The Lull
I am a bit of a control freak. I mean, that’s what people (aka my husband) tell me. It’s not that I have to tell everyone what to do all the time or what not, but I like to be able to fix things. I love it when a problem has a simple action plan like First A then B and finally accomplish C. Those are my favorite.
Right now, I’m experiencing a huge lull in horse showing and training and there’s nothing I can do about it.
This winter I developed a calendar for all the things for spring/summer. I’m a good long term planner, so this makes me quite happy. I penciled in all the usual horse shows I do, and told myself that if I was ready for one and wanted to go… I would go. Other weekends have family events and time with husband, and of course traveling.
See? A nice mix of horse and non-horse life activities. Perfect!
Then the rain came, and totally screwed up this plan.
Lessons? What lesson? I can’t even trail ride around the swamp farm. Horse shows keep getting rained out, and no one is offering up rain dates because the schedule is already quite tight as it is. I missed my one chance to horse show because I didn’t feel prepared, and while I don’t think that was 100% bad decision… I admit that I’m regretting it now.
To fix this, I took to googling and finding alternate shows to go to. Of course, all of those show dates are opposite of our local series and therefore scheduled on family and husband weekends in my perfect master plan.
So basically, I don’t know when I’ll horse show again. It honestly could be late summer or early fall.
I guess I’m at a bit of a loss because I can’t fix this problem. I’m not willing to cancel events with husband/friends/family, because those things in life need to come first. I also feel super whiny even complaining about this problem, because I have a sound horse waiting for me to ride him when the ground dries. It certainly could be worse!
For now, this is my new calendar.
At first, the pouty faces were pretty legit… but I’m trying to let go of things I cannot control. This blog may be super boring for a while, but maybe I’ll write a blog post or two after all those Margarita days. Now that could get interesting!
Any advice on what to do when you’re a competitive, goal driven person and faced with a long lull?
31 thoughts on “The Lull”
I feel your pain! It kind of reminds me of this winter in Boston, when it WOULD NOT STOP SNOWING. Except, with that, it was 20 degrees out, everyone was housebound, and I was pretty much happy to sit on my couch and hibernate under many blankets.
It sucks watching your horse show plans go out the window. All you can do is try to accept reality and focus on doing other fun things (or sorta fun things).
BWAHAHA! Rain Calendar and New Calendar crack me up. I think we may be on a the same jet stream because it has rained for close to 3 weeks now. Granted there have been one or two decent days that help dry everything up but once things start to look a little dry, it just rains again. I feel your pain and I think we need to do a no more rain dance.
Ugh, feeling the lull right now too. The combination of no indoor + no sound horse at the moment means I am making zero riding progress at the moment. I’m trying to find the silver lining by making the times I do get to ride very fitness-focused for me (no stirrups, two-point, sitting trot etc) so at least I feel like I’m sort of doing something useful. Also I got a gym tag, which is the first step in the glacial process of actually, you know, GOING to the gym.
Ack — lulls suck for people like us! I typically fill the void by doing other projects, like blog house-cleaning, writing filler posts and doing stuff around the house. But… it still sucks.
Many of our shows have been rained out, too! (Except the one that was the same day as the wedding, of course.) We (the local dressage GMO) are scrambling to find rain dates that aren’t either a) conflicting with the other GMO’s schedule or b) in the middle of Hot Death Season (July-August). It’s hard!
I’m spending all this rain time to really evaluate what my riding goals are, where I see myself in 5 or 10 years, and you know, sort of catching up on my laundry.
I love your calendars even if they are sad D: just because they are images, I am a lot like you, but letting go and going with the flow is tough but you’ll be happier for it 🙂 Think about how happy your wallet is 😉
I find wine/margaritas/your drink of choice to be the only appropriate alternative when other plans are cancelled. I guess that makes drinking my default activity. Is that wrong?
Yeah I was thinking every day could be margarita day…
I like to plan things out too and hate when my plans are messed up. Fingers crossed you have great summer weather to make up for the rotten spring!
I’m also a wicked long term planner aheader and situations like these drive me nuts! Like I said before, MA had snowpocalypse and now TX has rainpocalypse. weather just really sucks sometimes. What really helped me during snowpocalypse was having something else to fill my time with (aside from shoveling) I spent what time I would have normally spent riding at the gym instead so I was still even doing something productive and that really help calmed down my control freak self.
Ugh! Bummer! I might add a few more martinis to that 🙂
Your Calendars > My Calendars, even if there is less riding involved! 🙂
I’m not competitive – actually I am to an unhealthy degree – so let’s revise and say I don’t compete, but I was pretty bored this last month without a horse to ride, so I feel your pain. I’m guessing you don’t want to take up baking and eat your way through the month like I did?
Hang in there. It can’t rain forever!
It can be quite bad for your wallet but I like browsing online for tack/clothes/etc. when I’m stuck inside.
Ugh…. I hate when weather ruins plans. If I’m unable to ride, I go to the gym. I feel like working out improves my fitness level, which improves my riding. So, even though I can’t ride, at least I’m doing something productive.
The rain is out of hand. I think it might actually be dry enough to ride today, if it doesn’t rain again.
Ugh hate it when our plans get all messed up and there’s nothing we can do about it. Except drink. But without spending all the show money on drinks.
1. You need more margaritas on that calendar.
2. It just poured here for 15 minutes. Again. FML.
Story of my life! I keep my horses at home, and I live in CT, so no winter riding for me. My show schedule is entirely dependent on when the snow melts. This year it was really late, and I have yet to start showing. I sent my entries in for Saratoga, but we will be embarrassingly unprepared this year. Also, no chance of getting to a one day beforehand, which is kind of a bummer. Waaah.
http://www.amateuratlarge.blogspot.com
ugh what a bummer/ disappointment/ frustration/ {insert whatever gloomy mood here}… love your approach of not being bothered by things out of your control, but it still really sucks and i’m sorry.
i literally thought my world was crashing down around me when my horse was quarantined for 3 weeks so obvi i’m not the best one to offer advice here. except to echo what you said to me then: eventually life will get back to normal (in this case, meaning the sun will shine again!!). really hoping it happens sooner rather than later for you!
Your calendars are way more fun and interactive than my calendar! I think it is time you bust out some at woman.
You guys have been getting an awful lot of rain. I’m glad I have an indoor for times like these.
I haven’t worked O since LAST MONTH. This rain makes me want to punch Mother Nature in the eye!
Love your calendar! I was planning on D getting some training rides while I’m on vacation, but with all the rain he is just sitting at home getting muddy (I’m sure!).
No advice from me, sadly. I’m in the “I have a green horse who isn’t ready to show” whining category right now. 🙂
I totally get it, the lack of a long term/short term goal is painful to me. So drink up, I’m stuck too!
LOL!!! Lots of drinking and cleaning!!
No advice here sorry… life is a pain sometimes 🙁
Haha!! Funny. And no, I have no advice, because I am the same… This sounds lame considering I have a covered ring AND it’s not rained here in weeks, but, because I’m not super enjoying the barn I’m at (aka, NO ONE IS EVER THERE, and the arena isn’t that workable so all we do is circles forever), I feel really unmotivated to go out and ride… all the while counting down the days until I move so I can get back into the swing of things (and spending my days calculating my budget/show schedule/online horse supply shopping/you get the picture). There was a whole month over the winter where the roads were completely frozen and the entrance to the arena was frozen and the horses couldn’t even make it to the paddocks and it was god awful. I hope the rain stops soon and you can get back to riding! (and competing).
Your calendars but I am so, so sorry 🙁
I clearly can’t brain today. *Your calendars are awesome 😉 haha!
Living it myself … I am using the time to: save money, work on something else, look farther into the future, relax a bit, change goals, be grateful for what I have already accomplished, and be ready for when I get back on schedule.