. Well, that's a lot easier said than done. I haven't sat in the saddle in over two weeks, altough I did ride him bareback for about a half-hour last Wednesday. He hasn't been gamed since the last week in May and we have the 4-H Fair in roughly a month. He's been staying in shape okay, but I know he'll be rusty on the pattrern when we finally start running it again.
I have NO patience to begin with and a setback like this doesn't help me or Brooks at all. I keep on telling myself that it's only another week or so that I have to wait, but it still seems so long away. Thank God that Dolly had to get surgery on her foot last week and she's in a boot too. Well, not thank God that it happened to her, but it's good to be going through a waiting process when someone you know is going through the same thing.
I know. I asked for a Paint and I got one. Now I must suffer with the agony of keeping him clean.
Brooks got ridden on Monday and Wednesday and besides excelling at becoming as dirty as possible, he did pretty good on his runs too.
However, his second barrel was weird everytime. He'll go to the first okay, but going into the second, he'll drop his head, take a step or two to the right, break stride, and then gather himself up and get around it. I think that he might not be switching leads coming out of the first, so that's throwing him off balance. He'll only do this at home, though. Not at the show, or at least not what I notice.
Well, our next show is Sunday, so let's hope for the best!
Well, I did end up going to the game show today and that was pretty much my entire day in a nutshell.
Expect for breaking a steel ring right off of Danny's gorgeous trailer, Brooksy was a good boy. We're definitely progressing every time.
The first event was basket weave and that was our only placing of the day. I think our time was 16 and change, but he went through it so well that the extra time made up for a clean pattern. We got fifth in that.
Grove keyhole was second and it was my first time ever doing any kind of keyhole on him. He did pretty good and we got an 11 and change for that. No complaints at all; our time was just a couple of miliseconds too slow to place.
Ribbon was third and that was kind of a disaster. Michelle, my usual partner, and I do pretty decent together, but she had to do a book report today and couldn't make it. I got ran with another girl just for my points, but she wanted to just trot it mostly and lope home. Brooks was like, "Hahaha...NO." and we ended up being a bit too fast for her. She just sort of drifted off and ended up letting go. There wasn't much I could do, but we went in there and tried.
He got mad at me during the middle of the poles pattern because I wouldn't give him as much of his head as he wanted, so he stopped mid-pattern to dig a hole to China. I smacked him on the shoulder, somehow didn't get disqualified, and ended up with a time of 54. Yes, it was embarassing. But I made everyone laugh, so it was good.
Barrels was perfectly fine. It wasn't anything brilliant, but we didn't knock one at all and came home with a 24. [The pattern there is bigger than an average one, so the times are slower.]
Overall, it was another show and hey, we're still learning and improving.
Well, it wasn't THAT bad of a day. It was definitely another good learning experience.
To put it all in a nutshell, Brooks flew back when I was saddling him up at the trailer and landed HARD on my right foot. Kind of like a jackhammer action, if you know what I mean. A foot massage at 10:00AM isn't exactly going to start your day off right. =P It swelled up fast and I iced it for about 30 seconds before I ran to warm him up for the first event. I forget the name of it, but it's a kind of Texas barrels where it's one barrel that you run up to, do a 360, and then run home the opposite way. Anyway, we got pass the barrel and I stopped him hard to do the 360. Well, he did exactly what I asked him to do, only I went one way while he stayed still.
The second event was leap the barrel; I think. That went alright only we took the first one way too wide, but our second ended up decent. The time wasn't too bad either, but still not good enough to place.
The third event was baton and my partner was Michelle, the same girl I had from two weeks ago. We practiced a bit this time and it actually went pretty well. She's got a newer horse too - this cute little Arab mare she picked up over the winter for only $300. Brooks likes the girls anyway, so they got along just fine. I brought the baton to her and we ended up placing fifth overall. It's an improvement from placing sixth two weeks ago, so kudos for progress!
Poles was fourth and all was going well until we missed weaving through a pole somehow. That blew a hole in that event, but we did stay tighter in our weaving.
Barrels. My lovely little pancake and I were going to not knock the third barrel this time. And would you believe that we didn't?! No, sir! You better believe the third was lefting standing as still as a Roman soldier. But we decided to knock the second instead. =)
Dolly had a good point that I kind of thought of all along - I had a pretty good time two weeks ago and I went to the show today thinking that if I tried harder, I would do even better. Unfortunetly, that didn't happen; I was overthinking everything WAY too much and I didn't just let loose and ride. I tried too hard. Brooks did just amazing for me for over a week off; I couldn't have asked for anything more.
