When you start to look back over the year, you realise why you never have a moment! With 2024 likely to have me out of the saddle for the longest time in maybe 25 years, it is nice to look back on the year and, rather than be disappointed, I can be safe in the knowledge I have earnt a rest.
We went to the beach, and I don’t think I could have picked a better day for it. I’d somehow managed to use very little of my holiday this year, the result being I had to take every Friday off in December – which seems great until you remember we have to deal with the Great British weather.
I have been putting the Christmas decorations up at home, including the wreaths that Diva helped me forage for supplies. I had promised Diva a more interesting and, more importantly, an edible wreath for her stable door. This time I went foraging alone as I was not sure the supermarket would be impressed if I tried to take Diva inside!
The hardest part of having animals is knowing that one day we will have to say goodbye to them. Sometimes this is as a result of an accident or sudden acute illness where the decision is out of our hands, but sometimes it is our responsibility to do the right thing at the right time for our beloved animals.
I think we may be having a repeat of the year we moved to the yard as all we seem to have at the moment is the wet stuff! The fields we worked hard on over the summer are now completely sloppy, brown messes. I have luckily been strip grazing though, so I have protected some of the field for when it eventually dries up.
I wrote recently about foraging for supplies to make some Christmas wreaths for my home, and when I was buying wire and such from a craft shop I noticed some jingle bells and couldn’t resist buying them.
What was I thinking clipping Bob a few days before a lesson? He was a bit “fresh”, shall we say, for the majority of the lesson, easily distracted and ready to zoom at the slightest touch. My poor legs – due to his feistiness we had to do a lot more trotting and flat schooling to get him to rejoin us on earth before we could even progress to pole work.
Is there really a miracle cure for the slippy, slimy, slidey, sticky gateways of every winter paddock? Well, actually, no – but there are a lot of things I have learnt over the years that can help a great deal. And, hopefully, there are just a couple of things in this guide that can help too!
The local unaffiliated Retraining of Racehorses dressage league 2023 was complete for the year and, after not having the best final day, the overall year had been incredible for Mister.