Meshing personalities

I learned something, that I probably already knew, but I guess I only really learned the lesson recently.

Anxious people + Anxious horses = BAD

You see, my horse Titan, is highly fearful and anxious. I've never wanted to give him up because I trained him and I love him to death, but when we go to a barrel race together it is unpleasant. Now, this year I am going to try my hardest to work on relaxation at the shows and not being too nervous, however, I don't see myself improving 100%. This may mean that really, the best thing to do would be to sell him to a rider that is much more confident. I don't want this to be the outcome, as like I said, I love him and he's definitely got potential to be an amazing barrel horse. I'm going to try to figure out how, perhaps, I can decrease both of our anxieties at shows, we'll give it a whirl, but honestly, if I can't run him, then he will need to find a new home. I can't afford to feed a horse that I can't use for much of anything. Unfortunately, he is horrible on the trails, being spooky and anxious you know, and he doesn't much care for dressage (even though he looks beautiful doing it). I'm going to take him team penning, but we'll see how that goes, he's currently scared of cows. I hope to get him over that.

Anyway, it is another gloomy day in the desert. I didn't ride yesterday, but I guess I'm going to brave the wetness to ride today. I hate going too many days without riding, it can be like torture. When I broke my collarbone in March 2006 and had to wait until the end of April to ride, I went a little stir crazy (the vicodin didn't help). You know, speaking of Titan, he's the one that broke my collarbone! Although I blame myself. You see, he had a rib out of alignment and it was causing him some pain and I ignored the signs. When I was brushing the girth area he acted out and tried to nip me. Right there he was saying, "yes, that is what hurts, fix it!" However, my brain just thought, "Oh, he's being a brat today I see." duh. What ended up happening was I got off of him out on the trail and when I went to get back on the girth put some pressure on that rib and he shot forward. I, having only one foot in the stirrup, didn't stick with him and flung around and landed on my shoulder.

I did learn to pay attention to little things like that when grooming and saddling. I just learned the hard way.

So, I don't have much else to say today. I'm going to go to town with the husband and maybe get him a motorcycle. I also signed up to volunteer with the local therapeutic riding center (C.A.N.T.E.R.) on Tuesday morning.

The sun needs to come out so I can get some nice pictures of the horses! Oh, and they need to not be so wet and filthy. haha.