Ah, Motivation! I’ve Finally Found You!

Well, I don’t know where it’s been but motivation arrived home last night and, gosh, I’m pleased to see it!

I now have a healthy goal in mind:  I want to learn dressage.  I rode throughout my childhood and have the rosettes to prove it (I wonder where they are?)  Other things got in the way when I was about 14 or 15 and I stopped going but I’ve had an intermittent itch to go back for a while.  I never liked jumping but enjoyed flat-work.  My favourite lessons focussed on changes of gait, precision and correct form – in other words, very basic dressage.

Last night I was thinking about weight-loss and exercise.  The advice is always to choose a form of exercise that you enjoy and it occurred to me last night that riding is really the only one I’ve ever liked.  I was fit, strong and a healthy weight all the time I was riding.  That’s what my body was trained to do – I have large thighs to prove it!  Since I’ve gained weight, all my muscle has turned to flab but surely if I rode again it’d turn back into muscle?

A ‘Learn Dressage’ goal works on lots of levels.  I need to lose weight and get fitter before I contemplate booking a lesson else the pain of unaccustomed activity will outweigh my pleasure.  I also need to save some money (riding’s an expensive hobby) but I worked out last night that if I stop buying rubbish (I spent £4 on Pepsi Max yesterday) I can ride for an hour a week.  I need to ditch the caffeine, stop bringing clutter into the house and have a reason to save money anyway so a whole lot of boxes are being ticked.

The only unknown is my allergies:  Even through I rode for years, I was allergic to something at the stables (whether the horses or the hay and straw I don’t know).  I’m willing to put up with a certain amount of discomfort in the hope that my tolerance would rise but don’t know how bad it will be.

I have a plan.  I have motivation.  And I’m going riding!