A resolution I can keep

I barely remember 2011 and in two hours it will be 2012.

How many rides did I take?

How many rides did I not take "because"?

Which is the bigger number? Sadly, probably the second.

I tend to ride if my riding buddy rides. I tend to not ride if she doesn't. Since she works fires for the Forest Service and they send her all over the west, she was gone A LOT this summer. So I rode less.

I need to find a backup riding buddy.

I am planning to start dressage lessons soon, something on my "bucket list" that I need to do before I get too old to even think about posting. I may not do them for long, but I want to try it long enough to decide if this is something I want to participate in, or just enjoy watching.

I hope to make another trip to France this year, in the fall, to ride the Dordogne area and see cave paintings. I might work in a day or two in Paris to see the Louvre and other famous Parisian sights.

I hope to get more work, to publish my third book, to start advertising the first two.

I need to get another tenant for one of my rental houses, and maybe obtain a third rental house if I can get financing.

I have projects around the house to do that I never seem to have time for. Well ... let me amend that, I have plenty of TIME, what I lack is energy and motivation.

But mostly I hope to ride more. Dash's recent illness (which we now suspect may be a urinary tract infection) has reminded me how fragile these horses are, and reminded me that I need to ride whenever I can because I don't know how much time I have left with her.

So there is my resolution for 2012. Not weight loss, not financial security, not fixing up the house -- RIDING.

Because nothing else really matters that much to me. Nothing else gives me the joy, the freedom, the peace of mind that riding brings.

I live to ride. So ride I shall.

Happy New Year from the Ranch.