I have not written any dispatches in several months. This is because I have been mediating between the life lived and the lived life, and not doing too good a job of it. So much has been going on that I found myself unable to get it all in paper. So, finally, I threw up my hands and said “can’t do anymore!” I might have been able to continue writing but I lost incentive when Pete, poor Pete, fell behind in posting dispatches. So I decided to wait until he got caught up before resuming this activity. He’s now closing in on this so I am now resuming writing.

We decided that for next year that we’ll change the focus of the dispatches. The website header has been entitled “Tolting the Divide,” but we’re changing it to “Centered Riding Alaska.” This is because at this stage of my life, the majority of my endeavors are centered around this topic.

The Centered Riding part began with my taking the two-part instructor’s clinic in California last April. And it continued with Pete and my organizing two centered riding clinics here in Alaska last August. Then in November I went to the Netherlands and both did an update clinic and attended the 2015 Centered Riding Symposium.

I also began taking a semester-long anatomy and physiology course at Mat-Su College in September. It ended in December. I took this course because I felt like having a more in-depth knowledge of anatomy would in the long run make anatomy-related centered riding readings more comprehensible.

All this, in hopes of becoming a more balanced and centered riding rider and instructor. Amazingly, this is coming to be. I’ve been doing considerable reading on what I see as being at the heart of centered riding – ideokinesis – and additionally, am now taking a Feldenkrais class in Anchorage.

Doors have opened and doors are opening. This spring I’m going back to California and taking an update clinic in California, at the same place where I did my Level 1 instructor training. In the spring we’re putting in an arena up behind the black hole – I’ll then in a manner of speaking hang out my shingle.

Pete and I are going to Washington in the spring and bringing back Tyra, our latest horse addition. I’m also planning on getting the down-road pasture fencing in place, so that the horses will have more grazing space.

Lots going on – too much to write about it all in single dispatch. The most important thing of all is that I’m again writing dispatches and Pete’s again posting them.

Next: 185. 12/25/15: Tacking Up/Dressing up Hosses