Today is the last day of 2013, and I will not be spending any of it on horseback. So that means we get to do the official tally.
Talk about barely squeaking over the finish line. This is the first year I came so close to falling short of my goal. Of course, it was also a big goal. But still. Tripping at the finish line would have been a bummer (even if it happened because all four of our horses were sick from bad hay).
Because setting goals and working towards them means gathering data, and also because I am a nerd, I have created three fun charts comparing various information from my last three years on horseback (I never kept track of this sort of thing before 2011).
So, it’s certainly neat to see how my overall time with horses has increased, as has my time with almost all of our individual horses. (My time riding Bear was about the same this year and last.) Although some things didn’t go quite as planned (for instance, I didn’t really anticipate fully ceding Zoey to Brian and mostly taking over Laredo), it was definitely a year of learning. A year ago Steen was only just returning to work after his horrible fence injury, and I’d just gotten my new saddle. That saddle is not so new anymore:
Here’s to happiness and horses and worn saddles, and a great 2014.