No relolutions, just goals

Around this time of year people start talking about new years resolutions. I've never really put much stock in it since I'm too busy setting goals year round so by the time the new year roles around there's not much left to do.

This seemed like a good time to share some of my goals though. I do think it's helpful to set goals. It gives us purpose and helps us to take stock of where we've been and where we want to go.

So without further adieu...

I want to regain full mobility and strength in my foot. About two weeks after I hurt my foot the swelling went down and the pain subsided enough that I could start to use it again. I was shocked at how quickly the joints in my big toe and connecting me big toe to the ball of my foot, had locked up. My PT friend says that's normal and it will come back, with lots of work. My balance on that leg is shot and my calf muscle shrunk, a lot. So I'm in the lots of work stage. It's helped me appreciate the health, strength and mobility I tend to take for granted.

Continue to learn more about the fine points of endurance and dressage. If you know me you know that I'm always striving to learn more, do things better, ride better, improve my horses etc... It's a never ending quest. That's part of what makes it fun. I've got a couple new books from Christmas, one dressage book and one endurance and I'm sure that won't be all. I'm also building a small network of endurance buddies and mentors who I can ask questions. In the past I've often hesitated to ask questions because I don't want to look foolish. I want to have my act together before I opened up to people, now I'm trying to just be brave and ask!

Improve Bunny's canter. Bunny can canter but it's not her strong suit, stands to reason since she spent so many years of her life not using it at all. I hesitate to work her in it a lot because I don't have a really great place to do it and to be honest she's really fast and that can be a bit scary in the wrong environment. I want her to develop her canter for a lot of reasons but the chief one being that I think that if I address some of the underlying issues as to why she's week in the canter ( she falls on her forehand and has a hard time collecting) that it will benefit her in all her gaits. So the quest continues and my husband is going to make me a set of cavaletti's to add to my set of tools.

Find out how Bunny and I feel about longer distances. I've always loved a challenge and I think that is part of why I fell in love with endurance riding. I'm really looking forward to completing a 75 and seeing how Bunny and I feel about that. I'm also starting to think about a 100 mile ride but one step at a time. I'm looking forward to finding out more about myself and my horse. Finding our true strengths and strategizing about how to put those strengths to the best of use. I love that this sport is pushing me to be more fit and want to challenge myself.

Improve my riding down hill skills. My new saddle, well new last Christmas, has some really great thigh blocks that I love. They allow me, when needed, to brace and have the upper body strength I need to remind my horse of her manners from time to time, particularly going down hills when she sees a dust trail. Somehow along the way this last season, however, I got in the bad habit of locking my legs a bit going down hill and it takes it's toll on my shins. I'm sure my horse doesn't love it either. So now I'm working getting back to gliding down hills.

Not be afraid to pass. Keep this on the down low :) And before you start leaving me lots of comments about not becoming one of those RACE people let me explain. This last season I had a ride where I kept catching a particular rider. I thought they would be going faster than me so I let them go. I was having a great ride and just wanted to ride by myself and continue my great ride. To my great surprise I caught them several more times and let them go several more times. I was riding a mountain ride, it was getting hot, I was riding faster than I had before on a 50 and although I was 99.9% sure my horse was going to finish in great shape, I wanted to see all those A's on my final vet check before getting to crazy. But later I had this thought. By nature I'm pretty cautious and it serves me well. But sometime the case may be that I'm a good rider, with a great horse and we are well prepared and sometime I might decide to pass that 'person' and see what happens. It just may be that they take one look at me and say, “Wow, look at that horses stride. I'm going to let them go.” If they don't and they chase me, I can always let them go again. If I'm working within my limits and my horses limits there is nothing wrong with going for it now and then, so long as I keep a level head and use some common sense.

Finding the perfect balance, or as close as is humanly possible. I'm always trying to find the right balance in my life. The bottom line is I don't have enough time. I work to find a good balance between time spent with God, my husband, kids, family, friends, horse, exercise, work and well you get the idea. The bottom line is I'm blessed, big time! I'm planning on continuing to work to find the right balance and in the meantime enjoy every minute of whatever it is I'm doing.

Speaking of balance in my life, my kids are in here complaining about me being on the computer so I'm that's it for now.

I hope you have a wonderful new year and work toward some great goals of your own.

Bunny is less than thrilled at my self portrait attempt.