Jump

One of the keys to horseback riding is a remarkably logical mantra: “Let the horse do its work.” Obviously, it takes a huge amount of effort to get a thousand-pound animal to do its work, but it’s important to know that you can’t do it for him or her. You can’t jump the fences or pick up your hooves. Like in any partnership, you need to trust your partner to do their part, and they must trust you to do yours.

Many horses get into the habit of “dragging” on the reins, because many riders are willing to try and “hold their horse up”. Since a horse’s head can be as heavy as your entire body, this is obviously not the best distribution of duties. Let the horse do its work – and support it with short, light bursts of encouragement. That sort of encouragement is much more potent than simple raw strength of muscle. Horses are heavy. You can’t lift them. They have to WANT to jump. As a rider, you need to remind them that working hard does feel good, and jumpin is fun.

Just like a horse can’t jump while leaning on two leather reins, a bird can’t fly by pulling down on the clouds. She needs to want to join them on their own level – and she needs to find her way there on her own will before she can fly.

"Whatever happens, make it your decision"

Life sucks, if you let it. But there are always two aspects to life - the sucky stuff and the fantastic stuff. Sometimes I need to hunt to find the fantastic stuff (whilst being bombarded by sucky stuff) but my mind-set is my decision, and I've made the decision to pull myself up and keep hunting. Even though:
My boyfriend just left the country
I don't know how to accomplish my dreams
I'm still learning to balance my time and energy

The flipside:
I have time to write today
All I need is patience and time and everything will work out
It's sunny! And I'm going to eat some vegetables =)

When I'm riding a tricky horse, lots of times things happen that are outside my control. The horse decides to gallop when I'd been planning on an easy trot; or stops dead; or decides to veer left instead of right around that pole. The best advice I heard was:

"Whatever happens, make it your decision."

Roll with it; reassess the situation; be willing to adapt and, most of all, keep moving forward.