2017 Year In Review

I love year in review posts. They're fun to read and putting them together reminds me just how much changed over the course of the year. This year changed more than most, but I think everyone is ending up in a better place. I know I am.

JANUARY

welcome to my personal hell

Hm a review of January postings reminds me it was a shit month full of post-car-accident recovery for me and lunging for Courage. 

There was definitely some epic-level shopping, including one of the more entertaining saddle-buying interludes I've ever had.

I did finally get back in the saddle at the end of the month. Mixed results (the SB code for "almost unmitigated failure).

FEBRUARY 

More of the same--recovery is a slow stupid bitch so I did a write up of vienna reins, which are actually pretty magical.

I also wrote a pretty in-depth defense of draw reins, which tells you exactly how shitty of a horseman I felt like every time I felt like every time I put them on. (Hint: very shitty. But also I am still alive. Trade offs.)

MARCH

I was totally going to post one of the last fabulous pictures of Courage jumping, but the most important post this month was talking about life lessons learned from pain and suffering and horses.

I didn't know it when I wrote the post, but it was the preamble to a lot of important events this year.

APRIL

It's funny--I wasn't blogging a lot this year, but the things I did write hold a lot more weight I think. In Trouble in Paradise, I talk about the challenge of dealing with a tempestuous horse like Courage and in Reality Bites, I try to come to terms with fitting him into my rapidly-evolving life.

I definitely took advantage of riding other horses and trying new things.

MAY

Well most importantly, May was my ROLEX WRAP UP BLOG POSTS.

In non-Rolex news, my life was in the shitter and every dime was going to exciting vet bills to see if we could find a physical reason for why Courage hated being a sporthorse so much. (Answer: ehhhhhh not really.)

BUT THEN THERE WAS A ROXIECORN

And a premonition rumination.

JUNE

This is possibly the least posts I've made in a month since starting this blog over eight years ago (!!). In Well This Sucks, I acknowledged the factoid that the year had been building towards: I couldn't keep up with Courage any more.

And then I took the best piece of advice I've received all year and wrote Ruthlessly Exclude: The Journey.

JULY

July was a month of transitions--Courage landed an upgrade with an amazing human whose goals are more aligned with his. I continued to Ruthless Exclude.

And I found my Zoebird. 

I've basically been gushing about her ever since.

AUGUST

So many new adventures! I had to get ZB all new things, because nothing I owned fit her. We went on her first trail ride and it was awesome. I contemplated the cool things about baby horses who don't have baggage.

Most importantly, I was having so much fun.

SEPTEMBER

Apparently I was quite dramatic--started the month by memorably calling Alyssa a tiny penguin, then gave blogland a scare. Then I got it out of my system by running 13.1 miles for no very good reason.

I definitely wrote some training posts about Zoebird, but the most important thing was realizing just how much she changed my goals.

OCTOBER

I can't look at posts from this month without thinking about everything else going on in my life. I wrote Perspectives to deal with that a little bit. I also asked what made a nice horse.

In quick succession, Zoe had her first canter, first clinic, and I had my first fall off of her.

NOVEMBER

November brought a lot of ammy problems but more interestingly, Zoebird's first real opinion.

I think the biggest (ha ha) realization this month was just how much a baby mare can grow in a short amount of time.

DECEMBER

This has been a mixed month--Zoe and I are putting in the hours to build a solid partnership. Some of that is what you'd think (riding) and some of it is just the day to day "getting to know you" stuff.

As we head into the new year, Zoe is rocking a saddle that fits, a regular program with a trainer, and hopefully an owner who can get (and keep!) her shit together.


2017 was (again) not the year I expected on any level. Any year that ends one Zoebird richer is not a year I can complain about though. I'd say "I'm coming for you, 2018", but the truth is that I'll be over here toodling bareback on my baby mare and anything after that is gravy.