Look down and you fall down

A constant reminder being yelled at me when I ride a horse, "Look up!" the instructor shouts "Look down and you'll fall down!"

I am told to look ahead, to look far off past the arena and towards the fields, I am told when jumping to look for the next fence when in the middle of jumping the present one. Look ahead, land and go, kick on and my absolute favourite:

"Throw your heart over the fence and bloody well jump and gallop to catch it up!"

Yes, that was said to me by some old gal out in Africa, she was more horse than human and hard as they come. Good piece of advice though, and not just for riding horses at silly speeds through the wilderness.

Sometimes life gets hard, it's very easy to see the glass half empty. I've been no stranger to blueness and even bouts of blackness, finding it difficult to see the beauty in life - because once you're down, when you have fallen down, it is so damn hard to get back up again.

I genuinely think this weather is affecting everyone, there is glumness all around, the cold is incessant and cruel, the winds not just biting but chewing you up and spitting you out. The promise of Spring and Summer seems to be a lie, the weather has done this to us before - promised a season and failed to deliver it.

We've got to look up, keep our heads high, have something to look forward to, look for a project when you in the middle of one, don't stop to contemplate the crapness or the fear - and certainly don't look down, as you may just fall down. And sometimes it can bloody hurt.