Hang on a moment, its nearly March, isn't it too late to be setting goals? Not according to psychologists and I reckon better late than never. This probably isn't an extensive list but these are my medium term goals for this year.

1. Get better at clipping Jasper's legs.
I'm going to confess this has always been my Mums job. The only time they get clipped is before a competition so they have to look good and there's no room for me to practice and have a go.
I realised at the weekend if I want to get better then I need to practise so I did. I only had half an hour and after I started I realised I couldn't find the clipper oil and the blades are pretty blunt (so I've probably done the clippers a world of good) but the end result was two front legs trimmed.
They look pretty laughable and I only had time to do the front legs so Jasper looks fairly ridiculous but its a start. His feathers are not his best feature (they're neither here nor there) and the hair is very coarse and difficult to trim so I'm going to cut myself some slack and say it wasn't bad for a first attempt. Hopefully I'll get time to do the back two this weekend. So I'm hoping to try and do it myself a bit more often. After all the worst that'll happen is I'll do a bit of a rubbish job but in reality it doesn't mater. Eventually they'll grow out and nobody will ever know.

2. Learn to Tow
Up there with being able to do more things myself is learning to tow a trailer. Obviously it would have a lot of benefit for us as we would have two drivers able to tow the trailer but I also think its an important life skill. When you live in the countryside there is going to come a day when you need to use a trailer and I hate to tie myself down by relying on other people. So I want to pass that this year before I get too many bad driving habits.

3. Enter at least one event this season.
This year is going to be a period of huge change for my family. My sister and I are both graduating at the same time and will be moving back home. We are also hoping to finish our house we have been building for 15 years this summer and hope to have moved in by Christmas. When I graduate I need to find a full time job so with so many things up in the air at the moment I'm not sure whats going to happen to my dreams of competing at National level again. That said though I'm sure we can squeeze in time for at least one competition, just to give us something to aim for. I'm keeping my options open at this point but watch this space.

4. Have more lessons.
If driving has had to take a back seat while I've been at uni its nothing compared to my riding. So to get me back into it I'd like to have some lessons after I graduate with the aim of improving my skills. I've always relied heavily on my riding to school Jasper so I want to start afresh before I start working with him again.

5. Improve my social media following.
If there's one thing I'm passionate about its sharing my love of carriage driving with other people. Social media is one of the most effective ways to reach people who might have never even considered jumping on a carriage. Its great to see so many other carriage drivers started to reach out to people in this way so in 2016 I would like to see my social media flourishing and continuing to grow.

Photo taken by Mr Ham