As I wake up this morning realizing we have no groceries, our house needs cleaning, there are a ton of errands I didn’t get to last week, and emails I haven’t had the chance to answer yet, my husband yells through the house to me, “We are living the dream!” I think nobody ever grows up saying I want to ride horses, work for myself AND get enough time to rest and relax… somehow that last part is always left out. It’s true I live a blessed life. Absolutely. I work for myself, which means I make my own schedule, I answer to basically nobody, and I call the shots! We have horses too, which, to be honest, we couldn’t afford if my husband’s family didn’t own a farm to house them. And we sure would

How do you tell if it’s time to take the high road or if it’s better to stand your ground? This year one of my goals was to identify the times I feel walked on or hurt by something, and to try and address those moments. My intention wasn’t to start arguments, but rather to be honest with my feelings and to be authentic. I was thinking I would say more things like “When you said *blank, that made me feel *blank”. I wanted to come at it from a place of honesty. To really say what my true feelings were – not just to be mad, but to identify something deeper and share that part. I have discovered some things are not worth pursuing like this. Small things that are nitpicky weren’t really the missi

Belasik, that is. Hosting a clinic with Paul Belasik (http://paulbelasik.com) after 1,2,3…. Yep 12 years since I have ridden with him, was a little intimidating I must say. I was thinking mostly, “what are we going to talk about on the long car rides” and, “will he like my jumper that sticks his tongue out”? Well the whole weekend turned out to be fabulous! Not only did I have fantastic lessons, but during the evening lecture he read from his not-yet-published book with a Q and A after. I asked a lot of questions. Maybe most – whoops! Paul speaks in such a lyrical way, he is a great one to supply quotes. “There are only as many Masters as there were Masterful students in the previous generat

I’ve been listening to a lot of interviews lately, mostly with singers or actors, and many of them say, “All I’ve ever wanted to be was a singer.” Or, “When I moved to LA and I kept being rejected I never wavered because I knew that’s what I was meant to be.” Listening to that makes me feel like, “Dang, I don’t always feel that way. I must be weak or even not motivated if I have wavered from my dreams.” Is that true? Or even realistic to think you will never waver from your beliefs? But more than that, does it make me less driven? I think it’s like when you watch a TV show like Friends or Sex and the City, and you think of which character you most resemble. You feel like it should be Rachel

So today… I was directed by a friend to watch a TED talk about striving for perfection. I watched it, and then the next suggested talk that came up in the queue was Elizabeth Gilbert: ‘Success, failure and the drive to keep going’. This one caught my attention. Now you and I are new friends through this vocation called blogging, but something to know about me is that I have historically questioned whether I am worthy enough to ride not only the quality of horses I have gotten to, but when I have a bad trip or don’t accomplish my goals like I thought I would, my go-to move is to question the whole thing… like should I even be trying to do this because it’s so hard. So back to the TED talk, (h

So i'm going to be telling my story, my learning and my life through my experiences with horses... If you don't know me I publish the ABSJ magazine and now that we are an online resource I needed a place to get my thoughts out. You may not like them and I may change my mind but my daily meandering thoughts will rest here as a sort of journaling on my part. Hope you enjoy! #newatthis #stickitoutwithme #everwonderedwhatsomeoneelseisgoingthrough #hereismyversion