Here we are and another year has started. Mav enjoys staying warm in his cozy stall wrapped up like a christmas present.
I love this blanket. I love Christmas Sweaters. I make sure we do not take ourselves too seriously to enjoy life and embrace the fun side. Live a little. Laugh a lot.
Mav is learning to go in the double bridle. Which was not a steep learning curve but rather a put on double, ride in double. Mav now goes in double. This is generally my experience. If they are not ready, then it is a problem. If ready, put it on and away you go. Mostly he wore it like a couple times a month but leading into the first schooling show of the year, he has been wearing it so he is not like WTF is this at the show. Of course, my experience is not extensive, so your mileage may vary and there are zero assurances I have any idea what I'm talking about. In typical "me" fashion, we are skipping second level. Can we do all the things in second? Yes. Did we skip learning them and just move on? no. Can we counter canter again? yes! Do we have consistent changes? Yes. Do we like a challenge? Heck Yeah! Does Amazing Coach probably think we are slightly insane? Possibly, but then she is used to that. Mav is such a quick learner and easily bored with life. Being bored with life leads to finding ways to stay interested. Keeping him interested is better for me. he is never pushed. He is not hurried. He has arrived here happily and without undue stress. He will not take another 3 years to move to FEI levels, so he can skip second.
I hope. Ask me after this weekend. When his stress levels are high, he resorts to making himself as short in length as possible. He goes up and down (and not in a good way) and curls into his chest. It's hard to ride. It's even harder to present a good test with these issues. I have been working hard to get him out to the bridle even when he feels worried. It's not totally there yet. That said, it's not worse in the double. It's actually a little better since psychologically I can let go more. This is the Adult Amateur in me.
I will post a video clip from lesson with Amazing Coach. This way, if he's tight and leapy at the show we can compare and I might not look completely insane being in third level
I also decided apparently I was not busy enough. Full-time job, horse, husband, occasional part-time job = not enough. A member of the Excellent Ground Crew and I decided to open an online tack store. Sounds easy!
Starting a new business sounds easy in theory. Find name, open business, instant success! In reality? The number of steps were daunting. Start registering and answering the unending questions I have no answers to yet. Figure out answers. Pick a name. pick a name?! Out of all possible names in the world, pick one. One that they will accept and isn't being used here already. Register federally and provincially. Both do not talk to each other and it is a completely separate process.
So you have the name. Great! register the name. It is not expensive. Until you realize they may look at your name in 6 weeks. OR you can pay them 4x the money and they will look at it ASAP. Pay the money. Have name within 24 hours.
Website. Decide rather than take hours and hours, pay someone to make the website. This was the best decision ever. Website made and it looks great!
Spend hours figuring out the platform. Then a few more. Spend hours on help chat - they do not actually help. Figure it out yourself.
Spend hours at the bank setting up an account.
Buy shipping materials. Bags. Tape. Labels. Printer. Laptop.
Gather items for consigning. Thankfully I have a good size network in place. Finding great quality items was not an issue. Then again, they can support my small business, sell their items, collect 75% of the sale price and get rid of unwanted items. So really, it is a win-win for everyone.
Launch the website. Sell things! Have trouble with the shipping estimator on the site. Mess with that. More time with the completely useless help chat. Fix it. Send out items.
Since you are all now wondering, what is this magical website you speak of? Please check it out. We are shipping worldwide, although duty will be the responsibility of the buyer.
Go, buy things. Consign things if you are local to us! Look around, request items. Enjoy the site. Mav will be featuring items and maybe even modelling some. He is only excited bc there are cookies in it for him, but that's ok.
Will the side hustle business be successful? Who knows! But I'll add it to the list of impossible things I did lately. Dare to dream big and work hard to achieve your goals. It may, or may not, be a success. But we will do our best, as I try to do for everything I pour energy into.
