Future Planning

This post is by way of a time capsule to compare how I feel now with what transpires in 1, 2, 5 years.

Through 2015
The final 2013-2014 Winter Tournament show was a week ago. The banquet is this weekend. My prediction is that I have one more Winter Tournament in me. I plan to show this season and next in Academy walk-trot-canter. Not as many shows as last year, but a goodly number. Go to Nationals at least once for WTC, perhaps twice depending on the results over the summer. Two years of cantering classes will make three years of Academy total. If I’m not riding a horse of my own – TB jumper, ASB eventer, whatever – by the end of that, I’m taking up Tiddlywinks.

Not really, but it will be time for major change. The natural evolution would be to move out of Academy into performance classes. While suit classes would be a hoot, I don’t see myself making the fulltime commitment to saddleseat that would be necessary [Suiting Up].

At some point, one must stop hitting one’s head and admit that the wall has won.

Through 2014
Along those lines, I don’t know where the blog would have been without saddleseat and the shows to write about. This year, I can compare & contrast with last year. But that’s it. If I’m not doing something new/different/exciting – see above – by the end of this year, the blog will run out of steam. If my life looks exactly the same at this time next year, I will certainly enjoy my third (if all goes as planned) year in Academy, but I don’t see the narrative potential.

This is not a prelude to a hysterical meltdown over the blog, although I am certainly capable of those [Where, Baack]. It’s more about diminishing material. If I don’t add new data to the system, three years of daily blogging will have sucked dry everything I have to say on the subject.

At some point, I will run out of archive photos to fall back on [Happy Halloween]. If I have a new face, or an old face pulls his socks up and does something new, then by all means, I will blather away.

In Sum
Many things can happen between now and then, both good and bad. However, given an extrapolation of the current starting conditions, this is how I envision the future arranging itself.

We shall see.
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Gratuitous Cat Picture