Bad Habits + Ride 1.4

How many of us dislike bad habits?? All of us? Okay, good. I'm sure we all get frustrated sometimes when our horse has a bad habit, either on the ground or under saddle, and its really difficult to get that bad habit kicked. Lady's bad habit would probably have to be stopping whenever she feels like it. It's never something I've tried to get rid of either, although why, I don't know.
 

Not putting things away immediately.

This is how my house gets messy and disorganized. My mother tried to teach me, she really did, but its just a bad habit of mine and sometimes it even makes me laugh because I know what I'm doing, I'm just too lazy.

 

Wasting time in the mornings because I feel lazy and tired.

Okay, so I've gotten better at this one by planning out my morning and sticking to a routine. See, I love my sleep, and I'm naturally a night owl. So mornings are not my cup of tea, but sometimes its necessary, especially now with school starting.

Spending all my time planning and not doing.

Example: I'm currently writing here 5 days a week and on L'Art Classique 4 days a week. I just spent two days last week planning my blog posts all the way up until April and then realized the following morning that I had nothing prepared to post that day. I get so distracted by the planning aspect that I forget to actually DO something.

 

How should I fix these bad habits?  I'm getting habitually better at getting up early, but I definitely take advantage of my weekends. But the other two, I've recognized them for a long time and just have chosen not to do anything about it. Whoops.

Are there bad habits that you just put up with, or do you always try to change them into good habits?  I spent ten minutes trying to come up with a bad habit that Missy has that I could use as an example here, but I can't really think of one, except for the stories her owner tells me about her digging holes in her stall. Apparently she loves dirt and mud. Especially mud.

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On Monday night, I decided that my days just aren't going to open up to allow me to ride unless I make it happen. So I woke up early yesterday morning, got ready, and went straight to the barn. Of course, I misjudged how long it would take me at the barn, so I was late to school and missed my first class. Hehe.

The barn is lovely early in the morning (I got there at 8am). So calm and quiet except for soft horse sounds. Missy was calm, not quite as chill as last time I rode, but nice. I groomed and tacked up as quickly as I could and managed to ride for about 30 minutes. She was a bit slow getting going, which was okay with me. My two point at the walk was fantastic this time around, I can go a whole lot longer with my hands up. Yay!  Trot still isn't that great, but its mostly because I lose my balance and fall forwards, which is where my hands come in, but I was getting better there too.

Most of the ride wasn't super exciting. I did lots of direction changes to mix things up, and she was happy with that. Lots and lots of trot. I alternated between posting, two point, and sit for three/stand for three. Plus I threw in a bit of no-stirrup work for good measure, but she isn't so fond of that.
We did canter both ways a bit. The improvement that I made in my lesson last Thursday was a HUGE help! I didn't lose my stirrups once, and it was much easier to keep my leg on!  Considering that I went four days without riding in between, I would say it was fantastic!

Three Habits

Do equestrians tend to be health-conscious than some other people in the world? Or are they worse about it?  I don't know - just a random thought. We all put so much effort into keeping our four-legged steeds healthy, having a team of professionals practically standing by in the case of a bobble or a funny head toss.

Okay, so that is a bit exaggerated. But it is the truth that Lady's vet knows me way too well, my barefoot trimmer is one of less than five people that I trust to handle my horse without me being present (I have her on speed dial...), and I analyze my horses' diets with as much precision as possible.

And in some ways, I take really good care of myself too, but I would definitely say it is sub-par to the level of care that my horses get. Yes I workout and try to get more fit, but it would be a  lie to say that I do it for my own health. The reasoning behind my daily workouts is to become stronger so that I can ride my horse better (although... what better reason!?). I am quite health conscious, especially since I do have my own set of problems, but I would probably  be much less so if I were not an equestrian.

Today, I tried to come up with THREE healthy habits that I have. And no, working out is not one of them because its not a habit. Its a forced thing that I forget quite often actually.

1) Not Eating Out.
- So many people that I talk to pick up food from a restaurant DAILY. I'll admit to doing it maybe once a week, but not only can my budget not afford it, I just love the taste of homemade food so much more. Yes I have my weaknesses (lately its been donuts, usually ice cream and chocolate though) but nine times out of ten, I simply drive past all the fast food places and the restaurants, put some food on the stove or chop up a salad, and enjoy a nice meal at home. Good habit of mine, I guess most would say.

2) Stress Less, Smile More.
- I don't know where this habit came from, but at some point in the last year or so, I trained myself to focus on the good things, smile for no reason at all, and not allow myself to stress about random things. I have my moments when I don't know how I'll be paying the month's bills, or conflict at work gets the better of me, and sometimes I think that I should be miserable about these things more often than I am, but I prefer to smile if I have the choice. And more often than not, I do have a choice.

3) Take Time Out
- This kind of goes hand in hand with the last one, but I'm not afraid to take time out for myself. It doesn't make me feel guilty (and maybe that's selfish?) to say no to an invitation to go out when I need to be going home and doing housework. We need to take the time to relax in our day and enjoy something for ourselves.

What habits do you have that you would consider healthy? Maybe it would be better to improve those habits that we already have instead of focusing solely on the negative habits that we "need to change".

And by the way, WE HAVE A LEASE!!!  More on that Monday.