Origins of "A Little Left of Center"

So you've arrived here from whereever you started-- Welcome, and thanks for honoring me with your time and presence here!

Now that you're here, let me take a moment to familiarize you with what this crazy (?) woman is talking about in this blog series.

As odd as it may seem, this is actually a blog about horses and riding (bet you didn't see that coming from the title, now did you?) This blog is the brainchild of a horse crazy (see, I told you I was crazy!) woman and her rather incredible journey to learn more about herself and life quite literally by the seat of her pants. A horse lover all of my life, and a horse owner (do we really own them, or are we their caretaker/partners? Now there's a blog entry to explore...), I have had the great good fortune to have come back to the horse world after far too much time away.

As part of my journey back into the barn (instigated by an equally horse crazy daughter, maybe its a genetic thing?), I found myself wanting a more active and satisfying partership with my horse friends, and our family pony in particular. In looking for more, I was led back to Centered Riding (see, there is a Center to all of this) and into an incredible riding community at HillCroft Stables. There I was able to find the guidance, support and training that I was looking for from some of the finest teachers (equine and human) that I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

Somewhere along the way, I began to get the sneaking supsicion that I was learning much more than just how to make (?) my horse walk, trot, canter (and stop, which is a actually lot harder than it looks, by the way). In fact, I was getting "centered" in so many ways, both through my lessons and through the time spent with the horses themselves, that the "lessons" were slowly beginning to seep into the rest of my life . In fact, this process led me to make some pretty significant changes in my life as well, but, more about that in later entries...

In the end, I realized that I was getting so much good stuff out of all of this work that I wanted to share the insights, musings, observations and experiences from this incredible journey. Of course, a good amount of my motivation is for my own enjoyment and the thrill of seeing my words in print, but I believe that, perhaps, some of what I've been learning and discovering might be of interest to you as well, dear reader (I have SO wanted to have a place to use that phrase-- yipee!), even if you have never been and never intend to be near or on a horse.

I hope you enjoy what you read, have a laugh or two, take a look at life from a different angle, and maybe, just maybe, be touched by the magic that I'm finding a little left of center....

Peace,

RidinMama

The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire.
Sharon Ralls Lemon