New Years Resolutions

It's that time of year again where we all say we are going to change so many things and that this year we will stick to our resolutions. It never happens. We know it never happens and yet we still set ourselves New Year Resolutions.

I have a few NYR's this year (well actually next year as it's only 8pm on 31st December). Some horsey, some not. But I'm only going to bore you with the horsey ones.

- I'm going to clean Lady and Dapper's tack more often. I'm aiming for at least once a month, increasing that towards summer when they are ridden more. Every time I go to do it, I put it off because it's gotten so bad but in actual fact when I cleaned one of Lady's saddles (She has 2. Spoilt horse) today, it didn't take long at all. And her other one is synthetic so that will defiantly not take long! The bridles may be another issue... I cannot remember the last time I cleaned them... When the weather's better I'm going to do some serious numnah and girth cleaning too as they're quite grubby and I figure if I start the new year with sparkly clean tack and numnahs, it's more likely to stay that way!

- Each and every time I ride in the school, I am going to go in with a goal of what I want to achieve in that session and I will not leave until I have completed it! All too often I ride in the school and end up trotting round and round in circles, thinking of something to do. I'm going to stop being so god damn lazy as well and use cones and poles and things to make schooling more interesting for me and the horses. I am going to stricter with myself as well as I feel sometimes I am holding the horses back (especially Lady because I know she has so much talent, I just struggle to dig it out sometimes).

- Lessons! I had a lesson on Lady a few week back and it really helped us. In the new year I want to continue having lessons (probably only once every 6 weeks as that's all I can afford and I only ride once or twice a week so we need time to practice what we have both learnt).

- (Clean freak alert!) The horses are going to spend 2012 SPOTLESS! (which may mean teaching Lady that the hose pipe won't kill her...) I spent an hour grooming Lady today before hacking out and I hate seeing people riding dirty horses. In the winter, I do sometimes ride in the school after only brushing their faces and where the saddle goes but when I hack out I do make more of an effort because I'd hate to think that people are commenting on how muddy they are. So I'm going to make more of an effort even if i'm not riding. Unfortunately at the moment I am extremely pushed for time so I don't have time to fight with Lady to wash her legs and feet when she comes in from the field but I am going to start hosing off her legs (even if I just hold the hose on her legs for a minute or so) to get her used to it, then by next winter, she will be easier to deal with. I also think it will benefit their feet greatly as they both have quite brittle feet which crack easily so I'm hoping that if I scrub their feet when I go up and put hoof oil on, their feet will get better and more importantly, their shoes will last longer!

I think that's it for the resolutions for this year haha. Let's see how they go...

YouTube Rant

*Stupidly long rant about anything and everything related to YouTube impending.*

Why judge? You cannot judge someone through watching a 3 minute video. Yes you are entitled to your own opinions, freedom of speech etc. but just take a second before commenting to consider the other persons feelings. Perhaps they're not the best rider, singer, guitarist etc. in the world but have you ever stopped to think that maybe they don't do it to be perfect, they do it because they enjoy it.

Another thing that really gets me is when people subscribe to someone but don't ever watch or comment on their videos. What's the point? I know I have subscribed to people in the past and not commented on their videos, but I have at least watched them! So many people subscribe to someone just to get them to subscribe back and it really annoys me. The horsey world on YouTube should not be about how many subscribers you have. No part of YouTube should be like that. I would rather have 10 loyal subscribers who watch and comment on every video than 1000 who never watch my videos. Yes okay, my videos may be shit, that could be why nobody watches them, but why subscribe to someone who makes shit videos?!

I think there should be a universal YouTube New Year Resolution stating that we are all nice to each other, nobody judges anyone or implies that they are any better than anyone else. And people only subscribe to actually watch videos! I could name you at least 5 YouTube channels on which I have watched every single video. It's not hard.

Rant Over.