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Friday, February 5, 2010

Motivation and Homework

Back in my wee younger years, I was out at the barn riding every single day.  Every waking hour that I could get myself to the barn, I was there.  Now, there is this real life thing, complete with a 45 hour a week job, a car payment, a significant other, housework, and other obligations.  Big freaking sigh.
I only get out to the ranch on weekends.  This really cramps my style – I hate it.  For two reasons.  The first being that it means I only see my horse twice a week.  The other reason is that it means my entire Saturday and Sunday are filled with Jaina.  It puts a damper on my relationship with my boyfriend who works just as hard as I do during the week and wants to, you know, actually SEE ME on the weekends too.  I can get out there just fine when Jaina has an abscess and needs my doting attention.  NO PROB.  But for some reason, I can’t motivate myself to wake up freakishly early on the weekdays to go ride her or even pet her.  Argh.

I work 10-7.  Theoretically, I could work 8-5 if I wanted to, but that wouldn’t solve anything since it is dark right now by 5:30 and my ranch has no lighting for night activities.  This leaves the morning.  It means I have to get up at 6 to get out there by 6:30 and leave the barn by like…8:30 to be home by 9 to shower and be out the door by 9:30 to get to work on time.  Waking up at 6 is a REAL DIFFICULTY for me.  I go to bed at around 1:00am every night, and sleeping earlier is hard because my boyfriend is a night owl too.

I honestly think I’d have more motivation if I actually had something I was working towards.  With Jaina, I just kinda go out there and ride her around the ranch.  We don’t have any particular discipline, and I’m not working on training her on anything.  I don’t have a trainer or someone to take lessons with at my ranch, so I’m just hacking around aimlessly.  This is really affecting my motivation to go out there – because we don’t have a chore, homework, something to work on.  This is where a new ranch comes in.  In about two weeks, I’ll have Jaina’s purchase price paid off and I’m free to move her wherever I want.  I’ll blog more about this, but I’m leaning toward a particular ranch in Imperial Beach that focuses mainly on Reining.  They have two really great trainers out there, and I could take lessons in a package of 4 for $100.  I’ve never actually done reining before, and Jaina has.  Maybe this will be a fun challenge?  If nothing else, we can just learn regular Western riding together.

I just want something to work toward. I don’t necessarily want to show or anything, I just want something to practice on in the arena on days where I don’t feel like trail riding.  Maybe having homework will be that added bit of motivation that gets me out there on a weekday morning?  We’ll see.

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