Reflecting on February

This month really flew by in a whirlwind. Work has been slamming, I’m getting ready for my boards submission and the weather has been worse than awful. I think I may need to take up boating if this weather pattern doesn’t slow down. Everything is a swamp. On the bright side, I am enjoying the extra hours of daylight during morning and evening chores and have been able to sneak in some rides before the sun sets.

February started off on track and then saw the wheels come off a little, however great strides were still made during the month for my life in general which is why I love doing these reflection posts. You can read back through January here if interested.

Riding

Heading into February, I wanted to start stringing fences together into a small course and that came to light in a big way on the 2nd. Man, was that ride amazing.

I snuck in a total of 6 rides, with 1 jump school and 5 flat rides. Pretty on par with January and while I originally began beating myself up about it, with the weather the way it has been 6 rides is actually quite good. Looking back through my notes about those rides, 5 out of the 6 have either FUN! or a smiley face written by them which is why I keep track of that sort of stuff. Too easy for me to focus on that 1 bad ride when I had 5 others that were great.

What sticks out to me the most about my riding in February was that I got more serious about the time I did spend in the saddle, focused on my position and use of the aides a lot more, and in turn had a more responsive horse under me. Quality over quantity and all that.

Heading into next month I plan to attend a local H/J show on 3/23. My only goal is to get him into the atmosphere and help him settle and learn. If that means I don’t enter any classes and instead spend the time hand walking him around the grounds and chilling ring side, I’m fine with that. If he seems capable of entering the arena, then I will add classes as we go. No pressure. And as always, plugging away at figuring out a lesson situation.

Running

After finding out that my butt has Alzheimer’s, running took a back seat. I still got in 5 runs with a total of 7.2 miles and I am thrilled to report that as of writing this my butt no longer bothers me for my typical 2 mile run/walk interval work outs. A big win for butts everywhere!

Heading into next month I’m looking to ramp my running back up while still doing all my PT exercises at home to avoid recurrence of gluteal amnesia.

Work/Life Balance

Yeah..big fail. No time off, no early days…thanks boards! It felt a little overwhelming at times mostly because the few hours I could sneak away were spent in the PT office getting dry needles poked into my butt cheek. Fun times, I assure you.

A major win for me this month was scheduling the first physical I have had in 6 years and establishing myself with a primary doctor. I’m healthy, minus sinus bradycardia (a too slow heart beat) but that is hereditary from my dad and not treatable at this time, and good to go for another year. That is a big weight off my shoulders that I had been saying I would do for years.

Heading into next month, I’m not really going to see it change a whole lot. I was talked into signing up for medicine boards to become dual certified in surgery and medicine so the studying will commence in preparation for Part 1 testing in May and Part 2 in October. I will be scheduling one Friday afternoon free of any work related tasks for my own sanity though and am hoping that helps solve the lessoning issue.

Living Life

This category is where February really shines. Dusty and I have been talking about hosting a foreign exchange student for a couple of years now and I finally bit the bullet and filled out the application. If all goes well, we should be getting a girl from Sweden who is horse obsessed and has a background in jumpers come live with us for the 2019-2020 school year. Insane, yes. We are super excited and Wyatt is already counting down the days until he gets a sister, temporarily. This is actually a really big deal, because we are hoping to adopt again and are waiting until Wyatt is a tad older so this is going to act as a bit of a pacifier for me to cool my jets until the time is right to add to our family permanently.

Plus there is a completely selfish reason I chose her. She rides. She jumps. She is 17. She can ride H’Appy as much as she wants and show him if she’d like which will get him ridden a whole lot more than I am able to and I won’t have to pay someone or feel guilty about it. If this all pans out, it will be a giant stress relief on a lot of fronts.

We have been enjoying the increasing daylight in the evenings and using it to play soccer with Wyatt and umm..build a Burger King in the side yard. Don’t ask…it is as crazy as it sounds.

Oh! I also lost 5 pounds this month 🙂

Heading into next month, I would like to book our trip to Seattle in June and continue to find ways to step away from all the chores for at least one day during the month. Oh and keep my eating habits the same – 5 more pounds to go.

Favorite Part of the Month

Hands down, that day jumping H’Appy at home over my mini course. I still smile about it thinking back now.

Overall Feeling

Meh. February is typically my worst mental health month of the year and the constant rain didn’t help things any. Overall though, I think I managed to stay the course, keep steady and survive with some bright spots that stand out. Not too shabby for a dreary, unforgiving month.

Next month, I am looking forward to continue the healthy eating habits that saw me lose 5 pounds even without exercising much, ramp up the running and riding more, and hopefully find a darn trainer to work with. Oh! And be nicer to myself.