New Year's Equestrian Resolution's

It's New Year's Eve, which mean's it is time to start thinking about new year's resolutions. New goals in life or new ways to live this thing we call life in general. You have the typical... "I am going to diet and lose weight!" or "I am going to stop buying pointless matters and save up money!" Among other things, life always happens and we seem to "fail" or "give up" on that resolution. By definition, resolution is a really just a decision. To revaluate solutions, if you will. So what kind of solutions can you make on your life this year? Maybe it is something you have thought about doing for years and never did because, again life, always seems to get in the way rather it be family, relationships, work, financially, etc., but how can we put a new start on life that gives us a solution to problems that get in the way of our goals. It may be little things, like making good habits, small changes to our everyday lifestyle where it eventually just becomes an everyday routine. Regardless, it can be done, but how bad do you want it? We all find ourselves feeling lazy, unmotivated, depressed, feel like we are making little to no progress because of the time that it takes to get to the end product. And in the equine community, all of those feelings come into play in some shape or form and in one way or another.

I have barrel raced for years and when college took over my life for a few years, along with work, barrel racing was put on hold. Due to this and the horse I was riding wasn't even really mine, family drama happened and so I kind of gave it all up in general. College slowed down a little and I ended up revaluating what I wanted to do in my life for a career.. I personally did not want to go into college in the first place, but that is a different story for a different day. When I couldn't afford to go to college anymore, plus in general I was just plain miserable with not getting to ride, Mia came into my life at the perfect time. I bought her at 6 months old and I did all of the training on her myself. She is 5, going on 6 year's old and she is easily put as, my heart horse. With Mia came lots of goals, Goals that I still want to complete to this day. Goals that were not completed in a year time frame. And that is not a bad thing.

When you think of training a horse, you should think of raising a child, It doesn't happen in 30,60,90 days. It takes YEARS to accomplish and TEACH them new things. Same with a horse. While the horse learns sometimes faster than others, as do people, it goes back to the common sense rule of thumb.... not every horse is the same. Some are crazy, strong willed, hard headed, easy going, cold backed, grumpy on the ground then fine under saddle, some are lazy, some can't hold still, some love their job that was assigned and some do not.

So with my time I had when I was still in school, working and trying to spend as much time as I could with Mia, I found myself feeling like I am not accomplishing as much as my friend's with their 3 year old's. There are people running in the futurity on 3 to 5 year old's and Mia is just now getting patterned.... Now on a side note, this has nothing to do with "well 2 years old is too young to start a horse, you should let them develop first" while I fully agree... let me finish my point that this does but at the same time doesn't have anything to do with that statement....

When I get down in the dumps thinking to myself, "wow.... they are so much farther a long then I am and maybe I am just not working hard enough or maybe I should save up and get a trainer that can progress my horse farther... but then I think back...."WHAT IS THE RUSH??!!" Why should I be in such a hurry?? Am I? Like it is not like I am going to be going to the NFR or even just simply running pro in general... so WHY THE RUSH?!?!

See, too many people are rushing their training, expecting this 2.5 to 3 year old horse to be running and winning like it is a game to see what horse is the youngest to win the race.... but why?? Wouldn't you want your horse to be physically sound and to last a life time?? It isn't like these horses are dying in 5 years... or at least they shouldn't be... they should be living until they are 40! If you ask me... I would rather have a horse that has been actually seasoned with all types of situations and be 20 year's old vs having a blown up 3 year old that has joint issues by the time they are 5.

I also think back to when I look at Mia, is that I created that!! All of the things she knows how to do, is because I taught her. It did not happen over night, even though she is a very smart horse and it might as well have...but what is even more important than that... is the BOND I have with her. ... Story time...

When I bought Mia, my friend's The Rowlen's took me to go get her. I at the time did not have a truck and trailer. It took 5 people to get her to load in the trailer. At that moment when we finally got her in, I thought to myself... oh boy... what did I get myself into.

I get her home and she unloads just fine, I introduce her to the new horse's and keep her in halter and lead in case anything were to go wrong. Once they were figured out of one another for a few minutes, I go ahead and turn her loose and keep a eye. She settled in just fine. The next day, I catch her with ease in open pasture. Mia has always been a in your pocket pony and still is to this day. Now mind you with this timeline... NONE of this training was rushed... She is just SO SMART. In a week.... she learned how to lunge on a line. This filly had little to no training prior due to family health from the people I purchased her from. Typically they at least halter break them and the longer they stay the more they get worked. While we were on the lunging aspect of the training, I also was doing things like picking her feet up, cleaning her feet, letting her stand tied, giving her things to play with and grooming her. I even tied a plastic sack to her halter and she just tried eating it so for that reason that did not last long 😂

Because I did not have a trailer at the time, I had no way to practice that. I ended up later having to move my horses home from where I was staying, I was also by myself and thought I was going to have a really hard time getting her to load.... That little bit of a bond I had with her within 3-6 months of having her, was more than enough for her to say "yes, I can trust you with no question." She questioned getting in the trailer a little... I guess it was more of a "Ok how do I do this" because it was quite the step and as she figured it out, she just hopped right in. From what took us 5 people and 20 minutes to load her took me by myself, the situation not visited in quite some time and 5 minutes to get her loaded. Ever sense that day.... she literally loads herself.

Fast forward to this past summer when we started hitting the barrel races a lot. Something struck my attention to her as the summer progressed. While her demeaner while riding did not change, her want to even leave the house did. It was a simple sign of just going to go catch her. A horse that would typically meet me at the gate and stick her head in the halter, started to shy away from me. She wouldn't run off but if she was in the pasture farther towards the back, she would walk off and go hide. I would catch her and then she would walk the slowest pace she could to get up to the trailer. She did her job just fine, but still in her performance something still seemed...off....

For financial reasons and us also needing to get our other mare, Opal, legged up for the fall trip to Heaven's Gate, We stopped barrel racing and started going trail riding again.

When Mia realized that we weren't going to a race, she started meeting me up at the gate again.

It broke me.... It made me feel so selfish... Like I had no clue until we stopped that she was just doing it for me.... With her being the first horse I ever trained, I just thought it was part of the seasoning process. Who knows maybe that could have been part of it too... but I got to look out for her in that aspect. And I damn sure am not going to sell her. I can easily change what I want to do, I mean she still knows the barrel pattern, so if I want to go hit a playday every once in a while, I can do that. Barrels too though was by far going to be her only job... I still planned to trail ride, go sort cows, simply pasture ride, etc. but I have to take into consideration what she want's to do too... She's my partner and she takes just as good care of me as I do to her and she has made me a better horseman than any horse I have ever owned has done. She has taught me SO MUCH MORE than I have taught her.

So when you get down on yourself with your new year's equine resolutions.... just think back to why.... because lets face it... Life is stressful enough... no need to take something you have a strong passion for and make it unenjoyable.

Happy Trails! 🌻🐴🌻