Happy New Year!

It's 2015.  How the heck did that happen?  I'm not sure I like this constant progression of years. :P 

Seriously.

December was a busy month.  I ran the Jingle Bell Half Marathon on December 6th, which was fun....in the rain.  It was fun though and I finished the whole thing on a 9:45/mile, which is a personal best!  I also gave myself tendonitis in my right foot, which resolved within a week thank goodness.  Last time I run a half on old shoes!  :o 

Cool shirt and nifty ornament for finishing the race

The holidays were great.  I took two weeks off from work to spend with family and do projects around the house.  In those two weeks, I rode twice, mostly dug up the foundation drain by hand, laid one room of hardwood flooring by myself, installed a cat door to the basement.....I need a vacation from my vacation!

Penny (left) and Roscoe (right) watching me work.  Love my fur-babies!



Room to the left now has hardwood! (carpet is a remnant to hide the plywood sub-floor)

Less-than-thrilled to be pulled off her vacation for a trail ride

Digging up the foundation drain in the dark!

Phew, I need to take a break!  The flooring killed me.  I wasn't sleeping at all due to pain in my hands and arms, which turns out to be carpal tunnel!  Grrrr.  Still worn out from lack of sleep, but night bracing seems to be helping alot.

So, now that 2014 is a wrap, what shall we plan on doing this new year?

Daatje and I will be competing in more USEF dressage shows.  I'm hoping to get enough scores at 1st level for Daatje to earn her perfomance certificate.  I'd also like to try to qualify for the Region 8 Championships while we're at it.  Not sure if that's possible, but might be worth a shot.  We'd have to get 2 scores above 68% to qualify at Training test 3 and 2 scores above 66% to qualify at First test 3. 

I sold the Beta harness and have a Smuckers Deluxe coming that should (fingers crossed!) fit her.  I'm very much looking forward to driving her this summer!  (if all goes well)

And then there's Foxhunting.  What to do about the Foxhunting.  I've thought alot about last season.  It wasn't that much fun.  Certainly not as much fun as seasons past.  I think there's alot of factors coming into play.  Daatje's getting older, the horses in the hunt are getting faster, I was asked to lead 2nd field for many of the latter hunts (regular fieldmaster's horse was out of commission) and leading with Daatje just plain sucks.  Her jumping was sub par when compared to previous years.  She just wasn't into it.  at. all.

I'm conflicted.  I WANT to hunt.  I love the sport.  But I'm not in love with hunting Daatje anymore.  Not with how fast the hunt field has become this past year.  She was out matched in any field but hilltop.  The hilltop folks are lovely.  It's a great casual ride out with some great viewing.  However, it lacks the thrill of the chase, the galloping and jumping.  The reasons why I spend the time, effort and money to hunt!

So, I'm not sure how much we'll be hunting in 2015.  Limited at best would be my guess.  Perhaps we'll make it out to half the weekend hunts. 

In summary, 2015 plans for Daatje are:

Attend USEF Dressage shows in May, June, July, September and October.
Attempt to Qualify for the NEDA Fall Region 8 Championships in either Training or First Level
Resume driving training and (fingers crossed) hitch this summer
Foxhunt a little bit

There are alot of house/yard projects that will be going on at the same time so fitting this all in is going to be challenging!