Having a "concrete" goal and being in the moment

      This week I haven't been able to get any playing time in because we've been moving hay to our house from a place that is 1 1/2 hours away.  Although moving the hay has been a big part of not getting down there to play with them, I've also been hesitant about going out to play for awhile because I got a little confused about things.  So I've been taking some time to figure things in my head and I think I understand now.

        At this point your probably wondering what I mean by a "concrete" goal.  Well here it is: I'm having a little trouble deciding what I want to do with the horses when I get down there because I only know what I want in an abstract form.  I know I want connection, but I don't know whether to work on circles or trailer loading.  So I've decided that I need to have a short term, concrete goal, such as being able to take my horse away from the group on a trail ride, or getting my horse to canter calmly on the circle. 

         Now I'll tell you about the "being in the moment" part of my title.  As I said in my last paragraph, I've been lacking a reasonable goal for awhile, but I've also been lacking relaxation.  I think that's because I worry about things before they happen and I worry about things that have already happened.  Now as I'm beginning to form my short term, physical goals, I've begun to worry about what may come up as I work towards those things.  So I guess that heart of the issue is that I have to trust that when something unexpected happens I'll be able to work through it.  Knowing this it's easier to relax become excited about doing stuff with the horses instead of preparing for the worst!

          So what are my goals?  Well with Marsan I want to work on preparing her in every possible way for the trailer without going to the trailer.  I've made this my goal because I think that if I could get Marsan to walk over and in a lot of things, the trailer would become just one more thing to stand on.  If I also had Marsan walk between a lot of objects, it would seem as scarey to her to walk between the walls of the trailer.  Besides by preparing her in this way I can expose her to a lot of objects that we might encounter at other times.  With Gingy my goal is to help Gingy find rhythm and relaxation at the canter on the circle.  I want to work towards this mostly because Gingy needs to get in shape so that I can start riding him.  So I'll keep ya posted on how my short term, concrete goals go LOL.