The following, minus the photos, is a copy of Kathleen Lindley’s article in her January Newsletter.  I really like what she has to say here.  So, with her permission, I have copied her article.  Go to her website kathleen lindley to find out more about her and sign up for her monthly newsletter.

How Facebook Helped me Define my Horsemanship Goals

I am going to keep this pretty short this month. I’ve got a head full of newsletter article ideas all stored up, and I need some time to organize them out of the jumble they’re in at the moment. But of all those ideas, this is the one that has kept floating up to the top of my consciousness so if I just get it out there it will likely leave me alone.
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions per se, but I do spend some time evaluating the year past and looking to the year ahead so I can organize and aim myself toward personal and professional growth. I usually give myself a couple concepts to work on during the next year and then watch to see what happens as I keep those things in mind as I go along.
It was at the turn of the year that I saw this photograph on Facebook and it kind of helped me galvanize and define some of my year end/new year thoughts. I’ll show you the photo, then I’ll tell you about the thoughts it triggered in me.

I don’t know that I could pick a photo that could illustrate where I’d like to go with my horsemanship less. I’m sure there are some folks who, if you put a pretty quote with this picture, would find it “inspiring” or “beautiful”. That’s fine and they are welcome to it. What I see is a fantasy, and it looks kind of like the fantasy some of the women I meet on the road have in regard to their horses.
We all need goals and dreams, but I look at this picture and I don’t see anything inspiring. I see a fairy princess and a fictional creature. I don’t know that it’s a great picture for us to have in our heads when we go and do something with our horse. He’s never going to live up to the fairy tale. Neither will we.
Horses are powerful, mystical creatures. We find them mystical because we really don’t fully understand what it’s like to be a horse. So what they do and why fascinates and challenges us. But the more I learn about horses, the simpler their motivations appear. They want to be safe, and they want to be comfortable. I don’t know how comfortable any of my horses would be if I expected them to achieve magical feats.

This is the picture I’m choosing to hold on to this year. This is me and Arlo in December on our first big group trail ride. This is why I work my fingers to the bone making sure these horses have a good foundation, are well-trained and we have a good relationship, so I can go DO things with them. I want the fruit of my labor to be a quiet, trustworthy horse who can do a job confidently. Sound interesting? That’s the definition of a working horse, really. That’s what I want, a working horse. A horse who can go do things quietly and confidently with me.
This is going to be part of what I’m going to be thinking about this year – about the pieces of the puzzle that add up to a quiet, confident working horse. I think one of the ways in which we can see things from our horse’s point of view is to remember that their lives are really pretty simple. They want to be safe, and they want to be comfortable. None of them jumped into our pastures, and I’m not sure many of them aspire to be unicorns. I’d hate for any of us to be disappointed in our horses because they were unable to live up to magical, mystical expectations. What feels magical to me these days is to go with my horse and do a job (anything I ask him to do can be considered a “job) with no friction between us. That feels pretty darn good, and it keeps me working hard toward achieving that as often as possible.