Day 129

Today I trimmed Little Love's front hooves.  It was a heck of a lot easier than when I did it the first time.  I guess I felt more comfortable.  Although I'm still not sure I'm doing a great job at it.  But perhaps not the worst possible job either?  Little Love was definitely more patient with me this time.  She let me go at it without really caring.  Which was helpful. 

I trimmed her back hooves already yesterday.  There wasn't so much to trim there; my "mentor", Claudia Garner, advised me to trim only the bars for now.  So that I did.  I like trimming, it's really intriguing to see how much you can change the way a horse moves with just a few swipes of the knife.  Not that I'm that good yet, but seeing someone like Claudia do it is amazing.  Makes you want to be able to do that!

Afterwards I walked Little Love around a bit, just to see how she was moving.  Not bad.  I also spent some time just hanging out with her.  I needed to explain to her that I will be going away for a few days.  My best friend turned forty a few weeks ago and to celebrate the new decade in her life, she wanted to do something special with me.  When I turned forty a few years ago, we went on a two day trek on horse back in the French Jura mountains.  It was so much fun at the time, but now I don't think I could sit on any poor horse for six hours a day.  I'd rather walk, actually.  So, this time we will be doing something a bit different; we are going to England for a two day Epona Introductory Course (go to http://www.taoofequus.com/ for more information). 

I've done this sort of at thing before and can say without exaggeration that it changed my life.  So, I'm really looking forward to this course.  Not that I'm expecting it to change my life (again), but I'm sure it will give some food for thought.  The course is called "Accessing Authenticity" which sounds like something I need right now (don't we all need that?).  Anyways, I'm excited to go, but at the same time am worried about Little Love.  Mainly it's her skin condition.  It really is not getting better.  Today I washed her with another medication.  This one you actually leave into the coat.  It's potent stuff and can only be used every fourth day.  I'm hoping it helps and holds her off until I get back.  Also, I got her a fly sheet.  Just to cover all my bases.  She's not exactly in love with the fly sheet, but I told her it was important to tolerate it for a few day, just to see if it helps.  I'll be back on Sunday to view the situation!