Sit the Trot

Axel Von Fluffy pants left Kentucky on Tuesday and arrived with me Wednesday morning. He was due in at 9:30am, so after the school run I hot tailed it straight to the barn, checked his stall, faffed around and tried not to worry about the butterflies in my belly! I have no cell reception at the barn and wasn't sure if the shipper would so I went and sat out in my car where I had a clear view of the road. The driveway into our barn isn't suitable for the semi to drive down, so I had a rather snowy and slightly icy path to walk him down after arrival. I was so nervous and excited to meet him and my lovely friend Jess stepped in as wingman and photographer which was totally invaluable! We both started squealing when the semi pulled up and rushed down the driveway, they began unloading his hay and feed and I pretty much was bouncing with excitement (well the British version of, so basically just standing and waiting haha). He unloaded so well and there was no silly business at all ...

I feel quite excited, terrified, excited... both! Axel has been picked up this morning and he will join the Hanekom & Happenstance family very soon. I am really excited for my pony to arrive, but nervous too. It has been a long time since I have had my own horse and what a wonderful first horse he was. I know I have taken a bit of a leap with buying Axel but something tells me it is the right choice. Of course, I don't have a way of seeing into the future, although that would be very handy if I did! But I am hoping that everything kind of clicks into place. I hope the poor lad is feeling ok. I am thinking of him right now, how he must feel a bit odd with all this driving and these strange people. It's been an unsettling few months for him and of course, Sara, and the barn crew and myself, will be new 'people' too. I hope he will soon learn that he can relax and that he is safe and cared for at his new home. His journey began by being collected in one of the sm...

Today I was doing my daily yoga. I am superbly lucky in that we have some lovely views from areas in our house. Our bedroom overlooks an area of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and even though its just a glance of them, it is more than enough to actually be quite motivational!  Now before I go on, I want to make sure you do not give me too much kudos. I work hard, I squat, stretch and downward dog as best I can but please realise. I am no Yogi. Sometimes I feel almost elegant, but mostly I feel a little like a small, slightly awkward elephant. However, I love my yoga. Not only does it help me physically but the mental/ emotional side of it is incredible too. One of the things that Adrienne mentions often is the importance of moving with ease. If you are forcing your body into shapes, not only are you damaging your body, but your mind too. Finding a way to move with ease and grace, builds muscle, builds suppleness and confidence. Forcing your body into those shapes can ...

There is a little, ok a lot of excitement in the household today, in between arranging transport, insurance and everything else, oh and the bouncing around grinning I thought I had better update you all on my week, it finally seems I have found my unicorn. The horse search was interesting for me. The adverts were generally beautifully presented. Horses groomed, glossed, bandaged and plaited up. Professional videos and stunning photos. Something in my heart just didn't click with most of them. I am not sure if there is a little part of me that doesn't feel worthy of the big, flashy warmblood but, in the most part, they just don't pull my heart strings. Eventually an advert popped up that I couldn't ignore. He pretty much had the best name ever, I mean who wouldn't love an 'Axel Von Flurry' haha! Just tickled me. Then his description totally won me over. He has a bit of lower level dressage training but that wasn't what I was bothered about. Axels back...

Most people who know me know I am a little obsessive and weird about organising stuff. I love order and planning. One of my great joys in life is my little label machine, I am sure my poor trainer remembers the days when I was her working student.  I would go around obsessively labelling saddle racks, bridles. Making lists of what tack each horse wore and often rearranging her tack locker and so forth way too often. I love that she let me get a little nuts about it and just had this funny coy smile that said 'crack on crazy lady'. So now you know my little bit of cray cray, this latest blog will make a bit more sense. While I wait for the PPE, I have been merrily joining the relevant horsey organizations and will be starting to learn some dressage tests as soon as I can. Alright, I do realise that I don't actually have a horse, yet. but in my mind, this is just a slight teeny, tiny hurdle, on the path of dancing my way to area finals! I can already see myself riding dow...

Now, I do apologise for my lack of posts for the last week or so, there hasn't been a huge amount to report as such and I feel like I may bore everyone slightly with those "no news' type posts. However, rather than radio silence for much longer I thought I may as well waffle at you a little on the current situation. All seemed to be going well with plans for prospective pony. The PPE was booked for a few days time and I begun to get really quite excited. Then I received a phone call from the seller. The farm the horse is at had some sick horses. Even though they weren't part of the sellers 'Dressage Barn' lot, we decided to postpone his PPE until the horses at the barn were all totally well and there had been a few clear weeks since the last high temperature. I am terrible at waiting so finding it a little difficult, but they do say that good things come to those who wait, and in the scheme of things, whats a few more weeks? We have another week or so l...

It's been quite a crazy few weeks, what with Christmas, the New Year and continued Horse Hunting I have felt a bit like I am holding my breath at times. There was one Andalusian that I thought I liked, he ticked a lot of boxes but something kept holding me back. I sent a friend his photos and video and she really disliked this guy. It was enough for me to back off immediately and I actually felt better when I did. I had so many moments when I wondered what I was going to have to give up to find the right horse. Something was going to have to give a bit to keep me within budget but I wasn't sure what. I knew I was probably going to have to either forget the breeds I really wanted, lower the training level of said pony or consider a horse with some imperfect XRays etc. The consideration of buying something unsound is huge. Not only does it mean more expense during the ownership but the fact that insurance wont cover anything related and even more heartbreaking; that it could ...