Cob Jockey

All of the equine blogs I follow have one thing in common:  all of the writers have horses and are taking lessons.  This enables them to write introspective blog posts about 2010 and goal posts for 2011.  Me?  I'm a more challenging (read: boring) read since I don't have a horse.  Nonetheless, I did accomplish some things in my riding life this year, and I have goals for next year, so here goes:

In 2010 I:
- Joined the jump team in my final semester at college, showed at the last regular season show on Einstein, did terribly and spent a good half hour crying behind the equipment barn at Black Dog Farms.
- Started the semester on Simon, whose flaky tendencies almost made me gave up jumping.  This culminated in an epic emotional breakdown during jump team practice one Friday, in which I was sobbing on Chance's back after he took off bucking after a jump.
- Along those same lines, the first 20+ rides of second semester that I had included a buck, spook, or colossal freakout of some sort.  On several different horses.
- Got put on Bubba and finally started enjoying riding and feeling comfortable over fences again.
- Broke Shae, and I can't even begin to tell you how important that was to my development as a rider.
- ...which led me to meeting Lisa Brezina of Castleberry Cobs, a friendship that has changed my life and my perspective on the horse world.
- Graduated college, continued working for the College, was able to keep baby Shae at the College all summer.
- Bought my beautiful Beval saddle after I realized I would only keep getting rides from breeders if I had my own saddle, which ended up fitting the Cobs perfectly
- Met Allyn McCracken of Bannockburn Farm and was offered a house and barn on her property, but had to turn it down because Nick works just a bit too far away.  Biggest disappointment of my life!

In 2011 I want to:
- Find a good lesson barn and begin taking weekly (ideally Dressage) lessons.  Until I find a place to ride, I can't really set any riding goals.  It's that hard to find a place around here.
- Pay off my car (or at least come close) so that I can buy one of Lisa's Cobs (this may not happen until 2012, but I'm working on it!)
- Continue the search for the boarding barn I'll need eventually.
- Get some new breeches!  All of mine have holes in them.