Diary of an Amateur Equestrian
Hello, and welcome back to the blog. It has been a while... yet again! Wow, how life gets in the way. I have recently been watching 'Free Rein' on Netflix and listening to Joanna Thurman-Baker and Evelina Shrieve's new podcast 'That's Lame' and it has made me reflect on where I am currently in respect …
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! Today I would like to share my intentions for 2023. I like to create intentions for all areas of my life; mind and spirit, physical, environmental, social, financial and vocational. However, for the purpose of this blog, I am going to focus on my equestrian goals. 2022 has …
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! Today I am sharing a little about the plans for the month of December with my young horse Bryni. Click here to see last month's plan. As I mentioned in The Monthly Muster: November post, things have been going well. I have been considering my own training as …
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! This week I am sharing my thoughts on building a strong bond with your horse through building a meaningful connection. I have recently bought a new horse and I have found myself questioning the connection I have with her and considering on a core level 'how do I …
Continue reading "How to build a connection with your horse"
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! I have an exciting post to share today... I got my new horse! She is just beautiful, inside and out and I can't wait for our journey together. I have wanted to buy another horse for quite a few years now but I was never in the position …
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! Once again, things got busy and my blogging went out of the window, but that's ok. This move has been a huge transition for me and I am only starting to find my feet now. Things have moved along a little since I last posted. I still haven't …
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! It's been a minute since I wrote for BBequines but there has been so much going on in my life that I guess I didn't know what to say. Bo is retired now so I never had much to write about in that aspect, and because I knew …
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! I'm sat in bed with covid at the moment which is really not ideal given I am in the process of both planning my wedding and preparing to move to Australia. Really, my life in Scotland is down to a number of weeks remaining and I want to …
I remember seeing the No Stirrups November challenge last year but I didn't take part. This year, I remembered on time and so I have decided I would like to give it a go. I have decided to challenge myself to ride 10 times (at least) throughout November with no stirrups. The main reason I …
When I took on a Highland pony a few months back, the opportunity to share Bo came up. I thought at the time it would be a useful thing to do both because I had another horse to ride and because my fiancé and I are planning to emigrate and so having someone set up …
I’ve taken a little break from blogging and pretty much everything to do with social media recently. I can’t even put a finger on why. I guess when I returned back to school for my NQT (newly qualified teacher) year, things have just been busy and a little all over the place. I gave Ghillie …
Yesterday was such a fun- filled day because Bo and I went to our first ever cross country training hire! It sounds funny saying that since I have had Bo for around 9 years and this is just us doing our first one, but there is reason for that. Anyway, my friend and I had …
As you may have seen on my last Instagram post here or on my last blog post (which you can find here) I’ve just started loaning Ghillie- an oversized yellow sun highland. I haven’t actually managed to spend too much time with him yet because the week he arrived he had to quarantine in a …
My horse, Bo, is a Welsh Section D and over the years I have come to know the breed very well and I would say that it is my favourite of all. So in this post, I am going to explain 5 reasons for why I think Welsh Section D’s are the best horses ever! …
No matter what discipline you do with your horse, schooling is so important to build the connection between horse and rider. Even if you are just a happy hacker, a little schooling session now and again can really improve the quality of your rides. It’s important that you get the most out of your schooling …
Continue reading "How to make the most out of schooling sessions?"
I am currently in my probation year as a primary school teacher right now and I have been startled at how similar teaching children and training horses is. It’s sounds weird, I know, but honestly, the same principles apply! Reward the good, ignore the bad When you are training horses in a positive way, I …
Continue reading "Why being a primary school teacher and a horse trainer are similar"
Bo will be 20 this year and because of his age and ability, I have to be careful with what I am doing. Lunging is a touchy subject because some people will say it is useful, others will say it’s damaging. Personally, I think it depends on how you’re lunging. I feel the way that …
Continue reading "Lunging 101- 5 things you should think about when lunging your horse"
Today marks the first day of the Easter Holidays and I am super excited to get Bo fit for summer. I want to have a really fun summer with Bo this year and do some jumping just for fun (very low level as he is arthritic so we’ll only be jumping tiny fences), hack further …
The weather really is horrendous right now so I’m just taking my time with these lessons for my liberty challenge. I have owned Bo for around 8 years now and I know him pretty well so I have decided to sort of do bits and bobs of lessons 1-3 together. I think if I had …
Things have been a little different recently because I have been working from home Tuesday to Friday every week as schools have switched to online learning. I only go into school on a Monday to support the key workers children and other vulnerable children so on a Monday, it is the same routine, I just …
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