I am very excited to say that the first event of the season is entered and all I need to do now is get the horses XC schooling which is proving a little tricky with this weather. Every time I plan a day to go somewhere it seems to be frozen solid. We tried to do dressage last Friday at Allenshill and almost got there without drama when my air brakes on the lorry decided to freeze. It was so cold outside they froze as we went along. Jonny was with me and phoned our mechanic who informed me that we needed to turn around and go straight to his garage as if I put the hand brake on we would be going no where fast. So with three horses on board and being about two seconds from Allenshill around we turned and headed back to Stratford – and that was the end of dressage!
I have not ventured out since and I cant say I am sad about that! I really thought we had survived this winter without too much cold weather but sadly I must have thought too soon!
We had to keep the horses in over the weekend for the first time ever and getting back on today was not much fun on a few. Ernie was perhaps the worst behaved and after a lot of snorting and shooting off he finally settled down – well sort of, I decided at that point that riding without a neck strap was not a good idea! I know my limitations at staying on fresh horses and I am not afraid to say that I am not the best; Hannah with her lovely long legs is much better than me and seems also to have a calming effect on the horses where as I have and always have had an electric bum in these situations!
The team have been fantastic and all chipped together to get the extra work load done as working in this weather is no fun! Frozen drinkers, troughs and ground creates a real challenge and I am grateful to them all for their continued hard work.
Even though they said snow was coming I was a little reluctant to accept that it would hit us and it was only when half way through teaching a lesson on Saturday afternoon that I was forced to accept it. We did however carry on and the two lovely girlies I was teaching had a nice time despite the fact they could barely see in front of them!
My next lesson was so desperate to have her lesson that we went ahead and battled through the snow. I was given some fantastic sealskinz gloves for Christmas and they certainly came into use. Cold hands and Colina Pickles do not mix well and usually result in one feeling a little sick and faint which is never good when on top of a horse!
I decided that 6 hours in the ménage on a freezing cold day was enough for one weekend so took a completely different change of direction on Sunday and decided to do some painting and decorating at home.
All my lessons for Sunday were cancelled and it was a good day to catch up with a few things that needed doing. We have decided to go for a feature wall papered wall in our room which when deciding on this seemed relatively straight forward. I can assure anyone thinking of doing the same that it is not a good idea if you want to stay calm, keep your temper and stay friends with your husband, mother, sister and any other family member who has kindly offered to help! To say the feature wall is less than half done and I don’t want to look at it again for a while is a good representation of where we are at and that riding horses is definitely more rewarding.
My Mum said she would help me finish it this week but its Tuesday evening now and neither of us have the want or desire to even open the door of the room! I have however been for a run and we managed three miles this evening a quite a good pace. Last week we did a personal best of 6 miles – so half way there! A friend who lives in Stratford has just sent me a text message saying “Mate...Shorts and a T-Shirt? Seriously it’s the middle of winter!” I guess she saw me running – isn’t that what one runs in?? Apparently not these days, although I was a little cold!
Next week I hope to have lots of horsey related news for you otherwise you will be stuck with an update on the feature wall progress and how many miles I have been running!
I will know if viewing figures are up this week that my no news news is a hit with you all.
Until next time
Colina
