Forget about Hot Girl Summer, it’s time for Horse Girl Summer!

I find myself in a position I never imagined: with two sound, rideable horses. Given the history I’ve had with managing lameness, this seems less likely than the one-in-14,000,605 chance the Avengers had of defeating Thanos, and yet here we are.

Right now I’m riding one horse Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday which means they each get every other day off along with two full days off. Our rides are about 30 minutes. We are gradually bringing the horses into better condition and so far it’s going well, aside from a few snafus (like Griffy losing his shoes for a week, and then a deluge of rain that flooded the arenas.). Since I live on the surface of the sun (aka Central Texas) I have to ride early, which means I’m getting up around 4:15 to get to the barn and get ready for a lesson around 6:15. I’d like to tell you I’m consistently on time, but yeah, we gotta work on that.

The big project for this summer is to work on my anxiety. I’ve never been the world’s most confident rider, which is fine – I rode from ages 3 to 14, then took a 30 year break where I learned that I am not, in fact, invincible. But at some point, the anxiety started getting worse, and now I feel like it’s interfering with me in a way that’s holding me back. So, it’s time to work past it. I’ve considered asking my doctor for Xanax, but I think I’m gonna put a pin in that for now. I am all about better living through chemistry, but there is definitely some mental work I think needs to be done, and I want to see if I can tackle that and make progress. If I think I need it after a couple of months, then I’ll revisit.

To kick off the mental work, I’m reading this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Fear-Free-Fearful-Teachers-ebook/dp/B008L3HVZ0

I started it before but never finished it. I know that later in the book they want you to journal, and I’ve wanted a place to talk about horse stuff for a while, and I have this website I’ve never done anything with so here we are. I look forward to charting our progress over the next few months!