The following is organized loosely by category. I've included the posts that I often like to go back and reread within those categories, each with a brief description.
Ideally I'll have a few more posts covering other categories that have been interesting to me this past year too. Definitely let me know if any of the below have been particularly interesting to you, or if there are others (or other general topics) that you especially liked!
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Introducing Charlie!
- Notorious S.T.A.L.L.I.O.N.S.: A review of Charlie's pedigree, especially some particularly grouchy ol' goons in there.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Charlie's life on the track wasn't always easy. He's got some baggage.
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Philosophy on horsemanship and horse training
- A good brain deserves a good foundation: Discussing why trailer training matters to me, but also seeing the bigger picture of what it means to learn with and teach a horse how to respond positively to adverse stimuli.
- Making silk purses out of sow's ears: Envisioning the possibilities of transforming the raw material of an OTTB into something truly special. Complete with links to inspirational videos.
- Wise words: tl;dr -- don't leave holes in your training, ffs. Setting yourself up for success means not skipping ahead prematurely.
- Playing the long game: Horses do not have an infinite capacity for accepting pressure. Pick your battles.
- What I say v. what I do: Sometimes I talk a big game but still do really dumb shit.
- Discretion is the better part of valor: Horses don't choose to be bad. Building a solid horse is like building a solid house: if I lay a shoddy foundation, the walls will crack beneath the pretty pictures hung on them. If I want the horse to be disciplined, hold myself to a standard 10x as high.
- Whose journey is it anyway? As equestrians, we're always talking about the "journey." But what does that really mean?
- The hive mind: Collective Intelligence: Basically this community is incredible and has been amazingly inspirational to me.
- The audacity of a plan: I'm a planner, what can I say? Things don't always work out tho.
- What is 'fancy' and why does everybody care so much? As a follow up to this discussion, I'd like to point you to this post at Braymere Custom Saddlery and this post from COTH.
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Show Recaps!
(most of these shows have multiple entries - click through the archives for the full story!)
- Bob's No Halters Required Dressage Show: Charlie's first competitive outing. Focused on what it means to introduce a horse to showing.
- MDHT Slayer Edition: First big show, tho we only did the CT. Charlie proves he's ready!
- MDHT: Very Green, Very Honest: We did all three phases! This link is just to the overall summary, but click through to the next two (dressage + stadium, and cross country) for play-by-play details.
- Jenny Camp 2017: XC: This xc course was bigger than anything Charlie and I had schooled to date. It was a watershed moment in understanding what kind of event horse Charlie could be. And I loved it!
- MCTA: Revisionist History: Charlie moved up to BN and acted like it was the easiest thing in the world (even tho we got eliminated on some bs haha, oh well!)
- First of Fall: Fair Hill Preview: Wasn't intended to be our final show of the season, but it was a high note no matter what.
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Are any of the above your favorite? Or did I miss something that should have been captured in one of these categories? Or perhaps you're thinking of maybe doing a similar collection of your own favorite posts from the past year?
You two have had such a big year together <3
ReplyDeletedefinitely a big year, tho my least prolific in terms of blogging. even tho there were fewer posts this year tho there's still a lot of good stuff in there!
DeleteWhat a year! I've loved following along :)
ReplyDeletethanks!! there's certainly been a lot going on and i'm grateful to have so much of my feelings and ideas throughout captured here, along with everyone's commentary on it!
DeleteI've always found it interesting to see the posts that were the most popular. I think you captured it all! And I've loved following along this year. Can't wait for next year!
ReplyDeleteyea agreed, tho these actually weren't necessarily the most popular by views or comments - they're just some of my personal favorites. i may do another summation by comments or views later... maybe. the views part got a bit mangled in the past year bc i got a lot of what appears to be non-human traffic (think: bots) that skewed things. and anyway often the "most popular" posts by traffic aren't necessarily the ones that mean the most to me.
DeleteLove reflecting ;) glad we can be inspirations to each other
ReplyDeletemy favorite thing about the blog is being able to revisit so many memories, and relive lessons learned
DeleteLoved this!! I went back and re-read quite a few.
ReplyDeleteaw yay! it's nice to look back and reread sometimes!
DeleteI got a notification that i have done over 100 blog posts now that does not seem possible. I love all your posts. I dont think I can pick a fave (Tho the George Morris one was one of the best LOL) HA!
ReplyDeleteeeee congrats on your 100 posts!! that's a big milestone! and yea i love the GM one - that will certainly make the cut in another one of these round-ups, probably in the "blog hop" category ;)
DeleteSuch a nice recap of your year. you have both grown so much. I have to say that choosing a favourite is hard but one of mine is 'what would GM say?'. I laughed and laughed at that one
ReplyDeletelol yessss i'm so glad you liked that one -- i had wanted to write it for so long but it just languished in my drafts folder bc i couldn't find quite the right picture and wasn't getting quite the right tone. luckily it worked out tho! i'll definitely be trying to capture my favorite funniest posts in a future round-up edition lol
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