Weather and thoughts!!!

If they kept records on the most perfect weather, today would have been a record day. Blue skies, slight breeze, high of 71. It was glorious! I took Charley to the dog park for a fun diversion after Physics. You know what I really wanted to do? Ride my horse. I think yesterday and today were the first times I have missed him since he has been gone (about 10 days). Of course, I have had plenty of time and space to think about him and how I feel about him. I was talking to the ladies on the trail ride yesterday and one of them in particular, Melissa (she lent me the horse for the day and also lends John a horse sometimes), really had some good words for me. We talked about sometimes people not clicking with a horse, we talked about arabians maturing slower mentally, and about how it is scary to give up on the 'future'. She really seemed to think that I should stop worrying about making a decision about him and said that a year from now I will know what to do. I think she is right. He is in training now, we will have the winter to work on arena stuff, then back to training in Feb/Mar, and then see how it goes from there. I think that if by next fall I am still not having fun and trusting him on trail rides, I will be able to come to a solid decision on what to do with him. For now, I am just going to try to do what I can.

I do have some new goals.

• After winter, I would like for him to go to a month of training as a refresher.
• Then I would like to go to some clinics here. The reason I picked that place is because it is close (4 hours) and they offer 'extreme trail rider challenges'. If there is anything that we could use help to build our confidence it would be extreme challenges on the trail. I think these types of clinics are a good idea for us so that we can really bond and learn to do these types of things together.
• In addition to those clinics, I would like to do an endurance ride. I feel like I have been waiting long enough and I want to try one out!
• Another idea I have for this year is to go on a spring break (March 13-21) camping trip in Oklahoma. I always wanted to ride at Lake Carl Blackwell (50+ miles in loops) in Stillwater and Bell Cow Lake (35 miles in two out and back trails) in Chandler. Both of these trails are designed for horses and are supposed to be the best marked and maintained in the state. I think it would be great to camp out and visit both, having a nice week of riding!

I think those are all reasonable and attainable goals for the next year. I haven't come up with any short term goals for when Boomer gets back from training. I know we need to work on cantering in a controlled way, side passing and despooking. I would also like to trailer out to Kill Creek or Shawnee Mission Park as they do not close for the winter unless it is muddy. I think that would be fun to do with friends! SMP was great exposure for all of the horses. We saw deer, golfers, frisbee golfers, jousters/medieval fighters, bikes, kids, dogs, etc. It was probably busier than usual because of the awesome weather yesterday, but it was a great training/experience park!

I'll post again as soon as I get another training update on Boomer!