Favourite moments of 2016

Although I can easily say that 2016 has been pretty much a miserable year for me with both boys being injured Jan/Feb time and then not being sure until autumn if either were ever going to be get better and be able to be ridden properly again. I’ve also fallen off from Vallu twice and ended up in hospital, ended up in hospital again from 20+ wasp stings, had a lot of personal, family and health problems, had a near mental breakdown from stress of trying graduate from Nottingham university and moved back to Finland when I had just started settled down and created a fantastic support network in the UK. Most tragically, we've also lost Rosi the Shetland and Nelli within the last 24 months 💔 but I’ve decided that instead of feeling miserable for our lack of progress this year and everything that went on, I should look for my favourite moments of this year and celebrate the good stuff!

1. Whilst Vallu was on the no turn out part of his rehab after his box rest, one Sunday afternoon I spent time de-spooking him. We had a Christmas tree and tarpaulin in the indoor arena and Vallu managed to be very brave. I remember this being the first time in weeks that I had smiled since his injury.

2. By the end of March I was starting to get myself back, thanks to my friends at home, at university and at the yard. I was forced to ride other horses and go hacking which I think really helped with my mindset and gave me hope, so the biggest thank you to my friends who have been so important throughout 2016 😘

3. April was a quite possibly my favourite month of this year because of three reasons:  I played groom and went to competitions with Brooksby Dressage and we had a great time and I got to go with Lili to her Charlotte Dujardin lessons (OMG that woman is as great as you think she is!) Both of these really motivated me AND Vallu was given the all clear to start walking, turn out and hacking out. I think this was my favourite day of the entire year and a heavy feeling of guilt and sadness was lifted off me.

4. In May as I was getting ready for our move back to Finland, we went on a big yard hack around the village. Thinking back to this day it makes me shed a few tears. It was a wonderful day spent with some utterly wonderful people and horses.

5. In July after settling back down to life in Finland, I had a really good friend come out and take some photos of both the boys. Although Basse was still really quite poorly during this time, Vallu was going from strength to strength and had started feeling like himself again after losing some of his hay belly and getting some muscle tone back 💪🏼🐴

6. In August a week after my stint in hospital thanks to Vallu throwing me off and me hitting my face on the arena boards (I’m now known as scarface HAHA!) I was re united with my old trainer Ville who managed to coax me around the indoor and keep me from wanting to quit riding. Although I was bruised and battered and my back was continuously spasming throughout the lesson, this was really important for my mindset to keep me from getting any trauma from the accident. 

7. At the end of September/first days of October my parents very kindly booked me tickets to fly back to England for the weekend for Lili’s FFM Fashion show! I had SUCH a great time catching up with everyone from the yard and it was just what I needed ❤️

8. October was my second favourite month of the year. Not only was it my birthday and I had my mini weekend trip to my old yard, my brother also did a hat trick at the Helsinki Horse Show and managed to win the Grand Prix, Grand Prix Kür and the Dressage Knock Out classes. To top this all off, Basse was also declared healthy and we started on his rehab ✅

9. Although my SAD had set in big time by November there were several good moments in midst of the darkness, snow and ice! One of these was being included in the final group Haynet Blogger of the Year awards 🏆 So thank you very much to Haynet for being included in this finalist group for the 4th year in a row!!

Honourable mentions:

🎉🎊 I can’t remember the dates for these but at some point this spring this blog got 100+ readers and in the autumn we got over 1k followers on Instagram 🎊 🎉

This just shows you that even if you have a terrible year with lots of bad things happening and trying to get you down, we all need to look back (thanks blog!) and remember the good things that happened.

 So thanks 2016, you’ve been horrible but you’ve also been pretty damn fantastic!