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.

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Next Generation SS18

It's heerrrreeeeeee! 🤗 My favourite "a little bit out there" with the design choices collection has arrived! I do honestly think that Eskadron's designers must have the most amount of fun when designing the Nici and Next Generation collections because it seems like for these they are much braver in their design choices and really dare to push the boat out! I personally love it, and applaud them. Will I buy them... 🤔 Maybe not, although the smoking purple looks AMAZING and may end up with me eventually.

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 14: Why do you do what you do?

Today's challenge was to share why you do what you do. So why do I blog? It's been nearly 5 and a half years since I suddenly decided to start blogging about my life and my horses, and I honestly never thought I'd have so many people interested in my options, my training diaries or my passion for equestrian style and trends. But since then I have gained followers from all over the world and even won awards for my blog. When blogging started (and I was already several years late to the game), the first blogs were really just online diaries, and in the chance of becoming a professional blogger and making money online was not the goal. And for me, it still isn't. But since then the blogging world has changed, developed and evolved, and now people blog for many different reasons. I think it's pretty easy to spot those who blog to earn money and gain products, and those who do it for a love of blogging and sharing their own personal journeys. I do it for the love of blogging, but there are also other reasons:

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 12: What are you most stubborn with?

Nearly half way there! Today is day 12 of the Equine Business Assistant's 31 Day Social Media Challenge: What are you stubborn with most?

Being stubborn often gets a rather bad rep in society nowadays, because if you're stubborn then you're also set in your ways and difficult to deal with. BUT... I'm my opinion, to be stubborn it means you have to have a strong belief that supports it, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to keep up your determination to argue your point of view and what you believe in.

I honestly believe that when it comes to our dreams and the changes we desire that being stubborn IS fantastic. We need to be stubborn about certain things in our lives. For example, I am stubborn about my happiness, ensuring my mental health stays good and keeping horses in my life. Instead of giving up horses when going to university like most junior riders do, I took Vallu with me to the UK for 3 years and completed my bachelor's degree (with a good result too!) I then decided to carry on with my university career and got in to the University of Helsinki to a master's degree in Politics, but I also had Basse and Vallu to ride and look after during my master's degree. But I was stubborn and wanted to have both things in my life, so I worked hard for it. And then to top it all, when I had 3 months left of my degree and was spending every possible moment writing my thesis, I decided to take over the ride of Erkki so that he wouldn't be sold, because I knew I would regret not taking the chance to gain such a fantastic horse in my life so I stubbornly decided to finish my master's degree with 3 horses! Yes it meant 6am starts and 11pm finishes for 2 months straight with no days off but my god it was worth it! Even if I had to do it al over again, I would do it without hesitation. 🌸

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 10 - Tips for sorting out your tackroom

It's no secret that tack rooms serve many purposes - storage for tack, but also a place for all the other left over stuff! Which is why no wonder that these spaces can quickly become overcrowded and cluttered. So here are my tips for organising your tack room and storage spaces so that it's easy to keep them tidy:

1. Use plastic containers to organise everything from brushes to first-aid supplies. The best ones in my opinion are the translucent containers which make it super easy and quick to find what you need. I have my turn out boots, overreach boots, bandages and bandage pads in these containers, which makes it all look so much neater!  (I forgot to sweep the hay away, sorry! 🙈)

2. Every year I do a spring clean where I pull out all my stuff onto the floor, clean everything and think about how best to organise everything so that it works in the best way. The BEST thing we did was to use an old wooden wardrobe with shelves, take the doors off it and put it in the barn near the two outdoor stables. It means I can keep my boots, bandages and a couple of rugs in the barn without making a huge mess!

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 8 - Topical Tuesday

Day 8: What do you think about choosing the right saddle cloths, what is most important 1) comfort, 2) style or 3) matching your other accessories? Do you think cheap imports are to blame for companies like Nuumed having to close?

 When choosing my saddle clothes I always go for a brand that I can trust to have manufactured a good quality product that will last for years, which has been designed with the horses' comfort in mind. I then pick a colour or style that I like, which normally matches my other accessories. But for me, comfort and great quality will ALWAYS come first. I’ve seen so many articles and Facebook posts recently condemning everyone who enjoys matchy matchy, but being matchy never hurt anyone... 🙄 I personally don’t get the "lets own 200 pairs of shoes and hand bags" thing but I’d certainly never go and insult those that are happy collecting shoes and hand bags. Yes it might frivolous and trivial, but I love it and I prefer to have my horses looking smart in their new sets with me in matching clothes.

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 6 - Sunday Sharing

Day 4 and 5 of the Equine Business Assistant's 31 Day Social Media Challenge were on my blog's Facebook page, which you can go to by clicking HERE.

But onto today's post: Sundays are for sharing - share a product you love. 

Currently I am LOVING Chia de Gracia's Deep Breath. It has been an absolute dream for helping Basse's nasty cough. Breath Deep is a herbal blend designed to help horses' respiratory system, and it contains thyme, marshmallow root, garlic, anise seed, liquorice root, peppermint and Icelandic moss. In all of my research for herbs that would help horses coughing in the spring with a really dry cough, garlic, anise seed, liquorice root, peppermint and Icelandic moss ALL came up often so to find a product that is not only made in Finland, but also contains all of those herbs is fantastic! I was in love with it the moment when I opened the package, it smelt amazing and then Basse decided to hoover up  two handfuls of it in a couple of seconds, so I knew that A) he needed the herbs and B) he liked the mixture of the herbs.

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 4 - What do you love about going to shows?

Day 3's challenge was on the blog's Facebook page, go check that out and tell me your opinion about the article!

Day 4: What do you love about going to shows? 

I love competing. I love being able to see how my horse and I improve over time, and a small part of me loves competing against other people too! I've heard that studies have proven that experiences make people happier than having possessions. And let’s face it, if you love competing like I do, you'll love the experiences that you gain with competing. I also love going to shows because you’re surrounded by people who love doing the same thing as you 💖 The sense of comradeship is astonishing, and I've had wonderful friends who I've only seen and caught up with at shows, who have always encouraged me and made competing into a lovely day out, rather than it being just a load of stress and anxiety. Also, the energy at shows is amazing. Whether it’s the nervous "go to the loo as soon as you arrive" type of energy or the excited "I've had too many energy drinks and don't what I'm doing" kind of energy, unless you’re a stone-hearted iceman, you will be excited when you’re there. And that feel-good excitement glow lasts at least for me well into the next week.  Which leads me to my final point, going to shows get us out of our comfort zones. As riders it's SO easy to get into the habit of doing the same thing each and every day. Leaving my normal routine helps me to get unstuck if I'm in a rut 💪🏻

31 Day Social Media Challenge Day 2 - Topical Tuesday

“Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.” What was the name of the most loyal horse or pony you have ever known?

Hands down, this has to be Basse. Today marks the 12th anniversary of him being mine! 🎉🎊

Basse came to us when he was 2 years old and I still consider him to be the baby of the family. At the age of 5, I started riding him, and I was only 14 then... What a wonderful baby horse that he looked after a teen who had no idea what she was doing! And as is well known by equestrians, "equid social relationships are long-lasting and, in some cases, lifelong” (in the journal Animal Behaviour) and now after 12 years together, you could say our relationship seems to be lifelong!!