Thoughts of a Bean

The Green Bean program has been a passion of mine since its beginnings. The support received through all my trials the past few years have at times been what kept me going on the journey of becoming an endurance rider. I guess that is why I stepped up into the role of Program Director this year – to keep what has meant so much to me over the years going forward with Deb, Jennifer, and Lindsay. It is a team effort, as we keep expanding ways to encourage, challenge, and celebrate the big and small accomplishments of our members.
My qualifications are less than stellar IMO, with 80 LD miles since I began in 2014. I suffered the loss of two heart horses in the first 2 years, then spent another 2 years with horse that was deemed damaged beyond riding ability by things that happened in previous owners hands, and now I have started over yet again with a schedule that puts our first 2019 ride attendance not to be until June this year. But through it all I continued to volunteer and stay active because I love the sport and the principle of the program as new riders find their way to feeling “accepted.”
Do I envision racking up many miles this year? No. I do dream of them tho…I have lots of maybe rides noted in my calendar for the fall, all depending on how our conditioning goes as well as other obligations at the time. This spring we may not get to any endurance rides, but we are still going camping and doing long rides in the mountains and along beaches at some “fun” organized trail rides in April & May.

While I do miss the endurance rides and competing, I really just love to be out on the trail with Sully and friends, and oh the views! I’ve debated riding alone to get the miles in, but it is just more fun having people to ride with.
Sully always amazes me when I drag him off to new places, to ride with new horses/people and he is so easy going about it all. He continues to remain bold and confident and will happily head down a trail he has never seen before. We even tried our hand at opening gates. I’m hoping all this randomness of stuff we do will keep him cool and collected at our next endurance ride!

Internal Struggles
Sure – I have them. The day is approaching that is the anniversary of losing Tesla to colic, and I recently passed the anniversary of the decision to retire Prophecy and take him down to TN to be a pasture puff shortly there after. I struggle with the decisions I’ve had to make for financial reasons, and I question my decision to keep going. I question if I would have done things different if I had had insurance on Tesla, or should I do it differently and get insurance on Sully? Did I even make the right decision adopting Sully? 2nd guessing – Did I rush into things?
The more I get to really be with Sully out and about, I can put my mind at ease – he is what I need. Safe.Sound.Sane.And Fun! Yeah, we had a rough start with the Fort Valley intro rodeo, and then the mud at Gobble side lining him because I didn’t listen to myself…the truck issues sure didn’t help us do much more than grooming and arena play for months, but in the end it was all probably for the better allowing him more time to heal. The stifle injections and trim changes certainly have made a huge impact on his comfort, and now he is sporting shoes for all the rocky stuff coming up (we’ll go back to boots after OD and see what we can sort out on the rubs over the summer). I walk away from every ride thinking “Gosh I love this horse.” While I haven’t got things mastered, we are always learning and listening to each other and will continue to grow together. I certainly can imagine him as a 50mile horse – making me “a real endurance rider” – when we are ready. Until then, I’ll dream and scheme, knowing we’ll have to roll with the punches life throws at us too.