2018 in review

I love looking back on the past year and seeing how much has changed as it's easy to simply forget what has happened months ago. For me, 2018 has definitely been a year for the record books as simply SO much has happened last year. Although throughout last year there were some weeks when I simply had to take a break from blogging and social media (Master's thesis I'm looking at you 👀) and some days I thought about giving up on the blog, but looking back at the year I've never felt more convinced that I want to carry on 💪🏻At the end of this month, I will have had this blog for six years, so I think it's about time that my new aim with the blog is to keep at it until we reach the big ten! 🎉

Rather than doing a recap of the whole year month by month, I've looked back at the big moments of 2018:

In January my oldest brother held his first clinic in a long time in Finland which I went to with my mother and one of our best family friends.

In February my mother was amazing and lovely when she decided that instead of selling Erik to give him to me so that I have the chance to finally get back into competing again.

In May we got a new horse for mum, our #teambay increased again and now we have 5 horses! Funny how the OG gang of just Nelli and Basse has increased to such a big group. At the end of May/beginning of June I travelled with the horses to Germany where we spent 6 weeks (all of June and half of July) at my brother's yard waiting for our new house in the UK to be emptied and ready for us.

We finally made it to the UK and I arrived home with all the horses at 1am on 13th July! We arrived just as the worst heatwave was hitting the country, and we had several weeks of +30C... I lost all motivation to ride and instead I painted and organised my new room.

On a less horse related noted, at the end of July I graduated with my Master's degree in European politics with a 4/very good (where 5 is the best result) and in August my second nephew was born 👶🏼 Nothing makes you feel more grown up than becoming an auntie for the second time and receiving your Master's papers!

In September our barn renovation was finally finished after 10 long weeks - thank goodness we had such fantastic weather and that the ponies were happy to be outside all day every day!

I turned 25 in October (#quarterlifecrisis) and spent the day playing with ponies! I received far too many presents which were all amazing and if I remember correctly all the ponies were amazing to ride that day.

In November we carried on updating the equestrian side of our new home, by updating the arena surface (TWICE!). Next year we are planting a line of shrubs down the long side to create a bit of a 'fence' and then also getting some mirrors to the short side - there seems to be no end to how much work this place needs! 🙊 

In December I've managed to ride more than ever before thanks to Erik, Vallu and Melissa. But to make sure I didn't get too much of an ego, on the last day of the year Erik decided to remind me that no matter how well you may think it's going, never to take your eye of the ball or your horse might just go left when you go right 😂

Anyway, that's 2018 done and dusted! Happy New Year! 🎉💫 What are your New Year’s resolutions? Do you have any (big or small) plans for 2019? I would love to know yours! Mine is to get my act together, get a job (no more studying!) and to get cracking with Erik and go competing!