Tuesday 7 January 2014

Ack - I Apologise!

The Festive period simply got away from me and my blogging time was non-exsistant! My apologies to all those who have been waiting on the Chirstmas Contest results!

I wish to start of 2014 by saying a HUGE THANK YOU to all those who entered & to Niamh @LifeofRiley / TraceALine for allowing me place a custom order for her gorgeous Paper Cuts.
All the entries were fabulous & inspirational, I am only sorry that I didn't manage to snap any Xmas photos of my own girls - as i mentioned above the time just got away from me! :(

FIRST PLACE

Amanda & Simba @ChasingTheSun
SECOND PLACE

L. Williams & Carlos @VivaCarlos


Originally I had planned that the Paper Cut prizes would be of the winning Christmas photos, but as 2013 was a challenging year for both L & Amanda with the devastating losses of their equine partners - I hope Niamh won't mind that I open the prize up to allow the winners chose their favourite photo to have immortalised with her fabulous Paper Cuts.

In news of myself & the girls, please feel free to tune out now as probably will get waffly ;-)
My festive plans of pony bootcamp for myself & the girls to make up for my lack of saddle time in November & December didn't quite happen sadly, I did however use the time to buy myself a gorgeous kitchen at half price which the shop will hold till my flat is ready to have it installed - so although no saddle time it was time none the less well spent.
I shared the pictures in my previous post of my "baby" sister & I riding the girls on Christmas Eve, I also have a video of myself & Nancy that my sis caught for me. I am disappointed with my hands & as always my ankles - on going battles with myself!
I apologise for it being sideways & sound - I'm afraid I am a technophobe when it comes to videos and have no idea who to (a) remove sound or (b) fix it right way up.



I know Nancy can be inclined to curl up and duck behind the vertical, we are working with her and as she muscles & strengthens up we'll hopefully be able to help her stay more balanced in the way she carries herself.

Another photo from our Christmas Eve spin
 The girls then got a good few days to laze about the turnout & stuff themselves with hay as my backside didn't get back into the saddle until Sunday 29th before taking another break for the Kitchen hunt & purchase (eek the expense *blubber*), I managed to get three days work into the girls once the New Year started, including an unfortunate soaking for myself as I was forced to ride Nancy outside in the rain on Saturday as all other arenas in use between a carriage driving clinic & preparations for the yard Party & Quadrilles on Sunday 5th.



Kika hasn't quite reverted to her Horsey Houdini antics thankfully, however she has taken to stealing her neighbours hay! I swear this horse will be the death of me - but as ever she is entertaining to those around me!

I missed the chance to review 2013 & set goals for 2014 in individual posts, so I guess I'll do a quick recap here. Last year I posted some goals for 2013:

"Looking forward to 2013 ...

I should probably set some goals for myself, but in all honesty if I can just keep making baby step improvements and enjoy my horse riding I'll be overjoyed.
I haven't really gotten into the competitive scene out here, but who knows maybe if we can keep on our upward cycle of improvements we might look into taking out a license and trying to get some outings under our belts...
Balancing two will be interesting and a whole new challenge, but one I am thoroughly looking forward to!

PS: I know I need to stop looking down and must also work more on my heels to (a) keep them down and (b) stop niggling at her with them...amongst all my other faults - but sure if I'd nothing to work on 2013 would be boring, right? :-)"

My 2014 goals shall continue along those lines, although having found out how much it costs to take out a license to compete here that goal may be a long-term thing depending on how things go for myself & the girls. I am just hoping that I can get more saddle time that I got towards the tail end of last year!
I am super proud of the work done with both Nancy & Kika, when Nancy arrived last January we took a good few months to gel and relax into our ridden work partnership. The months spent hacking in the woods worked wonders for us - we haven't looked back since and although we still have plenty to work on, we are getting there. Slowly but surely with both girls - I have no deadlines or set goals to achieve so so long as both girls are healthy and happy in the work we do I will be overjoyed!

Highlight of the year has to be our trip to the Beach in August - sadly I still haven't gotten the photos from my friend, I really must get after her for that!

Roll on 2014, here's hoping we can keep improving & learning together and who knows maybe I'll find some ambition & set myself some monthly goals or something! My biggest hope is to be able to find time to take lessons again so that I don't flounder and stall through my lack of knowledge & sour my horses to arena work! :/

13 comments:

  1. Hooray I am so excited to make paper cuts of both of these winners!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Thanks so much for agreeing to make such a wonderful prize! Hopefully I can treat myself to one some day ;-)
      I must reply to your email, sorry! I'm terrible at reading things, not answering straight away & the forgetting! Eek

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  2. Oh! Oh, so cool! I thought I had missed the announcement of the winners all together and was REALLY confused to see my picture pop up in my RSS reader, hahaha!

    Thank you so much :)

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    1. Congrats and thank you so much for entering!
      I just love your photo!!!
      I must talk to Niamh again and I'll let you know how to proceed with photo sharing etc

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  3. Replies
    1. There were so many good entries it was hatd to chose!

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  4. You've been one busy person and wow I am so honored to have won thank you! Kika is such a riot stealing her neighbors hay.

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    1. Kika is a liability! I spent nearly two hours turning her out one day last week as I played with the fencing to try to keep her away from the neighbours hay. But as that stretch of wire (on our side) isn't electrified she just tapped/knocked the stake with her nose then stepped over the lower wire with her front legs, dragged her back legs and almost pulled the whole thing down - so when I saw her do that then bully the ponies next door for eating their own hay she was brought in for the afternoon!
      She knew damn well she was in the wrong as she came in quiet as a lamb and didn't stamp her foot once while tied up waiting for me to clean her box and didn't kick stable door to demand food when I put her back in box. It kills me that she's way too smart for me!

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  5. Can't wait to see the winners papercuts :)

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    1. Me neither, hope to be able to treat myself to one someday too ;-)

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  6. Love Kika and her naughty ways!

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    1. Having caught up on your blog it sounds like Echo has been picking upsome naughty tricks from across the water :-/

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