Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Heritage AW18 collection

Oh my goodness... A collection of beauty!! The whole collection is peppered with a metallic copper theme - how lush is that?! When I saw the blurry photos that were leaked way back in August I knew it would be a good collection but when I saw the leaked photos on Friday morning I was still gobsmaked at how beautiful it all is!

I think this collection highlight the colours of the autumn wonderfully. The copper colour is going to be a sell out, because no other equestrian brand has done a colour similar to this. Whilst the ivory and black blue are similar to previous collections, I think the ash blue colour is magnificent! If you love autumn and all of its colours, then this is the collection for you! 🍁🍂 It's just SO stylish. It's the colours what you expect for autumn, the beauty of the colours of the trees. In Finland we have this term "ruska" which describes the the process of leaves turning different colours during autumn as the leaves of many trees being to turn bright golden yellow, brown and a deep ruby red, creating a colourful display of beauty! That's what I think of when I see this collection.

This is such a bay/chestnut horse collection, and the detailing is amazing! Oh, the lettering on the cotton brand and cotton performance pads is insanely amazing. And I think that the ash blue colour goes very well with the copper colour, who designed that should get extra points as it is very pretty! The copper detailing and the copper braiding also fabulous. I know there has been a lot of critique online about this being very samey samey as last year's Heritage collection... But hear me out - whilst  I 100% agree that the black blue and ivory are pretty much the same as last year's ones, the copper and ash blue are very different. I also think that the copper is a lot different to last year's rose gold, and this makes this collection a lot more autumnal in comparison to last year's collection.

#Blogtober Day 13: The Perfect Autumn Day

As I've already mentioned several times throughout these #Blogtober posts on my blog, I love autumn. The weather is still nice enough for you to stay warm enough though out the day even when you're outside all day, it's dark in the mornings and in the evenings but not yet dark in the afternoon, the countryside is made up of greens, yellows and oranges and it is BEAUTIFUL.

I’m a morning person and I love nothing more than getting up at the weekend. I love sitting on the sofa after feeding the horses at 6AM, drinking a big cup of coffee and watching the sun rise whilst catching up on the news, social media and blogging. Wiltshire is an incredibly beautiful place, and our house is in the perfect place to watch the sun rise above the hills 🌅

#Blogtober Day 12: Your autumn/winter routine with your horse

Do your routines with the horses change with the seasons? As autumn moves into winter (HELLO MUD, I really hadn't missed ya!) many equestrians will begin to make changes to their horse's routines.

So what about my autumn and winter routines? I wouldn't say that I have a routine for autumn and winter that differs a lot from the rest of the year. In the summer, our horses go out 7am and come in sometime in the afternoon and then I ride closer towards the evening when it's cooler. In autumn, the horses go out later - around 9am - and come in sometime around midday, but this depends entirely on the weather. On gloriously beautiful sunny autumnal days they are quite happy to stay out well into the afternoon, but on wet, windy and cold days they want to come in by 11am. Throughout the year our horses are stabled over night, and this will never change. In our family only our youngsters and retired horses live out 24/7. Our horses are all about routine, so making things the same for them every day in makes everyone's life much easier.

Does my exercise plan for the horses change over the winter? Not really... I mean, of course I've not able to take the horses out for a long hack yet because of the busy roads, or enjoy the back field for our canter work instead of the arena, but overall how much work my horses do doesn't actually change. I aim to work all of the horses five days each week with 2 x school sessions, 2 x lunge sessions, 1 x training session and 1 x canter in the field/hack/arena walk hack. This doesn't change much between summer and autumn!

#Blogtober Day 10 & 11: Autumn wardrobes

I mean if you're anything like me, your horse's wardrobe is more extensive than your own! For days 10 and 11 in #Blogtober, here are mine and my horses' autumn wardrobes during these cooler months ⤵️

Although our horses have what feels like a thousand rugs, with two or more for every occasion in fact (we have rugs for every eventuality), I do try keep my horses without rugs as much as possible, especially now that they're inside the barn. Luckily we have a thermostat in the barn so I know the approximate temperature inside, and if it doesn't drop below +13C, I don't use rugs - especially now that they are very hairy and haven't been clipped yet! When the temperature has dropped below that, the four rugs I have been rotating between already this autumn are the 0g rain sheet, light weight or fleece lined turn out rug (either high neck or full neck), the light weight 100g Mio rugs with no neck and fleece rugs.

I don't need more rugs but wouldn't this be cute on Basse?

I think when deciding on what rugs to use this autumn, remember that each horse is an individual. Some might be run hot whilst others can be prone to a chill. Vallu is a chilly horse whilst Erik runs hot, but currently Basse has the fluffiest coat ever so I've been using different rugs for each one, especially when turning out horses, who will move about in their paddocks to generate warmth if they are feeling chilly, which is why I would rather 'under rug' for turn out.

#Blogtober Day 7: Top things you love about autumn

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, I ADORE autumn since I was born in October and I always feel a sense of relief after a long hot summer when the temperatures start to drop and the weather cools down a little.

🍂 Here are the top things I love about autumn: 🍂

1. It's the end of summer so no more flies! We have a lot of flies in this area, so I'm VERY happy to not have to hear anymore buzzing, and I think the horses are happy too as there's a lot less head swishing.

2. The colours of the leaves - gorgeous! I adore the colour of the changing leaves, sometimes I think that autumn leaves are more beautiful than any flower in the summer! Just recently as I was turning out the horses at 8am, I stopped to think how could anybody actually not like autumn?

3. Pulling out the winter warmers from the wardrobe - eing able to put our favourite snuggly clothes back on. We all moan about being cold when winter comes, but its now the time of year when we all start dragging our winter wardrobe out.

4. Clipped horses – I CANNOT wait to clip my horses. They dry quicker, they look so much smarter and it's so much easier to keep them clean!