Now, let me back up before I delve into my recent purchases. I am currently reading The Seven Deadly Sins of Dressage by Douglas Puterbaugh & Lance Wills as well as Janet Foy's Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse. Both of which are great learning tools on how to handle dressage emotionally, mentally and physically. One of my new purchases though is an easy read and really I was half-way done with it an hour after I took it from the B&N box. But it is now becoming dear to my heart! It is Jenna Smith's Dressage: Eight Secrets to FEI by an Adult Amateur Who Did It! She is very direct and too the point about the steps someone like me needs to really focus on to obtain the coveted FEI rider status. Mmm, I love learning :)
The rest of my book purchases were not as equine enthusiastic...2 biographies and a 4 book young adult fantasy series (No, it wasn't Twilight or that smutty fan fiction that developed out of that mess!). So out of the books and into the saddle...
My riding has been so sporadic lately between rain, snow, bad footing and a few other natural disasters that I know I'm forgetting. I do try on the in-betweens to be somewhat productive. DJ and I have taken yet another direction with his semi-retirement, wait for it...Freestyles!! Now, unfortunately his 19 yr. old Arabian body is having a very difficult time maintaining Third level work so, I have dropped him back to the bottom and we are going to attempt the new Training Level Freestyles in order to get our feet wet. Buddy is still working diligently on his Third level work but again the bad footing isn't necessarily the best for trying to teach him flying changes. But I do have a small remedy for that. Many lessons are scheduled in the next three (yes, I said THREE!) weeks, two at NSTC and two with my mystery teacher (who shall be named within the next two blog posts). So, life is getting exciting again (I hope!).
On a different note....Even though we are barely into 2013, I have decided on a major equine related plans for 2014 that I am very excited about but do not want to jinx myself so, unfortunately I will not be able to talk about it for quite sometime :( But until that fateful day when I do decide to share my exciting plans with you internet readers, you can sit and try and guess! (Author's Note: Please don't hold your breathe in hopes that I will break my silence early because I won't and I really do not want to be responsible for any untimely deaths ;). In reality though, you probably have better things to do with your time and will find out when I post it. At that time, You will probably say to yourself, "I vaguely remember her mentioning that a long time ago" or "Really, she had us waiting for that?!?" Either way, I am still excited and can't wait to share the news :)
I understand this post was a bit all over the place. You probably have already written it off that I was drunk, which I'm not, although I may be suffering from severe fatigue since I did decide to try a new workout place today which resulted in me being in bed by 8:30! Oops :) Well, hopefully next time there will be a more coherent blogpost. Happy trails until next time everyone!
