With 2023 coming to an end, I don’t think I have experienced such a mix of emotion as I have this year. I have had two really huge personal achievements and two heartbreaking findings.
How do I improve my grass? Perhaps an easier question would be: how long is a piece of string? Grass growth will vary from year to year, depending on weather conditions, and even one or two weeks’ overgrazing at the height of winter can damage summer growth.
I have decided to try to make some items for this Christmas that I would usually buy. The first things I opted to make were wreaths.
After five or six years away from the British showjumping circuit, I’ve rejoined, and this time with my little Connemara standing just about 15HH – and he’s been amazing!
Five years ago, I had the absolute dream of having my own acreage, but this has honestly been the biggest learning curve, relearning so much about how to better look after our horses and what the land requires. Hopefully, I can give some insight into things I have learnt, mostly by trial and error and lots of mistakes.
The annual trip to Your Horse Live was completed and even my partner enjoyed a bit of it! Okay, he mainly enjoyed the cake stalls (and they were amazing – we took three bags of cake home with us), but also liked the rescue village and heavy horse yard. We got to go into the stable with two donkeys for pats and cuddles and we both loved it.
I thought in this first blog post I ought to tell you a little bit about my horses and me, and give you an insight into what you might see from us going forwards. Firstly, my name is Emma. I’m 29 years old and I’ve been riding for as long as I can even remember.
I can say I’ve been able to tick something off my bucket list now: I managed to mount and ride a camel – a brilliant experience. I had great fun grooming my one, named Baxter, and I think the people running it were happy they had people that were used to dealing with big animals and weren’t afraid to get stuck in.
I find this one of the toughest topics in the horse world, as everyone does something different. There are thousands of products on the market – all claiming they can cure everything – and nutritionists are often affiliated with a feed company, making any advice potentially biased.