December 18 - Try

What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn't go for it?

All I ever wanted to do was go fox hunting. The idea of galloping over green hill and dale listening to the hounds, the scenery, the horses, the hunt attire, the deeply steeped tradition - all of it so appealed to me. It is so contradictory to my belief system - a vegetarian pacifist, not a murdering elitist - but it runs so deep in my blood that I can only call it genetic. When I had the chance I didn't wait long enough to say "no". When I packed up my tack and coat and stock tie and drove, knees knocking, to the stranger who had invited me through mutual Facebook friends, I was full of trepidation - I hadn't ridden in months, I didn't know the horse, the weather was foreboding, the footing slop, the hunt one of the fastest in the southeast, if not the country, notorious for their long hard gallops and Tally Ho's late in the waning evening. But I piled into the car with two other ladies and two dogs and made the two hour drive to Thompson Georgia for what promised to be the single most exhilarating day of my life.

Renee had two well seasoned hunters, who would ride in hill-toppers happily, and checked easily for the novice that I was, but she did not have a second jumping saddle, so I had to ride, stirrups rolled up to my knees, in my very deep seated dressage saddle. She promised we wouldn't have to jump - much...

Three hours later, no coyote spotted, we headed in, our horses steaming, and my heart pounding in my throat. I had not come off, I had not embarassed myself or my host, I had, in fact, shown myself well, and my legs had done their job. All the thousands of hours spent in the tack had paid off and I was the owner of a new and wonderful story.

So in 2011 I will endeavor to say "Yes" when asked "Would you like to _______?". You never know where you will end up!