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