owner guilt

Have you ever had the case of "owner guilt"? Whether you have a dog, cat, monkey or horse. Have you ever felt guilty that you didn't have time to spend on that pet?

Even though Rocky is not considered a pet, I find that I have extreme owner guilt when I can't tend to him more than 2 times per week. Again, Rocky is not a pet, however, he does act like a child when I don't give him enough attention. If I don't put him under the saddle at least once per week, he tends to throw a fit when I try to ride him away from the pasture. Especially, if we ride alone.

Now that I'm back to work for the school year, I am overly busy. I'm serving on 3 committees, serve as Team Leader and as a Mentor. Besides work, I have 2 kids to keep track of, one of who plays school sports. Ugh... I would give anything to have a 4 day work week so that I have the option to ride a third day. Some weekends, I find that I'd rather go to a yard sale rather than ride. Mind you, the horses are boarded 25 minutes away. So it's not exactly convenient. However, the extra effort I do put in to being with Rocky is worth it. I feel he's the cheapest therapy around. Even though he may test my riding ability, he listens to me when I talk and he doesn't talk back! When we have a good ride, even with hitting a tree limb or two, it's the best feeling in the world.

So, my owner guilt seems to be something I'm laying on myself. Not something Rocky is doing to me. He doesn't know the difference. Even if it's been 2 weeks since I've seen him, when I call his name, he still looks up. (We're working on the actual running to me when I call.)