New Journey for the New Year

So here we are once again, a brand new year! For some reason, though the event is the same every twelve months, it remains an exciting and inspiring time in our lives.  A chance to start things over, a reason to kick a bad habit, and an opportunity to create new chapters in our lives.  For me the new year has always meant that I can officially begin ticking off the months and weeks until the weather begins to change and summer arrives.  Winter is only good because it means it's Christmas time and I get to travel home to Seattle and be with my family, once that's over I'm immediately ready for sunshine, long hours of daylight, and some serious horse time!

My resolution this year is to focus on my horsemanship goals and create measurable objectives for myself.  I have been wanting to officially assess my Level 3 for ages, and then think forward to a fast track course at one of the Parelli centers.  I have also been wanting to sign up for at least one clinic and to audit a few others.  I am hoping to finally achieve these goals with a lovely mare I just purchased today!

I sold my last horse a few months ago.  She wasn't the right match for me and as I got to know her I realized that we weren't each others perfect partner.  It was also a financial relief to not own a horse through winter... But even though it had only been a few months I found myself thinking nonstop about buying another horse...

If you ask my family they can tell you the torment I dragged them through while trying to decide if I should buy a horse or not.  It sounds pretty simple when you sum up the big debate in one sentence like that but for me it was an agonizing decision.  I obsessed about making the "smart" decision and doing what was best for me at the time not just acting on impulse and buying a horse simply to have one.

I started dreaming about my bank account, about horses, about meeting Pat Parelli, about horse trailers, about my student loans, about riding, about having noodles for legs that were no longer fit for riding anymore, back to the bank account again.... you get the idea! I just kept going back and forth, wrestling with trying to be smart and trying to follow my passion.  There are many reasons why having a horse is not only something that is good for the health of my overall happiness but it is an investment in my continuing education of horsemanship.  Football players practice regularly to stay at their best in the game and so must the rest of us who want to be good at something.

So, after a lot of thought I decided to make the plunge and buy a horse! My new partner is a beautiful '05, 16.1h, Thoroughbred mare named Aspen.  A fun fact about Aspen is that she is the granddaughter of the one and only Sham!  She is un-raced and was started last year as a four year old so she's had her entire life to grow big and strong, without the physical strain of race training.  She's green, without any NH experience, but she has a quiet mind and a sweet disposition.  I am hoping she'll be a good horse to build some of my confidence back up in trail riding and that I can finally assess my level 3 and 4 with! 

She's in the Seattle area right now so I am working on getting her brought back down to Dillon by the end of the month!  Once she's finally home I can relax and begin enjoying my new partnership with this mare!  Below are a handful of summer photos with her prior owner and the snowy ones are from a few days ago.