It just dawned on me, but I've been officially blogging for over a year now.  That's a year of my life, forever immortalized on the interwebs (because, you know, it doesn't ever really disappear).  So before I go on, let's look at what brought me here.

After having moved to a strange, horse-less city and craving equine in my life, I started reading the Fugly Blog.  Now, if that link even works for you, I'm not giving any sort of recommendations for any of the posts over the past two years or so.  But!  If you go back, way back, to the original author's posts, it's amazing.  The original author is Cathy and she's incredibly snarky and unbelievably honest.  The truth hurts.

In reading Fugly, Cathy mentioned a few choice riders/trainers that she would actually trust and one of those was Jessica at Canter Mid Atlantic.  Being a blog about retraining fresh OTTBs, I dug in.  If you've ever had any sort of interest in seeing how horses progress with proper training, changing jobs and changing their lifestyles, this is the blog to follow.  Jessica retrains a multitude of horses each year and really gives you details.  You learn the personalities of the horses and you see before and after photos, as they've gone from fugly, muscle-less OTTBs to above-par hunters, three-dayers and pleasure mounts.  I think one or two might be mounts for police or Civil War re-inactors.  In all seriousness, I hope my next horse goes through Jessica's hands.  (If I had the money, I'd ship the Archer to her for some training!)

And from there it gets a little.. harder to follow.  I'm pretty sure I found Team Flying Solo somewhere after the Canter blog.  Even though I have absolutely no finite experience in three-daying (come on, dressage lessons and hunter paces don't really count!), I was drawn to Solo's saga.  I started reading before she increased the red herd and at about the time that Solo was injured.  I even contacted her via email to talk about how Archie had a jacked up back and to commiserate and get tips.  For being a stranger on the internet, she was still incredibly pleasant.  If you read her blog, you'll realize that she's a rider intent on not just improving herself but understanding the fundamentals of why we do what we do and what the impact is on the horse's body and how best to improve all of that.  I also learned about "roaching" from her. :)

At some point after emailing her, I started writing.  If you go back to those original posts, I swore to the pony gods that this would not be a horse blog.  It would be a life blog, but the life of a horseowner.  I think it's a fine line and I sorta think I'm failing, but I do realize that I talk more about my life in general than the other writers that I read.

After finding Solo, I found Sprinkler Bandit. I'm still not sure what sprinklers she bandit-ed, but it's an interesting read.  I think SB teaches us all to remember the reason why we're so involved in horses and that it's important to get back to that base reason:  we love them.  She had a gorgeous mare but the pieces didn't fit, so she changed the puzzle and found a better fit.  Now we get to share in the mad-Cuna-love and watch that relationship develop.  By attempting to participate in one of her challenges (the two-point, which I failed at miserably), I was introduced to more blogs.

One of those blogs was Viva Carlos. I think if you read either of our blogs, you'll realize that the world is a weird and tiny place.  And a serendipitous place.  I moved to my city about two and a half years ago.  At about the three-year anniversary mark (I think?), L. will be moving across the country to my new city, too.  I don't like getting all touchy-feely, but I'm super stoked to have a horsie friend here.  I'm going to shove cupcakes down her face, after I prove to my husband that she isn't actually a serial killer that I met on the internet.

And from L.'s blog, I met a million others.  And I couldn't be happier.  :)