My second love, besides horses, is musical theatre. Oh, and Joey of course. Oh and Jack. Oh god, and Pie! He should have been first! Ok, it’s one of my loves. Musical theatre is something I am often inspired by. I produced a version of The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown a few years ago and there was an audition song in it – Climbing Uphill. Cathy sings for an audition but we […]
Confidence, I have realised, is like a bottle of wine or gin. Whichever you prefer. To really excel and be full of confidence, you need a full bottle. (Definitely a metaphor, please drink responsibly!) My confidence has been pretty rock bottom in recent years but, this week, I had a bit of a realisation. My one step at a time approach has worked wonders, and I highly recommend it to anyone fighting their own confidence […]
We took Jack to Wellington on Saturday to do some show jumping. I made an error at fence 8 and had it down. I was annoyed with myself but took the lesson and moved forward. Then my mother said 5 magic word “Look how far you’ve come.” A few months ago, if Jack had so much as neighed, I would have panicked and jumped off. Now, I am kicking myself about sitting too quietly into […]
My return to the show ring didn’t quite go to plan. So, this week, it is comeback take two! Tomorrow, we are off to Addington Equestrian Centre for a two day Sports Horse (GB) show. On day one, I will tackle the Novice Working Hunter and day two the Amateur. It’s a level down from our failed comeback which I hope will help it to be more successful but also there has been lots of […]
It’s been a busy few weeks in regards to personal realisations. A week and a half ago I decided to go big and ride Jack at the Royal Three Counties Show. I had been taking lots of baby steps to get there and thought I was ready. I say thought as I realise now that I really wasn’t. Mentally, I amazed myself. My breathing techniques worked, my acceptance of a few things helped and in […]
What is this life so full of care, we have no time to stop and analyse things. Well, I am not very good at just staring or at least, if I look like I am just staring I am probably thinking. Overthinking can be a bad thing, but analysing is so important and something that some people just don’t do enough. I have just started competing again. It is very early stages but it going […]
Some days you ride and finish physically exhausted, on this training day, I finished mentally exhausted. British Dressage Central Region organised a training day at Croft Equestrian Center, near Reading with The Balanced Rider and Centaur Biomechanics and I was delighted to take Jack along. My aunt had attended a Centaur Biomechanics lesson previously so I had an idea of what it was about but I underestimated what kind of impact it would have on […]
No blog post or YouTube video last week because I was treading the boards. I got rather sidelined with a week performing in “Showtime” at the Corn Exchange in Wallingford. I had a fantastic week but as always came away with lessons to apply to my horsey life. You can take the girl away from horses but…. So, what did I learn – surrounding yourself with positive people will change the way you think. The […]
Joey got a scooter for Christmas. He loves his scooter. He is a little young for a scooter but is very active and we thought it would be something he would enjoy. He did some practice at home before venturing out to the local park and he was let loose. He fell off. Quite spectacularly in fact. Coated from head to foot in mud. So, did this make him a better scooter rider? Or was […]
As I walked out of the arena, a smiling stranger said “oh, chickening out!”, I smiled and muttered something along the lines of “ha, yeah, you know,” But in truth she really didn’t know. I was avoiding terrifying Mindy! Last weekend, it was the British Eventing Jumping and Style Finals at Hartpury College – supported by Baileys Horse Feeds. The wonderful Jack had qualified so Joey and I headed down to cheer him on. We […]