Taking A Moment To Enjoy

In the midst of aiming for showing goals, so many rides a week, work outs, lessons and more, it’s sometimes easy to forget why it’s so important to have that saddle time in the first place. It is my quiet place, a sanctuary from all the craziness of adult life. Which means that every once a while, I need to dial back spend a day just enjoying my horse.

I had an exceptionally early morning today  – woken up at 3:30 am by my Miniature Australian Shepard having an absolutely epic freak out over the “booms” from the Army firing ranges down the road. Just as I got back into bed, my five year old dragged himself down the stairs claiming that he was “about to throw up” and preventing me from getting that extra hour of sleep. It turned out he was just hungry and recovery was quick – but still no sleep. And then I had my work day.

Most Tuesdays, I take three hours from the morning to ride (part of the reason I built a career with a flexible schedule!) but today work kept me tied to my desk until after lunch. By then, if I had gone ahead with the ride I planned I would’ve home quite late and would have to change my planned dinner, making for a more hectic evening. After today I certainly didn’t need more of that!

So I changed my plan.

Part of me cringed a bit at going “off plan” but it’s a lesson that I constantly need to relearn. There are times when it is more valuable to change the plan and goals need to be modified.

A Time Out

Today, instead of working on 10m circles and our leg yield zig zag, I simply enjoyed a gorgeous Texas day at the barn. I spent some time taking pictures of Elf in his turnout – which is always interesting because he wants to be in my lap. We hand-grazed for a while. In place of 10m circles, we went for a bareback cruise of the farm. While he munched on a snack, I dusted off and refolded his blankets.

We may not have made measurable progress towards preparing for the show season, but it reminded of the reason I work so hard to keep horses in my life. Without it, the days go too fast and there is simply not enough sunshine and barn dust.