Yesterday, as the house seems to begin to settle down a little after Christmas, and thoughts about plans for the new year become more prevalent, I had a reluctant realization about the little fillies. And it has to do with riding them.

So the girls are about 2 ½ years old now, and when they or any young horse should be started on riding training is highly debatable. Horses are full grown at about age 4, while some horses and breeds don’t fully mature until closer to age 5. On the racetrack, horses are trained to obey a rider, then regularly exercising at various speeds while ridden, and finally often even started in races at age 2. The sport is often criticized for this saying they are too young. Most regular horse people, from amateur to professionals, agree to wait until they are at least 3 for heavy exercise. However, I have seen videos, especially in the Quarter Horse breed, of world championship horse shows where the horses are required to not only carry a rider but do so with a high skill level of precision, at the age of 2. Now, a lot of those horses get injured from starting too young, or, they get early arthritis and have a limited career, but all of that, is not the point.

The point is, it CAN be done. It is within the realm of possibility to train a 2 year old horse to be fully ridden, whether it should be, and how (using R+ methods is certainly something not commonly done especially when trying to speed things up for a shzort time frame to meet show and race deadlines), are not what I wish to address. If I constantly say R+ is faster (which it is), although no one seems to think it is, I have an opportunity to train two, 2 year old filly’s and see how far we can get with their riding training, using only R+. And since the girls turn 3 years old in about 3 months (we don’t know for sure how old they are), my window for proof is short.

What if we decided to commit to training Chilli and Natalia to the level of riding required to be in a 2 year old Quarter Horse championship show, but only using R+? And, are we already out of time since we have not committed to it before now? And these are Mustangs, not Quarter Horses, not in theory a breed as trainable. And finally, we don’t have an indoor arena, which I guess is what most of them have so they don’t have training delays due to weather. So why would I even put that burden on myself to try to prove something like this, if you follow where I am going?

So, I am not ready today, quite yet, to commit to this endeavor. However, I am considering it seriously. To that end we did our first real training session with the girls yesterday as if that was our goal. I did a live video about it yesterday on YouTube if you want to check it out. This is step one. Maybe, just maybe, we can pull this off, and prove something unlikely to have ever been proven before in horse training. We shall see.

Today I am grateful for the beautiful sunrise I see peaking up. I am grateful for Reiki healing. I am grateful for the end of the year as a way to reflect on the past and prepare for the future with great hope. I am grateful I have meaningful work I enjoy. I am grateful I woke up today and my body parts seem to work well and I am healthy. Oh, and coffee, always grateful for coffee and clients who bring me awesome coffee to enjoy for months. Thank you.

Today, I hope you are ready for this Monday, for this week which represents such a huge opportunity to reflect, give thanks, and set goals. What do you want your 2026 to look like? What will you be doing the Monday after Christmas? And with who? And how much happier will you be than you are right now? The key is to put energy into it by thinking about it. Don’t avoid the thought and shrug it off as I don’t care I have no idea. Owe it to yourself to stop and actually take a moment to picture it. Write in your calendar, today is so much better than I even thought it would be one year ago today. It really is, as simple as that.
And if assisting a non-profit that is in need of hay to feed animals, and tractor repairs, we could use all the help we can get https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/Resqranch

​Have a wonderful day you Animal Loving Angel, welcome to the week!

Check out my YouTube channel for a daily "Good Morning!" from the rescues and lots of free tips and training resources. https://www.youtube.com/@the1drq