The third instalment of the monthly Equestrian Blog Hop! Make sure you take a flick through all of the other bloggers at the bottom of this post also talking about...

What is our riding ambition?

The last near enough three years have taught me that the ambition of just having fun and doing whatever you enjoy with your equine partner is the most important aspect... At the end of the day, most of us are amateurs with very busy lives away from the stable. So why do we all seem to fall into the trap of putting pressure on ourselves?


This summer, I took a step forward to release that pressure. It was making certain elements unenjoyable. Instead, I looked at what is it that I wanted to achieve, and COMPLETELY removed the time pressure to have them achieved. I haven't looked back.

All that said, I am a very goal orientated person, by my own definition and every psyche personality profile I've done in my career... So for me, setting goals are a must.



But how ambitious am I?

Well, now I've removed that little pressurised devil - deadline - I'm actually much more ambitious. I seem to have developed the ability to simplify what I'm trying to achieve or where we are trying to get to.

I was WAY too ambitious when I got Louie. A weak, scrawny, just backed three year old... But I was determined to be at Bramham in the BYEH class, with a trial run at Floors in May. This was mid-January...

This was my first proper young horse, and even now Louie can require some so far out of the box thinking that the box never existed!!

Was I completely out of my mind!?!? Yes, I was.

Today, I sit here, confident that I made the right decision that April NOT to enter Floors, and just let my little pony grow into himself.

A very baby Louie back in February 2015

My ambition remains... OK, so not BYEH classes, but yes, one day in the future I hope that Louie & I will be able to go eventing.

But, now my ambition isn't just 'Go BE'. It's broken up into a series of mini ambitions, which as we are going along will spin off even more mini ambitions.

I know that we need to establish our Showjumping more, and begin to get out to more cross country course. Do I feel the pressure anymore to go out and do it tomorrow? No. Why? Because Louie is my horse of a lifetime and if it take ten years...so be it.

So long as he & I are having a hoot as we go...that's all I want!!