Turn The Page

Sitting at a crossroads in my life, I was faced with some tough decisions.  Do I continue to hold ground?  Or do I turn the page and start a new chapter?  It's easy to do what you know.  It's not so easy to let go and move forward.  But everyone needs to move forward sometime and my time is now.  

My life had developed a rat on a treadmill feel.  I just couldn't stay caught up with the day to day details and was beginning to wear myself out.  With a full time job - one that often entails "after hours" work, three horses (one of whom is bred and the other in full time training), five sheep, three adult dogs and five puppies I was pressed for time.  So I made an easy, tough decision.  

Yesterday, I drove to Bowden.  I really, really, really did NOT want to drive to Bowden.  I'm tired (and still grumpy about having to make the drive).  I would have rather stayed home and checked off things like laundry, clean bathroom, worked dogs, enjoy weather, do work-work.  But that was just a dream.  Reality involved me missing yet ANOTHER bloody exercise class (still trying to figure out why I even bothered), rushing around like crazy to get things taken care of at home, before I hitched up the trailer and hauled ass down the highway. (Don't say I had Sunday to do those things!  Today (Sunday) involved going to town for groceries and dog food (normally a Saturday job) and family commitments.)

Why was I hauling ass down the highway?  Because I took the plunge and gave, er, sold Izzy.  (My net profit on this one is in the negatives - didn't even make back purchase price.)  Why did I sell Izzy?  Because I don't have the time she needs.  I can put her in training - I do have the financial resources.  But I don't have time to ride her when she comes home.  And with her being two moving on to three - this is becoming a time sensitive issue.  The LAST thing I need is an unbroke three year old.  

So Izzy has moved on to be a teenage boys project horse.  And I'm down one animal.  One less responsibility.  And a smidge more time for the critters I do have.  

Next step is to get my puppy numbers down (from five) to two or three.  Watch for us at Mayerthorpe (Nov. 6) and FarmFair (Nov. 8 & 9).  These will be Tessa's final trials before full retirement.  Abe, really, really wants me to run Reba at these trials even though she's not finished her training.  So she may make the trek to Mayerthorpe and run in the Ranch class for experience.  As we don't have a drive yet, we won't be placing, but she needs to start somewhere.  Might as well do it now.