Sad to say...

What is it they say about the best laid plans? I promised to start my 9 hour-a-day, horse-heaven-marathon on Monday. Instead I spent most of Monday laying beside my toilet bowl. Three days of "really" sick followed by one day of "weak as a kitten" and today finds me at 90 percent. Go figure! I am happy to announce that I spent 8 hours with my ponies. Granted, 6 of them where with Amerika but lets not quibble shall we? She had her professional photo shoot and it went really well, pics to follow soon! I would rather talk about something that has been making me feel like Tevia in "Fiddler On The Roof". You remember, "on one hand..... but on the other hand...but on one hand...eh" Let me 'splain. Farrier came last week, it went poorly for him. He was yanked by one and kicked by the other. I experienced, mortification, indignance, whining, then honest examination of the whole event. Nothing is worse than being a trainer with ill behaved horses. In fact another farrier once said I have the "worst trained , best trained horse" in the world. BIG SIGH! So as I'm willing to admit to the entire planet this foot thing is an on going challenge for my horses. I have ridiculed my farriers behaviours which by the way, they are guilty of and I have looked honestly at my horses behaviours which they are just as guilty of. I squarely lay the blame on.......... myself. I have little trouble with my horses feet. That does not mean NO trouble that means that sometimes, I have a little trouble. Nothing that makes me want to reteach the lesson, which is the problem in a nut shell. I can hate the way a farrier relates to my babies, lament that if he had just taken his time here, released there, not creeped up to this one like that...blah! blah! blah! The truth, is my horses should at 10 and 14 years of age, stand for the flippin' farrier regardless of his/her moronic habits! In fact to quote John Lyons "If someone put a cigarette out on Zips butt the only problem he should have is with me...rest assured it would be a mighty big problem." Meaning in, that strange and wonderful way that most natural horsemanship teachers relate, ones horse should be trained for the lowest common denominator that he/she will come up against in their domestic horse lives. If you think about it, that is a huge challenge! For me it means that a great deal of my horse marathon will be devoted to skills that are much less glamorous than the side passing, lead changing, trail riding, fantasy I had imagined. I will have two horses that stand politely for the farrier though. I have often been heard saying, "practice the basics 'cause its all basics really" I think its time I took my own advice......