No matter what holiday you celebrate (or don't), the end of the year is a great time to reflect on goals from last January and to set your goals for the coming year. Three surprising things about my goals from January:
#1: I could find them. This is probably due to the fact that I put them on the internet, which is far more organized than my life.
#2: I accomplished NONE of them. I'll get back to this.
#3: #2 is not such a big deal.
This year was a year of reality checks, transitions, and metamorphosis in every direction both for me and for my horses. We have new jobs:
Marina: left exercise riding for molecular biology
Neil: left messing around for being a grownup horse (don't worry, we'll always call him baby horse)
Aly: left being an event horse for being a teacher.
I got a lovely call from Sally Buteau, mom to Kelsey and Anna, who have had Aly since mid-September. Aly has taught them so much already, she says, and their family is so lucky to have her. Aly actually seems to love her new job: low stress, no travel, family barn with lots going on, two little girls= twice the carrots. I get to see her every couple of weeks when I have a minute to scoot out. I miss her a lot, but I think I made the right call about letting her have some down time, and I seem to have found the perfect place. Unfortunately I got the call in my 8th hour of driving home from Midd, so Sally probably thinks I'm crazy because in a sort of post-finals/400th mile haze I have no idea what I said to her.
Neil, as it turns out, does not give a shit what my goals are for him. That being said, I am probably still going to set new goals for next year. A lot of them will be the same: get mileage and confidence. He has actually come a long way this year, just not in the directions I was thinking earlier in the spring- for example, his lateral work is getting really good and you can tell he feels good about it: he's much more confident in his body when he knows he's doing something well. He's getting his first couple of weeks completely off since I brought him home as a 3 y/o, which is actually something I feel good about. Sometimes as I push myself, I also push my horses too hard, and it will do him good to just grow and play for a little bit. Can't wait to get back on after he's had 3 weeks off to eat and think about new acrobatics.
I'm excited to go back to Middlebury early to stay with Sue and work at Twitchell Hill, and get some extra time in the saddle for a week before my J-term immunology class starts. Meanwhile, I'm in Houlton for the week after Christmas to play with ponies and of course Mary Drew! ...which means if you have a horse and you want it ridden...you know where to find me.
Merry Christmas!
Marina and Neil
