Failure's Not Flattering

Just a forewarning, this one will probably be depressing...

Well yesterday was a disaster. Went up to meet my good friend Kelly and go for a nice light right at the summer pasture. It was the first time riding Legs since Sand Hills last weekend. Legs doesn't need much work right now since he is fit and her horse Jazz is just getting back into shape after the long winter. It all started when he wouldn't load. I fought him for an hour, then when he still refused went and picked up Kelly to help me. We got him on in about 15 minutes without too much effort, got to the barn, saddled up, and then went off for a lovely 10 mile ride (I'll post my Garmin report later today). We went very easy, just some trot and lots of walk, which was very relaxing. Legs was a little spooky but not too bad; I attributed it to being fired up from having a week off.

We then went to load up to trailer the 2 miles home. He wouldn't do it. Kelly and I worked him for over 2 hours, using a few different methods and even trying her trailer too. Then finally gave it up since we were both exhausted and he had shut down. For anyone who's had a horse with bad loading problems, I'm sure you can sympathize. But for those who haven't, it is the most depressing awful feeling in the world. I have never felt so defeated in my life. Thankfully, we were at the summer pasture, so I just put him in the corral with his food and left him there (Joy checked on him this morning, he is fine). But it still felt like I was deserting him, though he left me no choice. I literally went home, crawled into bed, and then just cried for 2 hours. Didn't know what else to do.

Judie told me she would work with him for a week if I can just bring his food; I will probably do that. The vet is coming on 4/6 to do a new coggins, so I will look at bringing him up on 4/10. Then I can just leave him there and pick him up for Foxcatcher the following week.

Many thanks to Kelly in all her patience and moral support in sticking around to help me!