Poor Flash :(

Gah, today was both frustrating and encouraging. I'm really upset about Flash at the moment. I'm getting ahead of myself, though... Earlier I ran by Legacy to pick up my grooming stuff and got the Oster kit (I love the neon green color!) and also picked up a small stiff brush to do their faces (the Oster brushes have a smaller end so I can "finish" their faces with that end if I need to), a shed flower in place of a fine curry comb, a matching green sweat scraper, and a bright blue lead rope to replace the stiff black one I got with Snickers, which I'll use as a backup. Shelley also brought her purple leggings and sold them to me for $20 - I'll still need to get some thinner ones for summer, but I felt like I got a pretty good deal :) Trevor had work off for President's day and said he'd come with me. He doesn't like the dirt or animals much, though, so he wasn't seem to excited on the way there. However, it wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be lol. When I got there, Snickers and Flash were laying down near each other. By the time we got all the tack inside, They'd gotten up. Because of how Sunday went, I decided to go ahead and work with Flash first. I brushed him down really well and cleaned out his feet - he seems to really enjoy the coarse curry comb and the brushes I got are awesome! I'm very happy with them. However, ground driving went even worse, I think. I had Trevor record some and then he stepped in and just held the lines as I led Flash, but that didn't seem to help at all. Then I got a look at his lips and thank goodness - they were all raw and a little bloody. That was it - no more. Having his lips look like that and having him just struggle was simply not worth it. I'll have to find a new way to go about this. I immediately took the bridle off and unhooked him from the long reins. He followed me back to the hitching post alright, but he still seemed off, kind of in the off put way he's been since I started spending more time with Snickers. Plus he probably didn't feel very good. We did a little bit of following and posing, which he did all right, but not as enthusiastically or well as before. Even though we hadn't done a lot of physical stuff, he was really sweaty so I think he was stressed out from the ground driving. I felt really bad - I could have both cried and kicked myself for the way his lips looked :( They'll heal just fine over the next few days while I'm out of town, but I'm sure they hurt pretty bad :( I brushed him down and gave him some treats, then turned him loose. While I was working with Flash, Trevor explored the stalls in the arena to look at the horses. He said he wanted to see how big they are. I showed him the cool looking horse (I looked up the breed and it's similar to a Mongolian, but I can't remember the name off the top of my head). The horse next door to him put its lips up at Trevor andI pointed it out and told him it was smiling at him. That was pretty funny :) Working with Snickers went really well. He was a lot slower than yesterday, both lunging and riding. It was nice to show that off to Trevor, who recored some of that as well. He collected andbowed his head really well, and I think he's even starting to hold it there! I only rode him for about 20-30 minutes, mostly trotting and some loping. It was snowing and he shied away from it coming through one of the doors, so we walked through the snow and out the door and then back in. He's doing a really good job of focusing when I ask him to and proceeding, though cautiously, through what he's afraid of. Good boy :) Our relationship is definitely going in the right direction. For his cool down we took a short ride around the barn. When I took him back out to the pasture, I went and put and gave Flash a few more treats. I had tried to wear the half chaps, but realized they were in a tall size ratehr than regular. So I ended up stopping by and trading those for some Small regulars - yay! They fit well, and I will definitely wear them from now on. My legs go so raw from those dang leathers! Oh well, I'll live and I could still ride, though I wore skinny jeans to keep them from rubbing up on my leg this time. I'll have to wear Shelly's leggings and the half chaps next time :) I'm going to start back at square one with Flash when I got home. We're going to get back to all the clicker things he was already doing so well and rebuild that bond, because I feel like I've undone it since I got Snickers. I don't regret getting him - I just need to focus on Flash as well. It makes it a lot easier to have them right there, too, because I simply didn't have the time or the means to work with BOTH of them before, just one or the other. Hopefully it won't take much to get us back on track again. And his poor mouth will be better :(