I guess what I really mean to say is that life is changing.
When I started riding again after my 25 year hiatus, I made new friends. Trail riding buddies. It was great, we would get together a couple of times a week and hit the trials. We would come back to the trailers and have a bite to eat and a cold drink, chat and plan our next trail ride. It was great - for awhile. Then I started to want more from my horse and myself. The show ring was calling. I had always enjoyed showing but knew that I didn't want to show halter, western pleasure, trail, etc. I had been dreaming of doing working cowhorse and reining. Instead of just going for it, I chose to try Trail Trials instead. My thought process was that I had a great trail horse and I was going to just take the Trail Trial world by storm! Not. Since that didn't work out I turned my focus to reining. I still was trail riding some with my friends but not near as much. My trail riding buddies were all very supportive and encouraging but the more that I worked towards my goals, the less and less phone calls I got to go for trail rides. I don't think I went trail riding more than three times last summer. I don't hear much from my trail riding buddies anymore. When I see them we spend a lot of time chatting and catching up and we talk about trail riding together again, but it never materializes. I had made new friends at the boarding facility and we were kind of all on the same page. I was slowly working towards reining and they each had goals of there own that didn't include going down the same trail a couple times a week. We would ride in the arena, drink beer, visit and hang out at the barn. Life was pretty good. Then I started to get that angst again to move forward. I made the decision to "shit or get off the pot" and sent Semper back to TL. It was tough not to have my favorite buddy around. He was with her for almost 6 months and it darned near killed me. In the end it was totally worth it. Now I had a nearly finished reining horse and was even closer to my goal of going back into the show ring. The only thing at that point that was holding me back was my weight. I made the decision to have surgery and my barn buddies were totally 100% supportive. I don't know if I would have had such a positive experience without the support of my barn buddies. But with surgery came big, huge, changes in my life. First off, I don't drink alcohol anymore. A lot of my social life evolved around having a drink or two or ten. And eating out - food, food, food. That all ended pretty abruptly. It has been almost a year since I had surgery, one of my barn buddies moved Washington and is pregnant (talk about life changing) and I have moved to a new barn. My other barn buddy moved with me. Her life is changing too. She is divorced, just moved out on her own, and is ready to find that someone special in her life. I am so happy for both of them. Jen is going to have a baby! Laura is moving forward and getting her life back on track. We still talk almost everyday. Jen and I text back and forth at least every other day or two.
Life is changing again for me too. Not sure what to do or that I even need to do anything. I am showing and more focused than ever. I seem to be spending more and more time by myself, on my own. My husband is hunting and fishing a lot, my daughters are out on there own, my son is 18 and all that implies! I am not complaining just pondering what other changes are coming up, what new friends I will make, and where this is all going to lead.
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