Every Day

You really need to click the photo for the full effect.

Many thanks to my trainer, Chemaine Hurtado, for sharing this.

If you're a regular Facebook user, you've probably seen this. And if you hadn't seen it before today, you're now nodding your head right along with the rest of us. And if you don't ride, but say you play golf (I am looking at you, jenj!), you also know exactly what this flow chart depicts.

I know it's supposed to represent progress over time. See there at the top where the equestrian thinks she's now a champion and therefore gets to rest on her laurels? Well, what she may not realize is that it doesn't represent permanent progress. Tomorrow, she's going to be back in the range of "stall cleaner."

I am kidding of course. She'll probably only drop back to "We suck!"

I don't know how up and down your rides are over the course of an hour, a week, or a month, but I go through this entire range of fugly to fabulous on a daily basis. Riding two horses regularly is pretty humbling. To those of you riding three or more ponies, I salute you. You're either totally awesome, or else you just love the flavor of humble pie.

​Again, just kidding!

I haven't ridden in a few days. I had last week off, so I got a ton of saddle time on both horses, including four lessons with Chemaine. By Monday, I was feeling the need for a break, so I scheduled a few appointments for after school.

The last day I rode was Sunday. That chart up there is exaclty how my day went. My ride on Speedy was beyond fantastic. It was so good that I sent Chemaine a rather long message telling her how good our connection was and how forward into my hand Speedy was. If I could have crammed him into the trailer and raced off to a show that afternoon, I would have done it. Second Level was waving me onto the field as "We are the Champions" blared through the speakers.

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting
Till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the World

Well, something like that anyway.

And then I saddled Izzy. Holy guacamole. How inept can I be? That is not a rhetorical question. I need answers. How can I be AWESOME at 10:30 and suck lemons by 11:00?!?!?!?

The message to Chemaine also included several paragraphs detailing the stink bomb that Izzy and I dropped. I think he needs a couple of days of too.

The rest of this week is pretty busy with another late meeting on Thursday which means I might get to ride today and Friday, but if I just feel like doing some turn out instead, I am totally okay with that. I don't have to be a champion every time I ride, but thank goodness it happens at least occasionally.

How about you? Are your rides as up and down as mine are, or are you the Champion we all envy? It's okay - you can be honest! :0)