What I Do v Who I Am

Like many others in blogger land, I work in an industry completely unrelated to horses.  Honestly, I'm not even totally sure how I chose the profession I chose outside of the sad fact that since I was young I've compulsively made what I call "money lists".  That's right... I'm an Accountant.  Even a CPA.  

It's um... heart-wrenchingly boring most of the time.  I used to be a tax accountant and really enjoyed the work, but the hours were just UGGHHHHHH, so now I'm an industry accountant, which is a lot less fun (I know, you're thinking 'Something can be less fun than tax accountant?  Impossible.' But seriously, it's true).

Anyways - this post isn't meant to be a huge bitch fest about my career.  It's more about reconciling what I do with who I am (accountants love a good reconciliation).  This is something I struggle with almost daily.  I basically go between "do what you love" (aka work with animals or people more closely) and "you have to pay bills to keep what you love" (horses and home). 

My thoughts exactly, you adorable man

I'm currently of the mindset that I have this analytical/numbers skillset, and I'm good at what I do, so I need to work that angle.  BUT - I hate a lot of things about office life, mostly the clothes, the inability to do whatever I want to my appearance, the frowning upon swearing heavily, etc.  It's just suffocating how stuffy office life can be, especially in any finance related field.

One thing I am working on is buying clothes that I can wear to work, but would also wear in my everyday life (horses, going out to eat with handsome beau, reading some awesome blogs).  I know this sounds like a pathetic reach, but I do think being able to dress more 'myself' at work will help me stay happy in that work.  Anyways - I've been looking a lot at Asmar Equestrian and Ariat, but again, I'm left a bit stumped - do people actually wear this stuff to ride in, or even be around horses in?  Can you actually get away with wearing breeches to work?

Does anyone else do this?  Any brands I should look into?  Or ideas?  Or job offers outside of the soul crushing work of finance?  ;)

Until then...

Thou Shalt

I've been working on coming up with my equestrian code.  Just something to help guide me in daily decision making and behavior at the barn.  The reason I chose to do this was because I tend to be very hard on myself to the point where I don't enjoy things, pretty demanding of Gav when I may just not be "explaining" a concept to him quite right, and sometimes I just feel downright lost in my equine pursuits. 

Relaxing after our first cross country outing

So far, I've come up with three commandments that I believe can hold true to me on any horse day of the week.  I think the Olde English helped ;)

1) Thou shalt enjoy thine sport (for thou doth not have enough time or money to rain dolla billz on a hobby thou doth not enjoy)

2) Thou shalt focus on thineself and thine position before nagging the mount (thine legs and core must be stable, solid, and engaged before you can expect the same from thine equine brethren)

3) Thou must shower thine mount with praise and affection for he art a living beings who thrives on such things.

First trip to the cross country course

Does anyone have any rules they live by with horses?  :)

Mostly Silent Sunday

Yaaaasssssssssss! :) Gavin and I are finally mobile!