Well, another year has come and gone. Once the 2011 show season wrapped up, things have been pretty quiet and routine here at Windchase and we have been hunkering down for the cold winter, stuck in the indoor, giving the competition horses some well earned time off and spending lots of time schooling the babies and preparing them for next year. Logan is now back in work and doing well now that we have sorted out some tension and bracing issues that were causing his back to be sore and I hope to have him back out at the events in the spring. I didn’t get to do as much with him in 2011 as I had hoped, but as with all things related to horses, I have learned a lot from the trials and tribulations that go with the sport and I don’t feel that any time is wasted if you are learning and progressing, even if they are not in the ways you had planned or expected to.
So for 2012 I hope to get Logan back out at novice and move him up to training at some point. I also hope to soon find a new prospect to bring along and start out throughout the year. I have been looking over the past month or so and actually did find a youngster I liked very much, but he unfortunately did not vet out so I am back at the start in that endeavour!
I am now heading into my fourth year at Windchase and there are still some days when I feel like I can’t ride one side of a horse, and other days when I feel like quite an accomplished rider. There is still so much for me to learn and yet I think back to when I first came to Windchase and can’t believe what a different rider I am now. I don’t know why some things happen when they do but coming to Windchase back in 2008 has turned out to be such a turning point in my life. If you had asked me back then if I thought that my expected 8 month stint as a working student would lead to four years later and holding a job as an assistant trainer at Windchase, I’m sure I would have laughed at you and said “Yeah, like that would ever happen!” But here I am, and most days I head out to the barn and can’t help but think of how lucky I am to have the kind of job I had always dreamed of having. So here’s to 2012 – I don’t know what it will bring, but I’m sure the journey will be exciting. 
