Down in the Dumps

Apologies in advance for what is probably going to be a whiney/self-indulgeant post.
My Tuesday evening spin with Kika went quite pear-shaped which is unfortunate as we had been getting on great of late.

Kika was less than impressed with my impromptu photos

I was then berating myself & my incapabilities; that to have lunged Nancy afterwards would have been a pointless excercise as she is not the best on the lunge so it ends up being a needlessly stressy experience for us both...so rather than upset the apple cart further for the evening I gave her the night off, in the hopes that she wouldn't be affected by my negative ninny energy.

Google Image

A couple of places where I think I went wrong:
- I am bent as an S-hook in the saddle on our bad rein which doesn't help matters at all save to frustrate us both

- I am trying to change my whole MO when riding as apparently I have been doing it wrong for years

•  which is so disheartening to hear & I am finding it quite difficult to correct as I am now second guessing my first instinct

- Kika will rarely help me out by offering what she knows I am trying to ask for if it means more/proper work required from her. 

I finally remembered to snap K in her quarter sheet

I am well aware that I have many holes in my eq-cation. I learned the basics of walk/trot/canter/jumping but never properly learned the nitty-gritty of riding properly, working the horse correctly or having good eq. My hands are awful and most of the time I can't even keep my heels down - what I need is lessons on a school-master and to be brought back to basics, neither of which is currently available to me funds or time-wise sadly. So shall plug away with my horses & the Guru and hope I can regain some semblance of control over myself!

The evening was then topped off when Nancy got a fright and jumped down on my foot - she's not too light...shall see whether I still have a toenail in the coming days ;-)
Somehow her frying-pan sized feet managed to simultaneously clobber the tip of my toe & my ankle-joint (where my leg meets my foot) - shall monitor bruising & share photos if impressive LOL!

I feel terrible being such a Debbie Downer when I actually have it so good. I am healthy (bar the toe/foot), I have two wonderful kind & healthy horses and great barn (and other) friends who are there to help pick me up from my mental bashing and coach me along to help me get better. Others are not so lucky as me between injuries and other less pleasant things - I really have nothing to be so negative about & feel very bad for moaning!

I need to suck it up, brush myself off and keep trying - hopefully one day I'll get there.

Another Google Images gem

The plan (drafted yesterday!) For this evening's eq-ventures has possibly changed pending my escape time from work & arena availability. All going well on both those fronts, Kika and I may get a well needed change of scenery with some pole work...fingers crossed! Nancy will still get some Guru schooling, not sure if she too will get to play over poles or not. Whatever the outcome it deff cannot hurt any of us.

PS: Spent my commutes yesterday catching up on Carrot Top's blog & love all her gif'ing (yes I have now made that a word!) - hence the slightly random images in this post I guess, ;)
If you haven't checked out her blog before, you are missing out - her posts are awesomely funny with unique handrawn re-enactments of hers & her horses adventures + cool use of gifs!
It is a super fun read & should deff not be missed!