This is the final dispatch for 2017. In a few days Pete will be caught up posting what I have already written. I will begin writing the 2018 dispatches tomorrow. I always hate to see the year come to an end – it’s sort of the like the end of the garden season. As it pains me to see the flowers die, it pains me to turn yet another page of the calendar. So be it.

The year in review – for me, it was a year of major ups and downs. We lost Rainbow and Rover, two wonderful animals. I continue to miss them both. Rainbow was a dog with an incredible spirit and Rover had a huge heart. And Freebird, chicken extraordinaire, also died.

We did acquire Stormy the Milk Goat – she fit right in as all the animals that have wound up here have done. We are hoping that a late night rendezvous with Phoenix will result in spring babies. We want females, but gosh, it will be hard to part with a male named Beaufort Force 10.

The Horse Life: it began with a high level of involvement with the Centered Riding organization and ended with a low level of involvement. I now have to look at my involvement as being like being on a springboard – it led to a near-obsessive interest in movement science/body awareness for horse and rider, and my involvement with Project Proprius.

I also got to go to the east coast and both do an internship and do an agility clinic.

But no more Centered Riding clinics here. Six months of hard work for a total of two hours of riding lessons.

Writing-wise, I started strong, fizzled a bit, am finishing strong. The Goat Poetry reading went well; though I wish that Rover’s death had not been the impetus for it. I published several articles in Northwest Horse Source magazine, an article about Project Proprius and agility in The Icelandic Horse Quarterly, and an article about the Fairbanks Challenge of the North competitive trail ride in The Icelandic Horse Newsletter.

Rainbow pulling sled

Rover

Rainbow crossing log bridge over Moose Creek

I did start yet another major project, one in which I’m expanding upon the dispatches that I wrote during the Alaska State Fair. I was a recycling supervisor. I set this aside to do yet another project, I am putting together a document on acupressure, one that I will be able to use in doing body work on horses. It is my first foray into the realm of technical writing.

And, oh yes, this dispatch would not be complete if I failed to mention my reorganizational endeavors. I spent three weeks going through stuff and discarding and reorganizing nearly everything I own. I feel really good about this – one thing left to do which is to put my computer files in order.

Done is done. Time to ring in the new year.

Next: 1/1/18: The New Year: My Big, Fat Dispatch