I’ve ridden 6 times so far in the month of November. None of those rides were for more than 30 minutes. Horseback riding is my main hobby, but I do have others. Since I can’t really ride, I’ve been spending more time on those other hobbies. I’m curious what other riders do when they’re not riding. I made this into a blog hop since I figure this time of year makes it difficult for a lot of us to ride, not just those of us with stupid mules who stick their legs through metal doors. I thought other bloggers might also like an inspiration for a post. Feel free to just comment if you don’t want to blog about it.
Fencing
I’ve only been fencing for a few years, but I really enjoy it. Unfortunately, it’s a very expensive sport. I participate in a local club and we have weekly lessons followed by practice bouts. This local club is fairly affordable, but proper lessons and competing costs nearly as much as full horseback riding. I cannot even begin to understand why fencing and horseback riding cost the same as one requires the cost of keeping a horse alive and the other simply requires a wooden floor. Nonetheless, I can’t afford to really invest myself in both. So fencing is a secondary hobby for me. I was in training to try to go to nationals last year, but then the qualifier was the same weekend as Rolex and once I knew I was going to miss it, I stopped working very hard at fencing. Now that I can’t really ride, I’m doing more fencing. As a side bonus, it’s also really great exercise.
Sewing
I’ve been sewing since I was young, but mostly for crafting or occasionally fixing something. I’d really like to be able to do more, so I recently enrolled in an alterations class. I’m learning to fix my clothes and make them fit better. I’m also learning to make new clothes, which is pretty difficult. I bought the pattern for stirrup pants, which I’m planning to make into riding tights. We’ll see how that goes. If it works, I’ll certainly share.
Reading
I love reading. I usually read between 2-6 books per month even during the summer when I’m riding every day. I can read a book in a few days if I want/need to. Which I frequently do as I will often only remember to start my monthly book club book 2 days before bookclub. With the extra time, I’ve been reading a lot more and I’ve been particularly enjoying re-reading through some of my favorite series in a row as opposed to the spread-out initial readings as the books were released. I generally read a mix of YA/Fantasy, Romance, and Non-Fiction. Some recent reads that I’ve enjoyed include Ann Aguirre’s Perdition series, Julia Quinn’s Bridgeton series, Spillover which is a nonfiction book about viruses, Brain on Fire which is an excellent nonfiction book, but not a good read for anyone who’s a hypochondriac, and Seveneves which is interesting but sometimes needs some skimming through pages of math.
Board Games
This is an ongoing hobby and it really hasn’t changed much with the lack of riding, but it is one of my non-equestrian activities. My husband and I play some games together a few nights a week and we also have friends over and go to friends houses to play games a few times a month. One of my favorites games is Dominion. We even made a custom box to hold the game.
We recently got Pandemic Legacy. Pandemic is one of our favorites and the new legacy game has you playing through a series of events that have lasting effects on the game. Your game board and characters and the cards change permanently so that each subsequent game is different. The game is designed to play 12-24 times depending on how well you do. We haven’t finished, but I’ve been enjoying it and would recommend it to anyone else who plays board games.
It's sounds like you're very well rounded! I've always wanted to try fencing,it looks like fun.
I feel like we have a weird amount in common. Minus the fencing (though I had friends who did when we were in HS) I enjoy all the things on your list. 🙂 I'm pretty bad at sewing currently though…but I'm learning!
i like sewing too, but am moderately terrible at it lol (and may or may not have totally killed my grandmothers old singer machine, oops!)
I'm either writing, crafting, reading or these days hanging out with friends.
Fencing! That is so cool! I <3 crochet
Fencing! how Fun! 😀
What a neat bunch of hobbies! I love this blog hop; I really like reading about what everyone enjoys doing when they aren't at the barn.
Yes; I feel like we'd be friends if we didn't live 3000 miles apart.
I'm not that great at sewing either. Hence the class. It's really helpful having someone who knows what they're doing showing me what to do. And fixing my machine for me.
I do a lot of the same. I'm looking forward to seeing Mockingly II with a bunch of friends this week.
I can knit, but not crochet.
It is a lot of fun. And it's so much exercise. I'm the first one to jump on anyone saying horseback riding isn't exercise, but fencing is so much more intense.
It's a lot of fun.
I think it's interesting how diverse and sometimes similar people's hobbies are outside of horses.
I've always wanted to try fencing but it's cost-prohibitive around here.
It's really expensive here too. The local club is the only way we can afford it.
What a great topic!!
BTW fencing looks awesome!!
I did fencing in college! I took it as an elective course: my professor was the coach for the Puerto Rican fencing team at the Panamerican Games at one point. He was amazing, and I fell hard for the sport. My weapon of choice was the sabre. I was a shoo-in for the college team my professor was trying to organize but the plans fell through due to school bureaucracy. I tried getting into it on my own but discovered the same thing as you: it is soooooo expensive! I chose the horses instead. It's awesome that you still get to practice!!
Love this blog hop! Working on my answers. 😀
Oh my gosh! Pandemic is my favorite board game ever! I'm really into super cool games like that, Star Trek Catan, Deck Building Games, and other cooperative games. I'm a geek for life. ;). I'll make sure to write my own post!
Fencing looks like so much fun; crazy that it's as expensive as riding, though! Thank you for starting the blog hop, I participated!
You should totally try the new Pandemic Legacy. Maybe I'll bring some games to next year's mule clinic and we can play in the evening.
Thanks for participating. I really do not understand why fencing is so expensive…