Yesterday Brian and I realized Tuesday was the three-year-anniversary of the day Steen stepped off the trailer and into our lives. It’s been a pretty amazing three years. Steen has definitely challenged me more than I ever expected, but he’s also convinced two completely non-horse people to make horses a significant part of their lives, become a favorite around the barn and, of course, I adore him.
Still, training him has been an interesting hodge-podge of forward and backwards progress. When I bought Steen I thought he was basically trained and I just needed to smooth out the rough spots. Now I think of a training as more of a life-long project. Like fitness, training is not static. A horse’s training is either improving or eroding every day. I also consider the overall relationship of the horse and rider to be much more important now than I used to, and believe many, many problems can be solved with a little ground-work.
As this blog grows, it is becoming an increasingly useful tool for me to help me look back and remember where I’ve been. Last night I finally went through and added labels to all my old posts, which I’ve been meaning to do for a super long time now. In doing so I skimmed over most of what I wrote the first year I had Steen and was surprised at the way I’ve misremembered a few things.
Still, it’s been a great three years, and I hope the next three are even better.