I Promise

Although I always make an effort to put our relationship first, it is easy for me to put my needs over Sonny's. I often lose sight of what's important and get caught up in materialistic things (my way of grouping things that most 'traditional' riders look for, such as a on the bit, collected, good distances to a jump, etc.).

It seems like every time I get done with a night that I look for things that benefit me and not him, I feel completely dissatisfied with myself. I have brought it up over and over again, but it never seems to click. No matter what I know, I continue to do the same things in different ways. So I am really going to make a conscious effort to not only be aware of myself and actions, but to then apply what I know. It is easy for me to say I know that is right, but then to put it into action is a whole different challenge.

This is my promise to my horse and myself to work for never ending self improvement and to not only continue to educate myself, but to apply what I know 100% of the time.

I hope to one day be able to be the centered person that my horse expects me to be. I am so grateful that he constantly challenges and influences me to be a better person not only with my horsemanship, but as a whole.

Perfection vs. Excellence

I have always been a perfectionist. The LBE in me screams "Let's do it my way...now". I want everything to be just the way I want it all the time. Thankfully, my LBI is teaching me it is not always my way or the highway. If it was, he would have never left the highway.

As I start to prepare myself for the fast track, I keep getting caught up in "I have to be able to do this now and it needs to be perfect". Of course, it won't happen over night. So, I have been setting little goals for myself and trying to work on them a little bit everyday. The amount of progress I have made so far has even surprised me a little bit.

For instance, at least every other day I get out my 45' rope and carry it around with me. Then, I throw it and and bring it back into to me 5 times with each hand. Along with that, I have been playing with Quick Draw and working on my accuracy. In the beginning, I couldn't even catch my carrot stick. By day three, I could hit the same target (an old show number), up to 5 times in a row.

My goals with Sonny have been just as simple but will go a long way. Our catching game is a huge one. He has no problem coming to me when I call him from out in the field, but anywhere else he is great at ignoring me. So my plan was to let him loose in the fence in area behind the barn (that isn't his field) and groom him out there. I can only take one tool with me at a time. Every time I go out there, I play the catching game before I groom him with that tool. By the time I curry, brush, pick feet, fly spray, and sunscreen him, that is a ton of catching game. This is maybe day 3 or 4, and he is started to walk over to me from over 20 feet away. Awesome!

Another thing that I have been trying to improve on is him only eating grass when I allow him to. I think he somewhat gets it, but the problem is I am not consistent enough with it for it to really mean something. But, it will come.

What I am getting at is this:

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence".

                                                                  ~Vince Lombardi

Even if things aren't perfect all the time like I expect them to be, if I put the effort and dedication into aiming for it, then I can still achieve excellence.

Goals for 2012

Jesse Peters now has his schedule up for 2012! That inspired me to create a list of some things I would like to accomplish this year. So much has changed since last summer: Melissa moved to my barn, we found Juli, I now have a trailer, fluidity saddle, and cradle bridle and on top of that Sonny and I have made some huge improvements in our relationship. With all of that going for us, I really believe 2012 will be an outstanding year!

Here are some things that I would really like to do:

-Attend a clinic with Jesse
-Go to both of Jesse's Playdays (May 5th and August 4th)
-Attend a few hunter paces
-Participate in at least one hunter pace bridle/halter-less
-Go trail riding a few times
-Make it to hocking hills to trail ride

I create these lists every year and usually only complete half of them, but I am sure going to try to squeeze in as much fun and learning as possible this year!

As far as horsemanship goals, I would love to have my green string by the end of the year!! If I keep working to get my good better and my better best, I have no doubt that we can achieve it.

A Goal Properly Set is Halfway Reached

I am really working towards getting to the August-September 2012 Fast Track in Colorado. As if that isn't a big enough goal in itself, I have a few other things that I would like to accomplish by then.

• An obvious goal would to be solid level 3, to the point if I wanted to I could easily pass all three savvys officially. With that in mind, here are my goals within the three savvys:
• Online: Be very comfortable with the 45' line, be able to check off everything from the self assessment list, confidently go sideways over a barrel, and jump around 3'. 
• Freestyle: Only need to use phase 1 or 2, check off a majority of the self assessment list, jump bareback, improve out riding with a carrot stick, and improve our sideways.
• Liberty: Work in a round pen, stick to me at the canter, jumping, transitions and sideways without a fence at a distance. 
• As always, I would love for him to havea majority of happy faces by then. That means I need to keep working hard to make my idea his idea, try not to ever offend him, and make sure he always feels like he is able to voice his own opinion.
• Send in our Level 2 Freestyle Audition and pass 2++.
• Be able to confidently go through water. 

Those might not be all of my goals, and they may not all be attainable in less than a year, but at least I have something to work towards!