Teamwork

Making the dream work and all that ☺

Shout out to Cathryn for providing blogging inspiration (again) with last month's "Who's On Your Team?" post.

Life with a baby pony who mostly eats and sleeps, plus a Bridget pony without many 2018 goals is a bit boring, blog wise. Be grateful to Cathryn for sparing you listening to the ins and outs of Bridget's hacks and flat work rides four times a week.

So, who's on my team? 

1. Childhood friends (and books!)

My 'team' has historically been very small. Like a few of you I grew up in a pretty isolated area with no organized barn or horse time. I traded barn chores for a pony to ride when I was about 11, and had zero supervision or structure. We were raised by ponies!

No roads connecting this place to anywhere. It's ferries or an airplane to get out. We moved here from Vancouver when I was 6 or 7 and I remember even at that age it was a shock! Now, I mostly love it.

 I've still got a few friends from those days, but even my best friend has always been into trail riding and western showing, so while we support each other in the day to day stuff, the discipline specific riding goals and knowledge gap for my desire to jump and learn dressage was filled for years and years with books from the library.

Hanging out with old friends at one of favorite places to take the ponies as kids (and adults)

2. The internet and the best farrier.

Fast forward a few years and the internet more and more became a source of educational videos and a huge variety of information. Thanks Internet, for being on my team :) I went to school and got adult jobs, and started to have the finances to own my own horses and travel for the odd clinic. The best farrier ever started business in the area around that time, which was amazing. He retired recently, which makes me feel super old. He remains on the support team though, because he's my go to guy for all hoof and health related questions.

3. Riding coaches! (Finally, EC shows up ;) and barn mates.

Finally, around the time I started blogging, I moved to Alberta and got a job in an area with some decent coaching. Yay! For the first time, I was part of a program, and had a support system on hand for my goal of learning to jump, which was super amazing, even if I was about 20 years older than the kids sharing my lessons. For a few years, I was back and forth between Alberta/Saskatchewan and home in BC, working contracts and soaking up whatever horsey knowledge I could while I was away.

Flashback to the original blog header

My Alberta barn commute

Then, in 2015, I got a job somewhat near to my hometown. Almost as important, my new job was about 10 minutes down the road from where a most excellent coach had recently moved to from the city. Wow, did we get lucky to have someone so qualified living in an area not exactly known for it's equestrian offerings!

Current commute. 2.5 hours of ferries and driving is better (and cheaper)than 2.5 hours of flying to Alberta!

Since then, it's my first time being part of a barn team that feels very in tune with my own goals and outlook on life. My barnmates there range in age from about 6 to 80 something, and they're all an absolute pleasure to be around and definitely a great team to be with.

4. My workmates, and G.

About a year ago, my extra awesome work agreed to adapt my schedule so I could spend most of my time in my hometown, making my work/life balance infinitely better.

Moving Bridget home with me this past year has added some logistical complications, and the loss of the very valued vet and farrier who only travel to the lower coast, but it all works out.  I can't fail to mention my husband G who has 100% been the most important and supportive teammate anyone could ask for for many, many years now. He might not be horse obsessed like me, but he's quite happy to take the horses hiking with him, muck paddocks, move hay, and patiently wait in the truck while I raid the tack store :)

G does not like me posting photos that he's in, which is hard because he's in a lot of them! He's with me at the barn or hanging out with the horses the majority of the time.

5. The ponies.

This xc camp with B was only 25 years in the making :D

And, of course, the other most important part of the team, Ms Bridget. She's taught me more than anything, and while our opinions often differ, she's completely reliable and together we've achieved a lot of the little dreams I'd had in my head since I was a kid. I'm very lucky. EC's lovely mare Audrey has stepped up this past year to help Bridget out, and I have hopes Sophie will take over for both of them one day.

6. Bloggers!

I also can't forget bloggers and blog readers! I definitely feel you're a huge part of my support network. Being somewhat isolated in real life, it's very cool to be able to put my thoughts and goals out there virtually and follow along with everyone else's journeys.