It’s been raining hard and even the best facilities are struggling to keep work spaces useable.
I’m getting restless and feeling disconnected from my horse. She's pent up and has reverted to some wild ways.
We have things we’ve been working on that are falling behind.
How do we get through this without having a major setback in fitness and a total disrupt of our carefully crafted routines?
Maybe we don’t.
Maybe we let the chaos and disruption of the weather break it all down.
A system can benefit from being rebuilt.
It gives us time to think about what works for us - and what works for our horse. It’s an opportunity to figure out how to integrate those things we’ve been neglecting or hoping to get to.
Maybe study some groundwork to address the horse’s weaknesses?
Maybe some connection techniques to improve the relationship?
Maybe some in-hand work to restart by building up the back first?
We will have to reset anyway- why not build in the new habits?
It’s an opportunity to reflect on why your horse does what he does: spook, hesitate to do something, struggle with a particular exercise, resist bending to one side...
It’s also time to let the sound of the rain lull us into a cozy state so that deeper thoughts can bubble up. In thinking of what I've done with Kitty, I have come to realize that she loves to run a course. If I set up poles, a jump and some barrels and we run a set pattern she will tug me over to it to perform it. She seems to get satisfaction from it. Maybe even pride. But it took me making space mentally for that realization to float into my view. I was so focused on what we should work on that it would have passed me by if I hadn’t stopped for a while.
So maybe this is the best outcome of this forced break.
Some introspection and some day dreaming to the sound of raindrops and wind to fine tune expectations and habits. Let the water do it's thing.
To sunny days ahead and to doing better, always.