Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It's a Bad Mental Horse Day

Mosquitoes have come out in full squad. The horses are aggrevated, and so am I.

I'm also having a bad mental day related to the boys. Both mean a lot to me, but when I go this long without rides, I start wondering what each is worth, can I sell, can I find a more suitable show horse in place of either, should I even be considering selling? Is there anybody that would want either for a reasonable cost? Can I even find something that would fit my style, riding frequency, and not either fall down lame or go bonkers keeping up with me?

This too will pass, I think. It's nearly impossible to go with them in the pasture as long as they've been there, doing nothing under saddle, and not wonder why in the world there are two of them out there that I do nothing with. I want to be riding... They're not pasture ornaments, and that's not what they came here for. They were to be for trail riding, lessons, and pleasure. Grooming mud and walking over tarps is good, but not as often as I've been doing it lately.

I'm bored, and something needs to change, and soon.

2 comments:

SunnySD said...

Frustrating to have soundness/weather/whatever issues. I go through long spells of that in the winter, when all I can do is look at them being furry and eating their fool heads off, because it's dark, snowing, slippery.... And in the spring, when the days start to get nicer, but are still to short to ride in the evenings, the weekend weather sucks, and I have to work while the sun is shining.

I've considered hauling to an arena, but that comes with its own set of hassles.

If it's any consolation at all, a trainer friend once said to me (while sitting on a very bouncy green horse that I'd been unable get under saddle for three months due to a whole set of odd circumstances), "Huh - I can tell you've been working with him." Say what?! To me, he looked like a complete twit - but for the trainer, who had, I guess, been expecting much worse, all of the lungeing, obstacle work, ground poles & other stuff I'd been able to do on the ground meant that while he was acting a bit silly, he was still responsive & ready to learn mentally as he'd been before his layoff.

So... bring out the umbrellas, balloons, & weird looking blow-up clown dolls or maybe do some ground-driving if the weather permits? (I don't own it - yet - myself, but have heard very good things about the book "Bombproof your horse" by Rick Pelicano.)

On the other end of things, your horses are probably just as happy eating their heads off and enjoying a mini-vacation :)

Jennifer said...

Thanks.. The whole hoof issues are what's screwing with my plans. Chewie's still only got one shoe, and it shows. He was still a bit off, everytime he was asked to put any significant effort into that hoof. It's not an abscess, it's just that tender...

Romeo's hooves are cracked, chipped, and tore up. I hate pushing him, because I know it's just going to make the hooves worse, and possibly make him lame & miserable, too.

All the standing around annoys me. I'm not a passive person, and so watching them stand around really drives me nuts.

Thanks, though, for cheering us on...