Christmas wish list 2018

Is it a sign of getting older that your Christmas wish list includes more non-horsey stuff that horsey stuff? Things like some very snazzy pyjamas and bed sheets... I've been feeling very Christmassy since mid-November when my room has become the official Christmas wrapping station - I have a corner of the room that is full of wrapping paper, Christmas cards, glitter and more but for some reason this blog post has taken forever to be finished! Anyway, here is my Christmas wish list 2018 (just in case a certain brother of mine still would like some gift ideas...) 🎁🎄🎅🏼

A padded waterproof rain coat because my god does this country do rain properly! ☔️ None of my coats are coping with the three consecutive days of torrential rain... The Harcour Lupi coat is a long padded jacket 100% waterproof but it's also breathable, with polar fleece on the inside, keeping the warm in! With a very handy opening on the back side and with two pockets on the front and faux fur on the hood, it's perfect!! The Catago grey exercise quarter sheet is another one of my top wishes! I own a woollen HV Polo exercise sheet in the same style which is perfect for cold AND dry winter days, but in the last few weeks I've learnt that those days seem to be quite rare over here in Wiltshire 🌧 The quilted fleece material quickly wicks away moisture (yes pleaaaaseeee 👏🏻) and any excess heat, and a grey one with black lining means that it would go with literally all the matchy sets that I own.

Walker & Hawkes ladies pink stripe tweed coat - Equestrian Co.

I was contacted by a company called Equestrian Co. back in the spring and asked if I would be interested in reviewing a product from their site, and after having a look at their website we agreed to do a collaboration once I'd moved back to the UK 🇬🇧 Since having moved to the countryside in the most beautiful part of Wiltshire, I have totally fallen in love with country clothing, but with being busy with the horses and trying to get the house and stables sorted out, to find an online store that sells everything I could want in this style is such a bonus!

I ended up choosing the Walker & Hawkes ladies pink stripe tweed shooting coat simply because from the moment I saw it it on the website, it looked like it was "mine". 💞 The Walker and Hawkes coat is £69.95 from Equestrian Co. and no surprise, it is one of their best sellers. I can’t believe I had never thought about investing in a thick winter coat that you can wear both at the yard and going out, because this coat is very practical but also stylish at the same time. I know I will be very warm now in winter when that bitterly cold wind, rain and maybe even snow returns!! Being made from from a combination of the best quality wool (60%) polyester (25%) and acrylic (11%), there's a reason why this coat is SO WARM. When I tried the coat when it arrived during the middle of the day when it was +25C and thought I was going to melt - which guarantees that when we are facing winter temperatures again, I will be nice and toasty! I've been wearing it this autumn, and can highly recommend that if you often cold, then this is the coat for you!

With it's heavy-duty brass zipper together with the woollen cuffs inside the jacket this coat will keep you warm even in the worst possible weather, like today when the wind is bitterly cold, I was incredibly warm. So, if you're looking for a thin transition coat from summer to autumn then this coat will simply be too warm for you. But, if you're looking for the perfect autumn and winter coat then this is it! 🙌🏻 I am genuinely looking forward to going on long walks and spending time outside in winter for the first time in many many years thanks to this coat. One the best features of this coat is the fact that there are FIVE pockets - two hand warmer pockets (best thing ever!!) , two front pockets (treats for the dogs 🐶) and an extra inside pocket where you can keep your phone dry and your keys safe!

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Young Star

Well hello there brand new collection from Eskadron! ⭐️ What a brilliantly fun collection to replace the Nici range - which personally for me is a good thing as I was never a big fan of the Nici collections, mainly because of the big logo that just ruined the look of the saddle pads and bandages. Although the Young Star collection is clearly aimed at kids, I have never seen a certain saddle pad become out of stock so quickly just on pre-orders!!! Not only has it been sold out all over the world, it's also not just sold out in DL which always the first to go, but also in VS (jump cut) and PD (pony size) too! Nothing but respect for Eskadron for managing such a feat 👏🏻

I mean just HOW CUTE is the starry design?! It reminds me of the unicorn poop rare Eskadron graffiti design and personally, I love it! 🌌 I know it's only the first collection so Eskadron are being cautious but imagine another colour in this collection, that would be so fun! If only it wasn't this time of the year (CHRISTMAS YAY!) and if only I wasn't on a ban, I would be getting the navy cotton pad and navy over reach boots *goes into storage room to figure out which old sets to sell*

Here's the promo video for the new collection  ⤵️

And such cute accessories! I really want to buy the dog coat for our new dog 🌟

Updating our arena surface

What a busy few weeks it's been! Who knew that doing work to the house and the barn and the arena would take so much time and energy, especially since we've had friends over from Finland over the previous weekend and had the carpets changed upstairs a couple of days before that. Busy busy busy!!! Two weeks ago and again on this Friday morning at 6.37am a lorry with 10 tons of rubber chippings arrived and I've never been so happy to be up and out before 7am 🌅 Definition of a horsey girl: will be happily out of bed at sunrise for anything to do with horses.

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!

#Blogtober Day 6: Handling the season change - top tips

Changing seasons can bring about potential problems for horses and their owners. Autumn months bring a variety of weather conditions that affect horse, their owners and riders, but whilst autumn weather often brings pleasant conditions (e.g. it's not so hot!!), it can also bring conditions that are frustrating and create extra work for both horses and riders.

It's been a long, hot, dry summer and at least our place here in Wiltshire is well over due some rain. I will happily take a bit of mud and colder temperatures after this summer! But my top tip for handling the season change when riding is to have longer warm ups: in the colder weather, especially when it’s a sudden drop in one day, it can decrease not only skin temperature but also muscle temperature. Be sure to give your horse plenty of time to warm up at the start of exercise, make sure the horses stay warm and dry. When it's around +10C during the day, I start using fleece rugs and keep it on during the warm up and cool down walk just to help my horses' muscles stay warm.

For the riders, autumn is here so embrace it. I feel that some people see autumn arrive and automatically go into a panic about winter. Stop! Take a breath, and enjoy the the charm and calmness of autumn, the beauty of nature during this in-between season before the proper darkness and colder temperatures arrive. I am an autumn baby (born in October!) so this is my favourite season but for those who aren't enjoying the season changes, dig out those jumpers and gillets to help you stay warm in the mornings and evenings but sunset views like these make it so much better 🌅⤵️ 

An InLinkz Link-up

#Blogtober Day 5: Autumn essentials for your horse

Yesterday's #Blogtober post was all about essentials for me, and today's is the autumn essentials for our horses! 🍁🍂

1. Rugs: ALL THE RUGS. I find it SO frustrating in the UK with the huge variety in temperatures - every day can be massively different (yesterday we had +20C and then today we have +11C), so our horses have A LOT of rugs. We have plenty of stable rugs but we have even more turn out rugs, ranging from no fill to 300g turnouts.

2. Magic brush: This brush is just the best brush ever invented, especially if you own a grey horse. It gets mud and poo and grass stains like no other brushes can.

#Blogtober Day 4: Autumn essentials for me

Since it is October now, I think we can all admit that summer is nearly over and that autumn is here!! 🍁🍂 So here are my autumn essential items, products which I could not live without:

1. A multitude of sweaters and hoodies: Groundbreaking indeed but what can I say, it's no surprise, when it’s cold you wear a sweater or hoodie. Sometimes you'll have to layer it under coat or gillet, sometimes you don’t - thank you warm autumns! I go for classic greys and navys, but other times I go for super bright colours or something sparkly with sequins! ✨

2. Riding gloves: I would recommend owning multiple pairs, as I can't think of anything worse than not being able to find them when you need them! I love my Roeckl gloves, thinner ones for spring/summer and thicker pairs for autumn/winter. Then I also have several pairs for yard work, some which are waterproof.

3. Fluffy/woolly socks: These will keep your feet toasty on the cold mornings when mucking out and turning out at 6am.

#Blogtober Day 3: A day in the life of Roosa's Horsey Life

For day 3 of Blogtober, here's a quick look into what my life currently consists of... Coffee, mucking out, horses and blogging. ☕️🐴💻

6AM: Wake up to the increasingly annoying sound of my phone's alarm clock and crawl out of bed. I used to be really good at getting up to feed, but since it's been dark still as the days are getting shorter it's been a struggle to get up at 6! Give the horses their feeds and hay, check everyone has water. Decide that Melissa is too warm, so change her rug to a thinner one. Shout for the dogs who have decided to run off to the back field, and hope that they come back. Once they get back inside the house, crawl back into bed for a quick nap.

7.30AM: Wake up again, go downstairs for breakfast AKA a big cup of coffee. Watch the news, scroll through Facebook and Instagram and try to wake up my brain.

8.30-11AM: Morning yard jobs! Turn the horses out in rugs, fill up the water buckets in their paddocks and then decide it's too warm so take off everyone's rugs. Muck out, do feeds, put fresh hay and water in the stables. Electricians are back, this time they are doing the outside lights as well as putting up the new camera outside the barn. Plumber also arrives, so hopefully we'll soon have running water in the barn!

11AM: Back inside for more coffee and breakfast, feed the dogs, put the washing machine on and make tea and coffee for the electricians and the builder! Rush around trying to get everything done in half the normal amount of time which means I spill everything 🙄

12PM: Grab the horses in whilst the electricians are on their lunch break so that the horses can have a quick snooze without all the noise and chaos.

#Blogtober Day 2: Tip Tuesday - Autumn related

Day 2 of Blogtober is here, and my absolute top tip for autumn is that preparation is key!  🔐 Prepping everything in your tack room and in storage is vital for having an easy and stress-free as possible autumn and winter with horses.

Prepping in autumn for winter personally for me mainly means tidying up and sorting out everything... Before autumn truly sets in, I think it's a good idea to get your yard and stables clean and tidy. Things such as giving your stables a really thorough deep clean, scrubbing your water feeder/buckets clean and getting rid of cobwebs and dust. Luckily for me having just moved into a new barn means that this autumn I don't have to do a deep clean, but I do have to unpack and sort everything into it's correct place. All of my tack has had a proper deep cleaning too! You don't want to be spending your precious time around looking for that one specific rug, set of boots or lotions and potions when the weather is foul and your time is very limited, especially time before the sun sets. Last weekend we visited our local tackshop to ensure that we have a fully stocked first aid kit, and important products like barrier cream for mud fever and disinfectant for cuts!

For nearly everyone, clipping is a necessary evil at this time of year. As soon as we have hot water in the barn, I'll be clipping two of mine straight away! Make sure you have had your clippers serviced and clipper blades sharpened in readiness. I hate clipping, but I can't think of anything worse than having gotten ready to clip and then realising that my clippers weren't working and having to rush to the shops.

#Blogtober Day 1: An Introduction to Blogtober

Recently on the fabulous #HorseBloggers Meet Up group on Facebook which is run by the lovely Sam from Haynet, I saw a post about Blogtober which  is a challenge where you aim to do something for your blog every day of October, and I thought that this would be a great challenge for me! After a year of hard work due to my Master's degree and the thesis, followed by a summer of chaos moving from one side of Europe to the other with two dogs and five horses as well as a massive building project with the new barn at home, I thought it would create a focus back on the blog 🍁🍂

I'm aiming to publish a blog post most days, but I think for some of the topics/days I don't have any good blog content to post, so I'll be focusing on social media instead, so make sure you follow me on Facebook and Instagram ✅

The equestrian blogging community has jumped on this idea and the plan is to make Blogtober into one great big blog hop! This means that at the bottom of each post you will be directed to other blogs who are also taking part in this equestrian version of Blogtober! What a great way to discover new equestrian bloggers to follow 💕

An InLinkz Link-up

Stable renovation: part 2

And ta-daaaaa here it is! 🤗 Isn't it amazing?

Here's some progress shots from the last four weeks since my last update ⤵️ The builders have worked so hard, you can't be anything but incredibly impressed with them! They've done plenty of 12 hour days and have been happy to answer any questions and queries that we may have had AND they've consulted us whenever there has been anything that they thought we would like done differently. The work that has gone into this building is quality! 10/10 for the builders, they were all amazing. 👏🏻

#rootd: plum and navy

Well it's been a while since my last #rootd blog post, but having survived another week of renovations, family visiting, sorting out paperwork, I was SUPER excited when my Feather Dressage delivery arrived! 🛍 I've been living in my own little bubble ever since moving to Wiltshire and my life has generally consisted of renovating, painting, moving furniture, cleaning and attempting to have some kind of a normal social life and catching up with friends - it's not left much time for blogging, taking photos or training properly! But now that the house is starting to look like 'our house' and the barn renovation project is nearly done, I thought it was well past the time for me to return back to blogging with a bang 💥

Saddle pad: Eskadron plum cotton

Bandages: Eskadron plum

Over reach boots: Eskadron Platinum navy 

Top:  Navy HV Polo Elaine

Breeches: Kingsland Chisasib leggings

Riding exercise of the month: transitions in lateral movements

I recently saw this floating about on Facebook again and this picture really caught my eye and inspired me for this month's riding exercise! ⤵️ I use most of these movements in my every day riding, just because it really helps to achieve a much straighter horse in comparison to just riding around aimlessly and adding in a few oddly shaped circles here and there. 

I often warm up in walk using shoulder in, travers, leg yield and half pass on all of my horses. It's a super easy way of suppling them and getting them to actually pay attention to me, which I've found to really help to achieve a better schooling session. Once I've warmed up in walk, I've been adding in trot-walk-trot transitions down the long sides whilst doing any of the lateral movements. It really is not as easy as it sounds! 😬 It's a big brain work out for both you and the horse, but it also helps with all of the other work. With Erik, the biggest difference that I've noticed has been that a straighter and more supple horse is not only an easier horse to ride (obvious much!) but also that we get much better flying changes! For a horse that is long and a bit slow, trot-walk-trot transitions down the long side whilst doing shoulder in and travers has been the best idea ever 💡

Trends to watch out for: Equestrian Stockholm AW18 collection

And to round off the end of August (which means autumn is officially here tomorrow!) let's have a quick look at Equestrian Stockholm's new AW18 collection. If you love red, you'll be happy and if you love navy or green you'll be over the moon, but if you don't, then this collection might not set your matchy world on fire.

Like PS of Sweden, Equestrian Stockholm has gone for the two staple colours of autumn with a bordeaux red and a deep brown. Whilst I'm not a big fan of brown on my any of my horses, and although I know how absolutely lovely the bordeaux red will look on bay and grey horses, what has really caught my eye in this collection is the white edge pad which has finally been released in dressage (SJers have been lucky to have had this for two seasons now!) I think it is SO smart, a beautiful twist on their midnight blue pad  which means you can easily wear white or navy bandages with it - it is perfect for training! ⤵️

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Classic AW18 collection

With love from... Eskadron! Have you already seen the newest Eskadron Classic collection for this autumn/winter? 🍁🍂❄️

After years of waiting for the return of purple, it's finally here in a Classic collection. Eskadron have created a lovely collection, with masses of glitter and sparkles thrown in, so for the magpies out there resistance is futile! ✨ The colours of this collection are called plum, lavender, atlantic blue, dark navy, marshmallow and silver pearl. Plum appears to be pretty close to last year's blackberry Platinum but several shades darker with a navy tinge to it, whilst atlantic blue looks identical to the Next Generation's 2015 royal blue so if you missed out on that, this will be a good alternative! Silver pearl looks pretty much the same as violet grey from last year's Platinum collection BUT the cotton, big square and the glossy emblem pads all have the edging in plum or lavender which does create a contrast and a bigger difference. So far the only one that looks like a total copy of a previous collection is the silver pearl glossy big square - see for yourself ⤵️

Also a funny thing to note is that plum is available in seven different styles of saddle pads, atlantic blue in six, silver pearl and dark navy both in five, but marshmallow only in one style as well as the lavender colour in only two and there are no matching bandages or boots for it! Which I think is a real shame, it's such a pretty colour and I know it would have sold well 💸

Trends to watch out for: Anky AW2018 collection

Autumn is just closing in on us, can you feel it? 🍁🍂 The nights are drawing in earlier and the mornings are getting colder, but if you haven't noticed it, you can see it with the release of more autumn winter collections from more equestrian brands! This time Anky has released a brilliant collection, full of beautiful colours ready for autumn and winter. It also made me smile that they've gone for interesting names for the colours, so far hummingbird is my favourite!

The colours of this collection are called sparrow, parrot, dove, black bird, robin red, hummingbird and blue bird. Dove seems like a darker version of PS of Sweden's capulet green and Equestrian Stockholm's olive green, whilst hummingbird looks rather similar to Eskadron's NG 2015 deep pink. And whilst it's always guaranteed that Anky will bring out a black, a navy and a pink colour in every collection, at least they always have a collection that has 6 or more colours in it! They've also done their super cool sparkly over reach boots once again, but for some reason only in the colour dove and pheasant? Which I thought was a shame, because I think it would have been fun to see the over reach boots in the other colours too. 🕊

What I love about Anky's saddle pads is that not only are they always such good quality, they're also made of semi-leather material with a glittering glow, which gives the saddle pad such a chic look. As the anti-slip letters are glittery, it make the saddle pad extra stylish but the letters also actually really do work in ensuring that the saddle doesn't slip. I do think Anky has changed the material a little as it's a lot more grippy in the more recent collections than in the older ones. And for me, personally the best part of this collection is that the saddle pads have now become anatomically shaped by the wither - finally! 🙌🏻 Although this is something that brands like PS of Sweden and Le Mieux have been doing for years, it's nice to finally see it being done by other brands too.

Stable renovation: part 1

In case you've been working why I've been a bit AWOL from both social media and from the blog it's because over the last several weeks I've been chilling out and spending some quality time with friends and family 💞 My brother came over from Finland for nearly a week with my nephew (who is 18 months old and the cutest little person in the world!) and we spent the majority of the time discovering new local places, going shopping and playing with Lego. We've had old family friends pop over for the day and I've had horsey friends come to visit. My grandparents are coming over for a week and we have a party planned for after the renovations are done 🎊🎉. Real life has a way of suddenly catching up with you and taking over your time unexpectedly!

But I'm finally feeling settled enough in our day to day life to be able to bring you guys up to date on one of the most exciting things that I've ever been involved with, which is the renovation of our American barn! When we first came to look at this place, we all knew that it would require quite a bit of money and work to get it looking like our own home. One of the biggest problems of the property was that the barn had only 4 stables, that it was 17 years old with a leaky roof and that it hadn't been looked after properly. Not only was it mouldy everywhere due to the leaking roof, the internal partitions creaky when a person just lightly leaned on them AND the entire barn was covered in cobwebs and an inch or more dust and dirt, which is so not the environment you want to keep your horses in, especially if you have horses like Basse is very sensitive to dust.

 

Luckily we were in contact with West of England Stabling who were able to come to have a look at the barn before we had even moved in and let us put the order in before we had finalised the purchase of this property, and we went with the Tintagel internal partitions (this design is different from their other fronts as the curve is made from tube rather than box section or flat) in a light wood and their classic American barn which is the same size as our old one, but this time we'll have 5 stables put in as well as a tack room and a storage room. The rest of the remaining space will be used for the storage of hayledge, straw and the horses' feed.

Trends to watch out for: PS of Sweden AW18

Well PS of Sweden certainly got the better of every other equestrian fashion brand by being the first to release their autumn winter 2018 collection already in the end of July! Interesting that the company feels the need to release their collection so early, but heyho at least we get to see this amazing collection sooner rather than later!🍁🍂

If classical elegance is what you've set your heart on, then look no further than the PS of Sweden's new autumn winter collection. With colours clearly inspired by gem stones (emerald, merlot, deep sapphire and onyx) and with lovely brown autumnal tones (ice coffee, prosecco, chocolate) I'm pretty sure there is something for everyone in this collection. 🍄🌰 The more I look at ice coffee, the more I feel the need to have it... Luckily my collection can't grow any more until our barn is re-built and I have proper storage again.

Getting settled in

Since our arrival last Friday in the early hours of the morning after a 15 hour journey, the horses and I have been settling down into our new routine.

 We've kept it pretty similar to what our routine was back home, so they get fed at 6am, turned out around 9am during which we do the morning stables and then they come in about 1pm and get fed again. But instead of being ridden from 2pm onwards and doing the evening stables at 7pm, they're now going back out at about 3pm, some staying out whilst others are being ridden and then all coming back inside 8pm or on good days even as late as at 9pm. And they LOVE it! And I love having the chance to be able to turn the horses at much as they want to, like plenty of people have said "it's important that horse get to be horses" 💚

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Platinum 2018 collection

I’m ALWAYS so excited about this collection, because Eskadron’s designers always bring their best designs to the table with the Platinum collections. And once again Eskadron hasn’t disappointed! I think fashion bloggers feel the same excitement when there are new collections released as I do when I first see Eskadron’s Platinum collection. It’s always a delight for your eyes!

In this collection, the colours are silk grey, nude, blossom and black. Simple? Yes. Boring? No! 🚨Unpopular opinion alert 🚨 I don’t actually even want to see lots of bright colours in the Platinum collection because I don’t think this is the right collection for it. I much prefer having the selection of mainly muted colours with one or two brighter colours available if you want that choice. Having said that, I have pre-ordered the blossom cotton emblem pad and matching bandages as I thought it was the best one of the collection!! The fabric with its cool-dry lining means that this is hands down the best pad during summer as it wicks away sweat like nothing else! I also love the emblem embroidery on the left side AND a triple cord of binding of which is glittery. ✨ 

But back to the collection - I thought it was also nice to see the return of the velvet crystal pad which was in my opinion one of the original collection’s best pads. But the ultimate highlight of this collection for me personally are the boots! Especially the black faux fur bootswhich have a glittermesh fabric, hard shell inside and the easy-care faux fur inside lining. The same with the over reach boot with the faux fur trim and glitter on the Velcro tab.  

It’s always fascinating to see what new things a company as old as Eskadron can come up with. After more than twenty years of in the business, you’d think they wouldn’t have anything new to do but Eskadron always keeps creating new styles. In this Platinum collection, they’ve brought out the new Mesh Glitter saddle pad (which is only available in in black and nude – annoying as I would have LOVED to have seen in the blossom colour too!) It’s made from a “glittermesh upper fabric” which is new and will be interesting to see how well it does in comparison to Eskadron’s other pads.

We’re back in the UK

Finally!! After 6 weeks of shelter at my brother’s yard in Germany, I am OVER THE MOON to be at home and even more happy about the fact that I once again have Wi-Fi, a bath, my own bed and that I don’t everagain have to try to get the neighbours to understand that I don’t speak German! The lack of Wi-Fi has nearly killed me (not really, I quite enjoyed the social media break but it just made blogging impossible) and the heat and humidity have made riding and training unmanageable on the worst days.

So here is a quick round up of how the horses are doing ⤵️

Basse has spent the last 6 weeks recovering from various ailments, which include lymphangitis, an infection on his front leg as well as a cough from dust allergies which has meant that I’ve ridden about ten times. Aside from those days, he’s spent his days being turned out in the mornings, going on the horse walker on the afternoons and being lunged to keep his fitness up, without making him work too hard or aggravating the cough. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to ride him more, but on the super-hot days I was glad to be doing less riding with having 3 other horses to ride every day! The vet got to know mother and I well as he was looking at one of the horses at least each week… 

First weeks in Germany:

The first weeks here in Germany can be entirely summed up simply by stating that IT’S BEEN SO HOT EVERY SINGLE DAY and I am so looking forward to some cooler weather which is meant to be arriving next week. It’s not only hot here, but also really humid, which means that even when you’re grooming the horses and before you have even managed to ride you’re already sweaty and tired – not very conducive for good riding sessions! But enough of my complaining about it being too warm (hey, at least it makes a change from me moaning about it being too cold during the winter!), most importantly let me catch you up with how the horses are doing. 

The view of the stables from the sand track

Erkki has become an angel, he either remembers that this was the place where he was in hard work previously when mum bought him or then he just simply enjoys being on a busy yard. The grooms start their work at 7am and its non-stop until about 5.30pm and Erkki is totally chilled! He’s also been much easier to ride now that I’ve got some help from Ville who was riding and selling him when mum bought him. I’m so grateful to have the chance to ride my horses when he is riding and be able to ask for 5 minutes of help and then carry on. Everything feels just so much simpler now with him and I couldn't be more pleased! Another angelic figure in the group is Vallu who (apart from being a twat to turn out and bring in) has also been super well behaved. He’s been a perfect gentleman to ride in the indoor arena, outdoor arena AND the canter track! He’s also got points from the grooms for being well behaved in the wash box and for not pawing when I’m not there. It’s been absolutely wonderful to have time to ride my best bud again and to do so without being in a rush or having to think about university work!!

After travelling beautifully, once we’d arrived and settled in, Basse decided that he needed to scream after each and every single horse on the yard for 3 days straight and I swear I thought my head was going to explode! He is never left alone, but clearly the travelling turned him into a bit of a nervous wreck for the first few days, but now he’s settled down and is back to his normal self. I’ve even managed to canter him round the sand track which goes around the edge of the yard, and it’s inspired me to decide to take him to the local canter track once we move to our new home.

Travelling from Finland to Germany with the horses

After 2 weeks of panicking, stressing, packing and organising on a very hot Saturday afternoon, it was finally time to load up the horses onto the VERY nice horse lorry! We decided to go with Marcel Jordan Horse Transport because I had heard and seen only good things about them, and also because our neighbour had bought 3 horses from Spain who Marcel Jordan Horse Transport had delivered them in fantastic condition and she had received daily photos and reports of the horses. There were so many good reports about the company that I knew it was the one to go for! 

Despite the slight miscommunication with their office about whether there was space for someone to travel with the horses (they didn’t confirm if there was space until 3 days beforehand so I didn’t have much time to pack my own stuff!!) I would highly recommend this company to anyone transporting their horses across Europe. The horses get fed and watered every four and a half hours and on Sunday they got to rest for 3 hours at a ‘horse hotel’ where they could get hand walked too. If you don’t travel with the horses, then the driver also sends you daily - if not twice daily - photos and messages about your horse, how they are travelling and how they are doing.