Let the count down begin!

With 13 days until our departure for IEA HT I plan to do a count down as the days get closer to why and how we ended up here, in this place ready to tackle our first Horse Trial. 

13 days to go: how we got here #1

Time, it's a funny thing.  Sometimes is flies and others it seems it stands still.  But looking back on the past 2 years it seems that on one hand it took no time at all and on the other it seems it took forever.  I can't help but second guess myself sometimes when I see others who take their horse and fly through levels.  I ask myself why it took us 2 years to get to a measly Beginner Novice horse trial?  Then I look at my horse, I get on my horse, I ride my horse and I am 100% reassured that I took the right steps for as long as it took.  Not to prove anything to anyone.  Not to 'get' somewhere.  No that is not why we did this, that is not why I am doing this.  We took each step to do what was right for Steady, on that day, in that moment.  We made the right path by choosing to live up to no ones expectations and muddle through our issues no matter how hard it was or how long it took, that is what we did.   I did it for love.  Love of this horse.  I believe to this day he has greatness in him.  I just knew it wouldn't be an easy process to unveil it.  I did it for him.  I made every choice I did to do right by this horse.  The care, the feed, the work, the time, every step was for him.  And somewhere along the way, I don't know exactly where but the tables turned and I found that every step my horse took it was for me.  He saw my love and raised it, he showed me that by making the right choices by him that he would gladly take me as far and high as I wanted to go.  He trusts me.  Not because I have always made the right decisions but because when I made poor ones I was never too proud to appologize to him and humble myself to listen to him.  He has taught me more about being a horseman than any human has ever been able to.  So though some may say it should not have taken us this long to get here.  I say that we are exactly where we are supposed to be right in this moment.  We are ready, it is our time!  I know that in my heart of hearts we are right where we are supposed to be.  There is something about knowing that, that means more than any higher level ever could.

So we will embrace our Beginner Novice and we will live it like it is our Rolex because it is for us.  No matter the outcome I know I did right by my horse and even if he jumps out of the dressage arena and we come home empty handed I know I can still come home with my horse that we love and trust each other and that is all that really matters to me.