New Year Notes to Myself

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do make a year-end list of personal reflections. It includes lessons I’ve learned as well as rhetorical questions I continue to ponder. As I look back on 2009, my list goes something like this:

1. Before hitching up the trailer and heading out for a relaxing ride on a public trail system, check the site’s activities calendar. If it’s going to be hosting a mountain bike derby, a run/walk for the cure of anything, or the annual gathering of Birdwatchers of America, it’s best to ride someplace else.
2. Never participate in an online equestrian chat group with a bunch of horsewomen around dinner time. Your husband will end up feeling ignored and cooking for himself and that never ends well.
3. As I get older, my horses are getting smaller.
4. Someone needs to manufacture a decent therapeutic western saddle pad that looks stylish and doesn’t cost more than my monthly hay bill.
5. That pungent aroma of horse urine and equine sweat? That’s coming from my shoes.
6. When in doubt, longe.
7. No one can ever convince me that my geldings would look respectable wearing tack that’s blinged out with sparkling colored crystals.
8. Years ago I was able to body clip a horse to perfection in less than an hour. Now I spend twice as much time and the poor creature ends up looking like a four-legged patchwork quilt.
9. Why won’t my husband buy me horsey print flannel pajamas? I ask for them every Christmas and he never gets them for me.
10. If a cracked leather rein looks like it might break, it will. And it’ll break at the most inopportune time, like when I’m pulling back to stop a bolting horse.
11. Every scary uphill trail eventually leads to a scary downhill trail. For some reason I can’t seem to remember that.
12. My horses have a psychic gift combined with uncanny fiduciary skills. Virtually every time I’m able to amass a small fortune in my savings account, they injure themselves so I have to pay a vet bill that drains the aforementioned savings account.
13. It’s nearly impossible to completely remove Neatsfoot oil stains from a nylon jacket.
14. I admit that I have a thing for heart-shaped silver conchos. In fact, I believe I’ve collected enough to outfit a parade horse.
15. At some point during 2010 I’ll discover the perfect pair of riding jeans. They’ll fit my body and they won’t end up leaving abraded areas on certain parts of my anatomy. A horsewoman can dream, right?

I hope you have fun creating your own year-end list. I truly wish you a new year full of great horses and great rides. If you’d like to leave a comment, just click on Submit a Comment below.

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