Usually, with every turn of the year, I write an editorial which is not horse-infused, but which deals with real life; politics, economy, social life, etc. This time I'm not going to devote any energy into an idealistic debate about what the world should look like and which persons should definitely step down from government right away. Instead I just advise you to listen to Incubus' newest song "Megalomaniac." By the way, I hope this decision will prevent my mailbox being flooded with threat mails and paternalistic sermons ;)
So, what else to write right after New Year's Eve? The first weeks of January are always the dead season in the horse world. In Belgium, such calm is poetically called "cucumber time." It takes until the end of January for the competition world to end its hibernation and for things to heat up again.
While "competition cucumber time" only lasts a month, cucumber time in my own dressage training is already taking half a year. Sometimes I wonder if I have really come to that point of a standstill in my training. Is my horse learning new things, am I actually progressing, is this my trainer's fault? It's not always that clear when you do dressage. And it's oh so frustrating.
For the first time - that I can recollect - I was unable to make any definite New Year Resolutions for the upcoming year (2004). I'm just turning into a cucumber, I guess.
--Astrid Appels
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