Lessons In TR

Hi friends, it’s been a while! It feels kind of funny to write a blog report when I only post two times last year, but I felt compelled to write this mostly to thank you readers for continuing to use and support Lessons In TR, keeping it humming along nicely with views and enough income to support itself, while I hang out in the background taking care of snotty noses and poopy diapers and my digestion. Thank you thank you thank you! I also felt a little need to update and say this blog is staying around despite the lack of posting 🙂

The State of the Blog

I continue to be amazed that people find this blog, that it gets so many visitors, and that it is still one of the only therapeutic riding blogs out there! (If you know of any new blogs, please LMK and I’ll put them in the links!)

Top posts of 2022:

• Index
• Gymkhana Games and Patterns
• What to Teach Riding Skills List

(I continue to be surprised that these are the same every year!)

Countries with the most visits to the site for 2022:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Ireland
6. South Africa
7. New Zealand
8. India
9. Israel
10. Philippines
11. Also: Germany, Sweden, Spain, France, Pakistan, and so many more!

I love to see where everyone’s from and hope it encourages you to know there’s a community of people around the world working with people and horses!

Total views for 2022: 153,141

Total visitors for 2022: 65,485

I think those are the most interesting of the stats, so I’ll leave it at that.

EQUUS Donation Update

Every year I send $4 per book sold to the EQUUS Foundation to help CTRIs. And every year it’s over $1,000, thanks to all you wonderful people buying the book! (2022 included!). For several years the donation was for scholarships awarded to volunteers pursuing PATH Intl Certification, but they were not getting enough applicants so as of last year Lessons In TR’s donations will be used for Grants to help PATH CTRIs of EQUUS Mentor charities renew/maintain their credentials. Learn more about it here. The exciting thing is that now the donation can benefit more people!

The State Of The Blogger

I want to give an update about me, because it helps explain the state of the blog, in particular for those of you who actively use it and hope for more posts. However, if it’s presumptuous of me to think you’d be interested, please just skip this and move on to the next section! Six years ago (after instructing for 6 years) I had my first baby. I went back to instructing briefly, had my second baby, and did not go back to teaching because I couldn’t get paid enough to pay a babysitter. I love writing and supporting instructors so I kept up the blog the best I could. While pregnant with my third I had more nausea than usual and got food poisoning once. After my third baby in 2020 I had some digestive issues and felt depleted and exhausted all the time. At some point we all got covid pretty badly and with little kids I couldn’t get the rest I needed to heal, then weeks later when I was just started to feel better we all got a stomach virus and I just never recovered. For months I was nauseous, often to the point of not being able to take care of the kids, not eating much and couldn’t keep on weight, and had multiple digestive/anxiety attacks. The doctors did all the tests and said it was post viral IBS that eventually hopefully goes away. Five months in I finally saw a functional health doctor (found through the IFM website) who did multiple tests that allopathic doctors don’t, and diagnosed me with SIBO, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, which later tests confirmed as from food poisoning. She put me on herbal antibiotics and a special diet and within weeks I was starting to get better. I am so thankful I felt well enough to pack our house and move across the country a month later as we had planned. However, it’s been a slow recovery and at half a year later I’m still not at 100%, although doing so much better and able to function and even do normal life! I have to give a huge shout out to my functional health doctor, Peak Health in Indiana for starting my healing, my functional health nutritionist Heal From Food for her help with food and planning all over video meetings, and my visceral manipulation specialist Devine Strength in Oregon for helping my insides regain mobility and heal from trauma (seriously, visceral manipulation has been key to my recovery!) – I share them in case you’re in their area, please look them up! SO, all of that, on top of moving and unpacking and three little kids, means I haven’t been blogging lately. I have grand dreams of getting back to posting, and going back to instructing, but I’m still figuring out how to live again, and focusing on setting up our house and trying to be a good parent. So that’s where I’m at!

The Future Of The Blog

With the blog so quiet, in case you are wondering if I will keep it going, the answer is YES, I will! I plan to keep Lessons In TR online forever and to post when I can or feel inspired. My top priority is to update the certification posts since the new CTRI process came out – I even took the Hoof Falls & Footfalls class about the new process in preparation for the update, but then I got sick. Right now I have to renew my certification, which with the last 2 years of being sick and not attending conferences means I’ve got a looooot of continued education to catch up on – and means I might have some things to post about! Lastly, I am still around so if you want to send in an activity or post to share, please do it!

You’re all amazing, thank you for your continued support and the wonderful work you are doing out there!

Very happy in our new home 🙂

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Note: This is not professional advice, this is a blog. I am not liable for what you do with or how you use this information. The activities explained in this blog may not be fit for every rider, riding instructor, or riding center depending on their current condition and resources. Use your best personal judgement! If you would like to contribute an activity or article, please contact me here, I would love to hear from you!