Goals and Advancement

Every time I go out into the pasture, especially with Cheyenne, I have something new to try. And for my little extrovert that's something she really needs and enjoys, otherwise she is bored and a little sour. I should have taped my L2 videos in February, I've been ready for it for way too long and Chey and I could do it all in our sleep. (Fear of failure, aka not getting a 2++ is holding me back a bit). We are even ready for most of L3, and we have even had some pretty insanely successful bridleless riding sessions, which I'm pretty proud of after all the prep we put into that. Gwen is coming along amazingly well OL, but mounted we still have a lot of pretty serious "forward" issues, as in hardly moving at all. But every time she puts a little more into it, I'm just doing my best to give her what she needs and not push her. It's funny to think that if I never had heard of PNH, I would be out there kicking her and probably have a riding crop out there, and ruining our relationship, along with her trust in me. Sometimes I find it interesting to compare the "two horse worlds" of training (PNH and non), and it just reiterates that I'm doing the right thing. 

However as great as all this sounds, I'm getting to the point where I could care less about my goals right now. I get in this funk every so often, and long for the days of riding aimlessly in the foothills, just running around like a mad Indian woman and her faithful pony, my only thought being fun. Don't get me wrong, I don't forget all my principles and un-do all of our hard work. I still go for a response from the lightest cue, use my proper aids and put my horse first, but I think having a day off where I don't think about how my audition videos will look is the most refreshing thing I can do. After all, I have horses because they provide me a freedom and happiness I can't get anywhere else. I just gotta remind myself it's okay to have a day where I can enjoy the spoils of our hours and hours of "good, better, best" and never ending self improvement, and just do whatever we wanna do :)