Winter Blues
So – I pulled Hawkey’s shoes last summer, and spent the last 5 months working the kinks out of being barefoot. He had a sore couple of months, but all in all the transition was much easier than expected. He is now sound at all gaits, both in the round pen and under saddle. You can just tell that he now feels great – and is thus a bit high strung which, of course, translates into pony thinking as “Since I don’t have to expend mental energy concentrating on my owie toes, now everything ELSE. IS. Spooky”.
Now, you might think with the mild winter we have been having that I would be all set to make some forward progress but while getting Hawkeye sound, I have spent most of the last few months out of the saddle. This qualifies as yet another Ready!-Set!-Start Over! for me. My trainer is a good friend, a great woman, and she has the patience of Job. She has been hopping on before my lessons and getting Hawk focused which goes a long way toward helping my confidence when I get finally get on. If he can pay attention to his feet more than the shadows and the cooing pigeons, I might manage to learn something.
But the worst thing is - I have managed to let the weather, mild tho it is, become my enabler on days when I just can’t get my $*!# together. I know Hawk is happy to see me (well, the carrots at least) when I get out there, and that he does so much better when I actually go work with him on a regular schedule – but somehow the grey days take their toll and I find myself curled on the couch with a warm blankey reading about horse care rather than getting off my butt and executing some. He deserves better than that, and I have to find a way to give it to him.
