A little progress each day adds up to big results

I've been unintentionally very quiet on the blog recently, purely because I've been struggling a little bit with the fact that I feel like I haven't made any progress recently with either of the horses. Because I don't compete at the moment (it's definitely planned for spring 2018) I've put an enormous amount of pressure on myself lately to be able to show to everyone here and on social media that I am putting the work and getting results, but within the last few weeks that I felt like I'd reached a plateau with both boys and I panicked. It wasn't a blogging block this time, now it was a totally overwhelming feeling of failure.

Which is why I was incredibly grateful to get a plane tickets to visit my old yard friends back in the UK as a birthday present from my parents. Getting away from my normal life for three days was the best thing mentally for me, it forced me to focus entirely on something else and limited the time that I spent online. Everyone on social media always seems to be doing better than you, be out competing and training and being just all round fabulous even if in real life they are not. Being away from my laptop for 3 days helped me realise that everyone is always struggling a little bit, but we are all just are too afraid to post something that somehow could show our faults and limitations. So this is my 'I've felt like crap for the last few weeks' confession post ✌🏻

 And you know what? Admitting it first to myself last weekend and now publicly has been great. The pressure is off and I've had a chance to mentally chill out. Riding the boys has been FUN now that I'm not trying to get them to be perfect every time(!) and now that I've had a smile on my face again I've actually made progress with Basse - I've figured out how to warm him up in such a way that he feels comfortable and happy enough to work 100% with me. I've gotten some of the best trot work ever out of him this week. So even though I've not achieved anything major in the last few weeks, a little progress each day this week has added up to big results 🎉🎊

So if anyone else reading this post feels like 💩 and is struggling with trying to not let the online world overwhelm you, I'd suggest taking sometime away from it all. Ignorance is bliss as they say and it definitely helps to take a few days just for yourself - no pictures for Instagram, no constant twitter refreshing and a lot less staring at Facebook. In a few days I think you'll find that you have indeed been making progress.