Spin This Blog!

Jen over at Sprite’s Keeper runs a weekly Spin Cycle (Get it- Spinning a yarn, a tale? Haha!). I’ve been fortunate enough to get in on it this week, and I hope to make it a weekly affair. I’ll try to be creative when it comes to *spinning* so I bore no one with my drivel.

This week I’m writing about the birth of Whoa My Horses; some blog history, if you will.

My leap into the blogosphere started in January of 2007- originally because I’d been reading my friend Bonnye’s blog and figured it looked like fun. I read her blog for several months before starting my own. She was (and still is) creative and witty and funny. I’ve known her since the 8^th grade, and at the time, I was working for her father-in-law as a Registered Assistant (a fancy way of saying I’m a registered stock broker, but instead of working one-on-one with my own clients, I just do all the dirty work for the boss man- her FIL). We lived in the same town, but I rarely saw her, as is the case in the big city (at the time I was in the D/FW, TX metroplex). We went to the same church, but when the church is 5000 large it makes it hard to see people you know on a regular basis, so her blog was my lifeline to her family and the goings on in her life. I figured if I started one it might be a good way to express myself, since I’m the kind of person that doesn’t always think so fast on her feet or in a confrontation and typically I have all sorts of random thoughts running through my head. If I write my thoughts on things, I typically communicate better. For a few years I’d kept a diary, but I was on the computer most days, all day, so I figured it’d be a good way to chronicle my life. I pretty much have a policy of if I find it interesting, I blog it. If it affects me and it won’t hurt me to share it publicly I’ll share it, and sometimes, I share it even if it will because I like the input of other people.

I started my blog at work one day- over lunch, Mr. K. Over lunch! I used Blogger, because it was what Bonnye used and I didn’t know there was such a thing as word-press. I had to choose a blog name, so I picked, Run Horse Run! since, I have for years run barrels and roped and rode and trained horses. I rode through high school, through college, out of college and even while I worked as a registered assistant. Riding barrel horses was my therapy. Horses are the reason I was put on this earth, there is no doubt about that. I titled the blog Whoa My Horses because at some point, your horse has to stop running.

I don’t know that I had anything particular I wanted to blog about- my horses, my life, my cooking, politics, my marriage. There wasn’t’ a specific reason I started it- I wanted to write down how I looked at the world and I hoped that others would find my thoughts interesting. Now it has evolved into some sort of lifeline for my parents, my sister, my brother, my best friend Jill, and all my friends in Texas, since in July of this year (2008) I moved to South Dakota to live on a ranch and ride horses and play cowgirl. I’ve always wanted to be a cowgirl. Just ask Jill.

But you see, when I first began blogging few folks read it. Not my parents, not my now ex husband (as a side note, there’s a good chance that had he read it, he may not be my ex- but this isn’t really about him, so I digress). Bonnye did, and she is one of the few that I knew that did. I would be bummed, because I’d see other people with all these comments, and I’d have 0. For a long time, I wondered if anyone read it.

I’ve decided I might be sort of a blog whore. Let’s don’t delve too far into this, in case my soon-to-be-ex husband reads this. He never read it until I told him he had to shape up or ship out. Then he was all of a sudden interested in all things me. I never thought it was genuine. See, there I go, sharing something that might not be good share! Back to being a whore- I want comments. I want groupies. I want to know I’m interesting. I want to see my horses run, and whoa, and for people to revel in this journey with me. Those are the reasons I blog. If I can make the world better, or quench someone’s interest in all things horses, western, ranching, then I’ve accomplished my goal. I suppose that I, on occasion have been known to use my blog to promote my ability to train a horse, as I often showcase videos of runs we make at barrel races, or videos of my first foal, or of horses in general. But for the most part, I just like to share my thoughts and view of the world. I never aim to offend anyone though I’m sure I do. It’s my blog, if you don’t like what I have to say, don’t read it.

So that’s my spin for the week- the history, albeit brief, of my blog. And I promise, at some point, I’ll post a blog about how I got where I am now. People keep asking, and I keep putting it off. It could be long-winded!