Stagette, horse show, Sierra, Brig

I just got off the phone with Sierra. She's so cute and funny. I have to repeat the one thing she said that made me laugh. She asked me if I've ever had my foot stepped on by a horse. I said yes, and then she told me about how Sgt. Pepper stepped on her foot and wouldn't get off when she pushed him. I said that it was a good thing that it wasn't one of the big horses that had stepped on her because that would really have hurt. And she said that if it had been one of the big horses she would have 'screamed bloody murder'. Now how often have you ever heard an almost six year old say that they would have screamed bloody murder. It was just such an unusual thing to hear out of a kid's mouth. She seems to pick up on a lot of things that people say and then she uses them herself. I'm sure that's why she's such a good conversationalist. Of course you have to watch what you say then though.
I took Brig to that horse show this weekend. I tried to enter at the last minute but wasn't able to. But I rode him yesterday and today at the place anyway. He was really good. He was a bit excited and goofy when he first got there yesterday and when I lunged him but he was fine when I rode him. Today he was really good. There were only two moments when he really did anything worth mentioning. Yesterday he spooked at something while I was hand walking him and he almost knocked me over. Today he kicked at the pigeons that were in the arena while I was riding him. They were annoying though. They kept flying down by where I was riding and then they'd fly away before we would hit them. When he tried to kick them it was because they'd flown up right behind us when we went past.
Amy's comment (from the last post) about Brig's jumping is even more appropriate after his behaviour this weekend. (his form is pretty bad in the pictures but that might change with experience) There is a cross country course at the center. Yesterday I was walking him all over the property letting him look at things and get used to the place. I decided to walk down the cross country course with him. We got to the first jump and I thought I'd see if he would go over it. So I climbed over and he jumped over behind me. He didn't even consider not doing it. I asked him to follow and so he did. I don't think that most horses that have never seen a x-country jump would do that so willingly. I took him over every jump that I was able to climb over fairly easily and that he didn't need to be moving quickly for. He really got into it. Sometimes he would go over the jump before I had time to get over it myself. He even jumped a ditch jump that was filled with water. He did have to think about that one for a couple of seconds though. He also went up and down the stairs (not normal stairs, but horse jump ones). Those ones were difficult for me. I had to use my hands to climb up them because they were too tall for me. I either had to let him go ahead and then wait for me (luckily I have a long lead rope) or I had to try and make him wait until I climbed up first. Going down was fun though because we could run and I could just jump down them with him. So I think that maybe Brig will make a good eventer. I really should start working on his jumping a little more. It's good that he has so much confidence and isn't scared of things.
I really don't want to sell Brig. I've really been getting attached to him over the past month or two. With all his bad behaviour I have been forced to spend more time working with him and it has made me like him more. I'm getting to know him and his personality better and he's really quite a nice horse and a lot of fun. Not a day goes by that I don't have to yell and him and or smack him for trying to bite me. But I will be very, very shocked if he ever actually does bite me in a way that causes pain. When he tries he's not being mean and he's not trying to hurt me he's just being who he is. If he actually really wanted to bite me and hurt me he's had many opportunities but usually he just grabs my clothes and doesn't hang on or bite hard. I can now lead him without using my lead rope. He will stay beside my shoulder no matter what I do. Walk, trot, halt, turning either direction, etc. and he just stays beside me.
I went to my friend Andrea's bridal shower and stagette last night. It was a lot of fun. We did the shower part first and then we went downtown to the Caprice lounge. We had supper and drinks there and then stood in line to get into the club. But after an hour plus and only moving ahead about 10 meters max we decided to go to the Froggy-Do (is that how you spell it, I never actually looked at the sign). After waiting in line there for a while we decided to just go back to Andrea and Becky's place. Nobody really wanted to go out anymore, we'd been standing around for too long. But despite all of our waiting in lines for nothing it was still a really fun night. It was just nice to hang out with a group of about 20 girls talking and laughing. I knew almost all of the girls at least a little bit so I wasn't at all uncomfortable. It was a good chance to get to know some of them a bit better too. There were some pretty funny and interesting conversations.