Just when you think you know what you're doing...

Kaswyn felt awesome today. He got new shoes yesterday, and it would appear that trimming his feet evenly made a huge difference in his movement. He was balanced and even, willing to work. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "Well of course he was! Now he doesn't have two different feet!!". I guess I'm just a little dumb sometimes.

Kaswyn used to get his feet trimmed and shoes put back on every eight weeks, nine if I could push it. This was mostly for financial reasons, since a trim and a shoeing is not exactly free. This week was the seventh week for his old shoes. In light of how much of a difference the shoeing made, and looking back on just when things started to go awry, I'm going to say that six weeks is going to be the maxium that I can let him go before getting him reshod. Sure, it will be more expensive, but it will be worth Kaswyn being even and balanced.

During our workouts, I'm still going more laps to the right than the left. Tonight we went three laps to the left first, and the first two laps felt a little shaky. But the third lap felt really very nice. When we went to the right I decided to try and do some very minimal work...something more than just trotting around. When we came out of the second corner of the short side of the arena and began trotting down the long side, I asked him to push a little more uphill. I didn't ask for an extension or medium trot or anything. I just wanted him to push a little, work over his back a little bit, and come underneath himself from behind a bit more. I only let him trot three or four strides in this way because he hasn't done any work of this kind in over a year and I don't want to push him. About halfway down the long side of the arena I'd give just the slightest aide with my seat and he'd come back to the working trot. After the first two times he was ready for me to ask and started preparing himself in the corner.

I'm not sure I can really describe the feeling of being able to work with my horse again. I know this sounds really lame, but it just brings tears to my eyes. He was just so willing, so ready to work for me, that even this very simple, limited exercise felt like heaven. It was great for both of us because it was much more mentally stimulating than just trotting around for exercise. I was riding better, and he was working better. I called Craig on the way home to tell him my good news. He echoed my trainers words exactly - this is a rollercoaster, and today I just happen to have hit and uphill climb.

I know this. I know that this is just a good day, and I'm likely to have more bad ones to come. But I'm not the kind of person that can stay even keeled, good or bad. I'm going to be happy and excited when it's good, and sad when it's bad. So today I'm going to be happy and not worry about the bad days until they come. They're coming for sure.

This is a work in progress, and I'm going to enjoy the work whenever possible.