The Past Year in Review

I'm a day or two early but whatever.

Originally, I didn't even want to write this post. I mean... I already know that I did horrendously awful with completing the goals that I set for 2015. Really, really bad.


1.  Go to Europe for six weeks in February/March and have a safe, enjoyable trip. Come back with lots of great memories and experiences and ride at least one horse during that time.
2.  Move to Lubbock, settle Lady and myself in, and enroll in classes for January.
3.  Ride 120 times.
4.  Ride 5 different horses while I scout out a barn for Lady.
5.  Take 10 riding lessons.
6.  Get my energy back and stick to a proper, healing diet.
7.  Enjoy a balanced and organized lifestyle.
8.  Continue writing on both of my blogs, as regularly as possible.
9.  Improve my riding ability.
10.  Bring Lady back up to health and a proper work schedule.
11.  Work on the trailer issue and go to an event.
Bonus: Write a second novel.

Not too great at all, I think I'll say.  But I wanted to put this on the blog for future reference.

Now, on to 2016!

Holidays

I'm back in East Texas with family for Christmas, which means I've been experiencing the intensity of the rain while back at my place everything is snowed under.
Yeah. Prayers and good thoughts to everyone who has been affected by this nasty weather. I head home on Wednesday if everything clears up and lines up properly. Because work on New Year's Eve.

Despite the rain, I've had the chance to spend a bit of time with my girls while I'm up here. After the horses I've been riding in Lubbock, Lady felt like a tiny pony. Made me giggle.  But I love her so much, and I have the best friend in the whole world watching out for her right now and making sure she stays at the proper weight and health.

I'm feeling a bit caught up right now between what I want Lady's future to be. She is so happy to get ridden every so often and just wander around having some fun, where she doesn't really have to work. But I really want to follow what I'm pursuing right now and do some showing next year, which would not be very possible with her. Do I keep her in her semi-retired lifestyle, or do I try to bring her up to fitness and health levels where I could possibly do a few dressage shows with her? Somehow I just see her being so happy with her life right now that I don't want to change anything.

Missy, from our ride on Tuesday.

The Tuesday before Christmas, I got to go out to the Tech Center and meet with the trainer/equestrian team leader to see if she thought Missy and I would go well together. It was a good ride and I really enjoyed getting the feel of L, the trainer at this barn. Missy was a sweetheart. Seriously, I'm holding my breath for when she decides to have a bad day. Such perfect manners and training. Her owner has done a very good job with her.
When I get back from vacation, I'll take an actual lesson on Missy with L. I would also like to see her go over a few fences, but her owner and I are 75% agreed on a partial lease for right now while I settle into school. I don't know that I would want to hold onto the lease for the long term but right now I think Missy is exactly what I need to really improve my own riding skills and gain some valuable confidence and experience.
2016 is almost here!  Whether we are ready or not.

December already?

Christmas is less than a week away.  Just throwing that out there.

With no proper internet access at my house, and I absolutely cannot stand to write on my phone, I'm now sitting in the mall, at Starbucks, trying to focus on writing this blog post, while trying not to think about all the bazillion other things I have to do this weekend. At least the coffee is good.

And my cat is cute. Yes, he sleeps like that.

Since this is primarily a horse blog, I will attempt to update you on what I have been doing lately.  

About a year ago, when I first started planning this move, I vaguely entertained the idea of leasing a horse, then decided not to because of wanting to move Lady with me, and so on and so forth. Keep that in mind.

Now that I have been here for nearly six weeks (how did that happen?) I can say that my perspective has changed on a lot of things. I focused on work for the first few weeks, then slowly got irritated with my life, really frustrated with a lot of things, etc, etc.  And I really really missed my horse.

During the first week of December, I decided on a whim to go visit some barns again. It didn't look like Lady was going to be joining me out here very soon (still doesn't look that way) so I figured I might as well start meeting people and trying to get into the horse world in some obscure way. Good plans, right?  Haha....

I hit up my favorite barn from the last time I visited barns and arranged a meetup lesson with the trainer who is going to go by Liz for right now.  I got to ride this lovely lesson pony named Mojo and we did about an hour of flatwork and getting-to-know-each-other-stuff. I had a blast, we got along really well, and I decided that this was awesome.

Mojo. Adorable, perpetually grumpy, gets lots of  kisses from me.

Immediately following this lesson, I decided that I was interested in a lease again. Tasting the horse world and riding again made me so happy!  So, of course, I hopped online and took a look around the horses for sale/lease in the area. Almost right away I ran across an ad for a lovely little TB mare up for lease. On a whim, I decided to text the owner and set up a time to meet this horse.

Last Sunday, I met R, the owner of Missy, the mare. She is at the Texas Tech barn, so different barn than I had started taking lessons at.  In order to have the lease, I would have to be in a lesson program at the barn, and would probably end up on the school's equestrian team. The horse, Missy, is a very sweet girl, and I really liked her. Her owner has done a fantastic job with her. I'm still trying to set up a lesson with the coach at the barn in order to find out if we're a good fit and if I could work things out with the team and so on.  That portion of things is still up in the air, so no answers for you!

Missy! Very pretty, well trained, easy to ride!

This last Tuesday, I had another lesson with Liz, again on Mojo. She started me over jumps, and suddenly I'm really addicted to it.  Somewhere near the end of the lesson, she mentioned that there was a horse on the property that I could probably ride and maybe even lease.  So after my lesson, we pulled this horse out and put him in the round pen so I could see him move.
Winston is a very handsome warmblood gelding that I instantly fell in love with. I've hacked him twice, taken him over some poles, and overall been very pleased and happy with him. Once again, the lease is being funny to work out, so I have no answers there either. But I really do like Winston, and if all works out, I will be leasing him and possibly showing on him in the spring.

Probably no answers or finalities until the new year, but there you have a basic overview of what I've been up to in the horse world.
If I don't get another post up before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Me and Winston.  Huge, handsome, perfection.