New Year Intentions 2024

Hello, and welcome back to the blog! It’s that time of year again when everything feels like it can be wiped clean and everything starts afresh, like the world waking up on the morning of a fresh snowfall (ironic given I now live in Australia but a lovely notion nonetheless).

Today, as I do every year, I will share my intentions for the year ahead but before we get to them, I like to reflect on the year just passed. I always find it highly entertaining to look at what I was thinking the previous year and to see what I’ve managed to achieve.

Last year, I wrote:

With 2022 being a year of much change and unpredictability, it is reassuring to know that 2023 will be significantly less challenging as, of course, we have already completed the move and have started to settle into life here. 

BBequines 2023

Spoiler alert, 2023 was not less challenging.

In fact, I think in some ways it felt even more challenging. Settling in took much longer than anticipated and I had many, many set backs in my progress to feel settled in Australia. It was one step forward, two steps back consistently last year. Then, on top of that, I had a very stressful job which I struggled with almost every single day. Safe to say, it was not quite what I hoped. Things didn’t start to feel better for me until maybe the end of October, though there are still, of course, ups and downs.

My intentions for 2023 were focussed on the youngster I had, improving my riding and blogging more. None of these happened unfortunately. I ended up selling Bryni because it was just too hard to give her the time she needed and I could probably count how many times I’ve actually ridden this year, with the majority of it being more recently. I got Harry at the end of May and then I had a bit of a ‘stress break’ and got him back for a short time before he was off to the vet with a fungal eye infection.

Not the jolly little path paved with flowers I had mapped out, but here we are.

I often feel like my life will never reach a point of being ‘settled’. It seems so far off in the distance but I’m going into 2024 trying not to focus on that. Instead, I am focussing on my word for the year: contentment.

I’d love to end the year with a sense of contentment in myself, meaning I have an acceptance and sense of gratitude for the way things are in life, whether they are good or bad, easy or hard. It’s a grand notion, I know, but it’s important to me.

But anyway, on with the horsey goals!

Only Goal: Become like Lorenzo

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Just kidding, as if! Though this man is quite incredible, what a gift! My goals are a little less divine!

Make riding a priority

I had a similar intention last year but for a myriad of reasons this just did not come to fruition. I now have a wonderful horse of my own to ride and I’d like to get into a routine that I enjoy with riding. I would like to put riding in my diary, literally like an appointment, that I have to keep with my goal being I will ride twice throughout the workweek and once at the weekend. It’s not as much as I’d like but I’m limited with my commute to work and the nature of starting another new job to be able to commit to riding consistently on more days than this. If I over-plan my weeks, I most likely won’t even do it at all because it’s unrealistic and then I get disheartened.

So, three times a week, even if all I can manage is short sessions throughout my workweek, I’ll feel like I’m winning and prioritising something important to me without compromise (or excuses!).

Have Harry working well at Prelim Level

When I got Harry, he was still training as if he were racing but he hadn’t actually ran a race in two years. So, he’s pretty fresh into the regular riding horse world. We have also had such a bumpy, inconsistent ride so far that he has only the very basics.

I’d like a lot if he could work in a balanced manner with correct bend in walk, trot and canter on both reins, it would make a world of difference.

Train Harry in walk and trot- bitless

Harry has a parrot mouth and bits can be tricky with a horse with a parrot mouth. He wears a thin bit to help with this (a loose ring french link) but I personally prefer to ride bitless due to some research I did years ago where I learned about the effects a bit has on a horses’ mouth.

I have ordered the same bitless bridle I have for Bo back in Scotland for Harry so that should be here shortly. It’s from a company called Barefoot and I love their stuff. I actually have a treeless saddle and accessories for the saddle ordered too which I am beyond excited about!

Once the bridle gets here, I reckon I’ll just make the switch out entirely and continue his training bitless but we’ll maybe stick to walk and trot to start, just to be safe as it’s obviously foreign to him at the moment and he is still a racehorse after all (even if he is a lazy one).

‘Attempt’ a jump with Harry

Unfortunately, Harry is not gifted with carefulness and hits 80% of the poles we go over but he is slowly improving. I’d love to see what he thinks of jumping if he can work out that he needs to pick his feet up! Even if we did it just once, over a tiny cross pole, I’d be over the moon.

Find a flexible routine

This is a biggie for me. As I’ve said, finding consistency can be hard but I’d like to hopefully get to the point where I can only go to the yard once a day at least for a portion of the year, rather than twice, or in my case throughout the Christmas Holiday’s three times! Once a day would make a huge difference and I’d absolutely be less exhausted. To do this, I need to get Harry’s weight up to scratch and find a way to help him maintain it more. I’m doing lots of research on feed and ottb’s so if you have any advice on what you would feed an ottb that you would swear by to keep the weight on, do let me know!

Back to the blog!

I seem to have re-discovered some motivation for sharing on social media and writing again which I am glad about and I’d like to continue with this into the new year. I’m limiting my goal to being one ‘Monthly Muster’ where I round up each month, talk about what we’ve been up to and provide a recommendation and goals for the new month. However, if I manage, I might try to include some extra posts too. It very much depends on the nature of my new job, I’m praying it’s not as all consuming as my last one.

So there you have it, my 2024 intentions! Here’s to a content and consistent new year!

What are your intentions/ goals for the new year? I’d love to know!

Happy Horsing!