Missing Motivation

Apologies for the prolonged silence, as the title suggests I have been lacking in motivation to ride the last few weeks.
Well that's not entirely true, I have wanted to ride just not hacking in the woods - reading about the progress people I follow in the blogosphere have been making, has me itching to get back into an arena and get back to work with my girlies again.

Apologies for the poor photo quality! But I can't post an update without some sort of photos!

Kika pulled a front shoe a few weeks back, week 5 of her current cycle to be truthful. That's two shoeing cycles in a  row that she has managed to loose one shoe on the monday of week 5. There are 4 horses in total on this shoeing cycle with this blacksmith and we'd have to get the horses back to the yard for the farrier - so I decided to let Cinderella stew for a while - aka downtime, so probably a party for Kika as she hasn't had to do anything bar eat & poop while wandering around the field for nearly 3 weeks - spoiled or what?!
The Disney Princesses have nothing on her! At least they all had to overcome some sort of strife before Prince Charming showed up & Happily Ever After happened!
K honestly doesn't know how good she has it *sniggers*

Work & weather also conspired against me, that combined with the shorter evenings severely encouraged my lack of motivation towards forestry hacking, although i did get out a couple of time son Nancy who as per usual was an absolute doll! LOVE her so much! *Hearts&Kisses*

Farrier was contacted and said he could come today, the decision was left to me by the two girls I share the field with as to whether we'd go back to the wilderness after shoeing for another week of hacking or if we'd keep the horses at the yard and make use another field & the arenas + forestry hacking there. I selfishly decided to stay at the yard, as the evenings are getting too dark for me to hack safely in the woods where we were. I could never get to the field much before 7pm, which meant I was lucky to be onboard by 7.30 and then it got dark under the trees by 8.15-8.30. Which then meant feeding, hay giving & turning back out in the pitch black. Not the best fun nor particularly motivational when combined with the nasty rain we've had this week.

Again sorry so dark - problem with hacking in woods in the rain, but i wanted a commemorative photo - even if it is fuzzy & dark!

So despite terrible downpours last night the three of us (myself & the two girls who I went to the beach with) braved the downpour last night to meanly tack up wet ponies to hack back to the yard. I rode Nancy & I led Kika for the first time, previously L had always led her from O - but I was a big brave girl and brought both my girls back to the yard myself. Lets also keep in mind that my lack of motivation recently had meant that Nancy hadn't been ridden since last Thursday and that had been the first time I sat on her in almost 2 weeks - did I mention I have a saint horse! *halo-for-Nancy*

I was so happy when we arrived back  to the yard, and despite the lashing rain as we tacked up we managed not to get drowned as we rode back. Thankfully, my brain had actually functioned for a change and I had thought to dig out my rain gear so even if it had rained on us I'd have stayed as dry as I could!

Tous ensemble! Apologies, best photo I could get while we were moving...

We even did some trotting which was great fun as Kika & Nancy kept trying to race - the scamps! So hopefully all went well with the blacksmith this morning, I have asked that he look at N's feet and leave off the front shoes if they are good enough. I had only put the shoes on as I knew we were spending the summer hacking in the woods, now that we are back at the yard and will only be forestry hacking at the weekends, meaning twice at most - I am hoping she can go back to being barefoot & save me some pennies. ;-)
Miss Kika will hopefully have two front shoes put back on as despite being barefoot all around for nearly a year last year, she wore her front feet down too much with her stamping when tied in cross ties, feeding time, hay time & general digging in her stable - she is her own worst enemy the goon!

All going well the three of us will make our returns to arena work this evening and I cannot wait!