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New Year’s Resolutions According to Nonie

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Written by Andrea Parker

New Year New me, unless of course, like me, you are already nailing it!

The human tells me that at the start of each year other humans like to make promises to themselves about how they will behave for the next year. They are called ‘resolutions’. Apparently they are only likely to keep these resolutions for a month or so at best.

While I am practically perfect in every way there is one pesky problem that I have been facing. That is training the humans… It’s taken nearly 10 years but she always rides with a pocket full of treats for me. Its not much, but when you are working with such a challenging person, you have to take your victories where you can get them. Other areas of her training certainly require significant improvement. Sometimes I wonder if she tries at all.

Resolution one – Eat more work less

One of Nonie's New Years resolutions is to eat more work less

In my opinion the human has got the eating to work ratio altogether wrong. She works me at least five, often six days a week! That’s basically every day! And now that we are living in Brisbane we have lessons fortnightly! A mare of my status cannot be expected to thrive in these gruelling conditions.

Nonie and her favourite friend Poppy
Poppy is my favourite mare, but she doesn’t quite understand just how big my personal space bubble is yet

If I must work then let’s at least spend more time out on the trails! I love nothing more than galloping through the Bushlands with my favourite gal pal Poppy.

Resolution two – More scratches

One of Nonie's favourite past times is being scratched

The inadequate provision of scratches has meant that I have had to try to provide these for myself. And there are no trees in my paddock (Don’t panic I have shade in my stable). So the ground it is. This means that most days I get an insatisfactory rub and end of coated in dust. Not good!

I shall have to make it clearer to the human what I need. I already line my itchiest places up to her when she walks into the paddock, but this is apparently not obvious enough. I shall have to think on this some more.

New Years resolutions - According to Nonie

If you have any suggestions regarding how I should approach this training dilemma, they would be greatly appreciated.

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About the author

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Andrea Parker

Andrea is an Adult Amateur dressage rider who competes at medium level on her 13-year-old mare Mon Ami. Andrea shares her journey through the equestrian world on her blog The Sand Arena Ballerina and is working on an equestrian podcast called Equestrian Pulse.