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Training the Mind of the Horse and Rider

Training the Mind of the Horse and Rider
Click on Logo (Original artwork by Lanie Frick for Messick Quarter Horses. Not permitted to be copied)

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Years Eve Dec 31, 2013

Stay Straight and Focus:

As I rode Allie today in the field, I thought “stay straight and focus” on where you are going whenever she would turn her head to look back at the barn.  She would turn her head left or right, depending on what she was seeing off to the side.  I thought, “come on, girl, go straight”.


Then I realized my life was just like this.  I would try to go straight and stay on the course that I, or God, had chosen for me.  Then something would catch my attention and I would start looking to the right or left.  Sometimes I would keep going straight, but like Allie today, I had a hard time thinking of going straight as my attention would be on what was either to the right or left of me.  Sometimes, I wouldn’t go straight and would actually veer off course and start going to the right or left.
 

What is it that draws our attention off of our initial or desired path and makes us look or go a different way?  When we think we have our path clearly in front of us, and we start making plans to follow it, and we do start to follow it, why can’t we follow it to the end?  Before we realize it, there are little turns to the right and maybe even bigger turns to the left.  Sometimes, there are delays and something we have to go backwards a few steps.
 

I start to think that I am meant to follow the new path.  Why, what is wrong with the old path?  If I start the new path, do I know where it is heading or what I am suppose to do? Probably not.  But if I was not suppose to follow this new path, then why was the choice in front of me?
 

I begin to think that the path that I was initially on isn’t the path that I want to be on any longer.  The new path is taking me into a different direction, one that I wouldn’t have thought of earlier but now looks like a good choice.  Just like Allie wanting to take another route around a brush pile or through a field, maybe when there is a turn in our path we need to think that the new path is a better path.
 

New paths bring different choices.  New paths make us choose between old ways and new ways.  New paths bring a difference to our lives. 


New Paths.  New Choices.  New Ways.   Sometimes, different choices aren’t what we would want.  Sometimes they are sad, sometimes hard, sometimes they are ones that we don’t want, but once the choice is made, and we let ourselves change, sometimes we see that the choice make us a better person.  New paths make a wonderful difference in our lives if we choose to follow them.  One thing is for sure, though, we can only change if we follow different paths.  Make a change, make a choice, and become what you are meant to become.


As 2013 comes to an end, so does the old paths.  2014 will bring new paths, new choices, and a new way of life.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Once Again




Once again, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged.  Life gets busy and when we start to add too many extra things to our schedule, then something has to go.  With liquidating the store, I finally added Facebook, and last July and August, I stayed busy adding inventory to a FB page.  Now that Christmas shopping is over, sales have slowed down.  I hope to find that extra time, that I used to have, to blog more.  And to read.


                Winter is my time to find that extra time.  Usually that starts about November, slows down in December and then I have lots of time in Jan and Feb.  I’m behind this year as my free time just started last week.  Now I need to establish a routine of staying on track with my time. 


                My other plans are to start reading and discussing more books on my Horses Are Our Lives chat, which I just started to do.  Join the chat and read and/or discuss the chapters with me or anyone else who joins in.  You don’t need to buy the books, as I hope that the review and discussion of the books will give you a good idea of what the book is about.


And I hope to find the time to take more photos.  We finally got a DSLR camera, and now to read the booklet to figure out how to use it!  Maybe I’ll try to take an online class or even some classes at the Community College.


Sometimes, I just need to set a schedule to get things done.  Are you like that?  Or are there days that you just say, “I need to do this, then this, then this before the day is over”?  I know, for me, if I have days like that, or even a week like that, then I need to get up in the morning and get started right away.  I’ll set a schedule that includes reading and typing up and posting a chapter of whatever book that I’m reading.  Then I need to work on my FB pages, continuing the Clothing Sales (as there isn’t tack left).  I need to promote my Messick Performance and Endurance Horses, and continue posting photos of the mares, their bloodlines, and the foals that will be coming early summer.

 
Somewhere in there, I need to take the time to start yoga again, and follow a DVD tape of both yoga and my horse exercises.  And continue a work out on the elliptical and weight machine.

 
I hope I can get this all done in one day!  Maybe I’ll need to treat myself like we condition horses.  Once I get in shape, all I’ll need to do is 2-3 times a week, and one long day.  That might make staying on track and keeping up with my schedule a little easier.  I just need to do everything every other day!   By doing that, I’ve cut my work load in half!

"TRAINING THE MIND OF THE HORSE AND RIDER"

Messick Quarter Horses

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