Bijou's 100th blog post.wmv

Wow, I know it's been quite a while since I last posted. I figured that I could put off posting until I had something really special to post about, and then I realized that my 2 year anniversary with Bijou was coming up. I figured I'd do a double whammy and have my 100th post be the 2 year post too. It's a little sad since that means I've only averaged 50 posts/year or approximately one post a week. I'm going to make year 3 count and do lots of blogging!

I've read through most of my blog over this last week, from when I first got this little lady all the way until now. I may not be where I thought I would with her, but I also didn't see having two horses for the first few months I had her, or breaking my ankle in the cards for us. We have had our fair share of ups and downs, successes and disappointments, but overall I'm happy to have her.

After years of feeling like the horse world could throw anything my way and I could take it in stride, I've finally found my match. Bijou tests me and challenges me in ways I didn't think were possible. I've learned so much about myself and the way I work with horses because of her. She's taught me quite a few new tricks to put in my training bag, and she's also taught me that sometimes it's alright to ask for help. She's humbled me in many ways, making me think some days that she's too much horse for me, but then I go out the next day and -as if she knows that I'm giving our partnership one more chance- she's turns around and gets her act together again. She's always surprising me, for better and worse. If we've done something all week and I expect her to execute perfectly - she'll throw a wrench in things and make us go back. If I take her somewhere new and scary she acts as if she's been there, done that. Never a dull day with this girl.

So I put together a video of (mostly) pictures and (a few) video clips from when I first bought her to November of last year. Through this period she went through the most dramatic physical transformation since I've had her so it shows up in pictures better. I realized that I don't have a lot of recent pictures or video of her (and trying to organize and find 1 years worth of pics was enough!) so I'll have to get on that to make a 2010-2011 slide show too. I'm hoping to get some video of us this week to give a comparison... we'll see if I can persuade someone to hold the camera :P