Riding exercise of the month: "the magic square" pole work

If you are looking for something interesting and fun to add to you and your horse’s rides to get you through to spring and summer when the chance to hack out and use fields more returns, pole work is the answer! 💪🏻 They are very easy to set up and there are so many variations you can use to benefit your horse. I know a few people who think that pole work is just for those who jump or event their horses, but I think it has benefits for horses in all disciplines - it encourages your horse to become more rhythmic and balanced and helps you improve your timing and balance (it does for me at least! 😁) 

One of my favourite pole work exercises is the magic square ⬛️ It's a great exercise to teach your horse to remain as straight as possible when riding along the diagonal. The other reason why it's one my favourite exercises is because it really doesn't take long to set up this exercise - with four poles you just make a perfect square that is aligned properly with both diagonal lines, which means you can ride a figure of 8 without having to stop at all. It's an easy exercise for the horses, but not too easy as the two poles means your horse does actually have to pay attention to where it's feet are going! The main thing to focus on is to not speed up, to let the poles do the work and to let the horse think about what is happening. You need to trot straight through the square, and not lean and cut corners, ensuring that you use your leg and rein aids properly. 

So there you go, my recommend riding exercise for next month is this quick but effective magic square pole work! 💪🏻 Get those hind legs working! If you tried this, let me know how it went! 

Blogiexpo'19 "Pinnalla -palkinto" award nomination

I'm VERY excited to have been nominated for a Finnish blogging award for the first time ever 🇫🇮💻📝 Surprising, but very much appreciated! Playsson.net is once again organising this year's popular Blogiexpo, which rewards the previous year's top social media influencers as well as bloggers.  I am honoured to be nominated for the "Pinnalla -palkinto" which is an award for a blog or channel that is long-lasting and has been around for a long time at the top.  This little blog of mine has been active since January 2013 so over 6 years now - a part of me finds this insane, and another part of me is just so unbelievably proud of my little corner of the internet. 💖 I’ve worked hard over these years to produce content that I love and hope that others love too. When I was announced as a nominee for this award a few weeks ago I knew I’d reached further than I ever thought I could and well past my original goals, and I was over the moon - mission accomplished, and then some! 🌙  I am in fantastic company in this group and have to say that in this group, if I end up being the fourth place it's not something to be ashamed of!

But I'd love it if you could follow the link and click on my blog's name for the "Pinnalla-palkinto" (bottom of the page - Roosa's Horsey Life) and then press äänestä ✅ I'm so proud of what has already been accomplished, I'd love your help to achieve even more ⤵️

CLICK HERE to take you to the voting page

You can vote for just one category if you are not familiar with other categories. Voting is open from 25.2. until 10.3.2019!

I'm so grateful for each and every vote! Thank you!

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Classic SS19 collection

Thanks to a perfect 2018 where I loved every single collection that Eskadron brought out, I thought it would continue into this year as well. In this case it wasn't to be as the Eskadron Classic SS19 collection just isn't that exciting for me. BUT, if you like green and orange, giiirrrrrrlllllll are you in for a treat!! 💚💫 A beautiful bright coral colour and a strong but sweet green give a breath of spring air into the matchy world!

 The colours that Eskadron have gone for this spring summer collection are: seapine green, coral fusion, navy and blanc. Whilst I love me some navy, I do think the pine green and coral simply win the show in this collection. And like I wrote earlier, if you like your greens and oranges then this collection is for you! I am much more of a light blue/pink/purple/grey type of girl so I won't be ordering anything from this collection (what a shock, I KNOW!!) but I still really do like the look of the coral and the pine green, especially the velvet crystal pads and the cotton big squares and the glossy emblem pads. The more I look at the photos of the coral the more I start to like it 🍊 It's nice that Eskadron have done the fluffy boots and over reach boots to match these colours, so you can get them in the coral, green and navy ⤵️ I really rate my Eskadron boots - they just last and last!

I'm also not convinced about the new type of binding that Eskadron have used on some of these pads. I'm pleased that they're trying out different looks and styles, I am just not a fan of this style. A dear friend of mine calls this "police tape" and I couldn't think of a more appropriate description than that! 🚨 I still have high hopes for the rest of Eskadron's collections, and I'm hoping none of them will lead to disappointment! I hate it when you're so excited for something, and then it ends up being a bit lacklustre...

#rootd: pink & elegant

Although it's not been too long since my last #rootd blog post, but I thought now that I have some of the new sets from the SS19 collections, I ought to carry on with these posts. This month’s look has been inspired by Valentines Day but I've made it a bit more casual and more like "you can still wear this to the barn and not regret your horse sneezing all over your jumper" without regretting your outfit choice! 💗 This dusky pink is everywhere this spring, most of the high street shops will have jumpers, sweatshirts and t-shirts in this colour, and best of all it’s just so easy for anyone to wear and pull it off! I also love to add some sparkle to our daily training, which is why these Anky sparkling over reach boots make this outfit look complete ✨

 Saddle pad: PS of Sweden rose

Bandages: PS of Sweden rose

Over reach boots: Anky shiny white glitter sheepskin

Top: H&M old rose sweater

Breeches: Pikeur Gia leggings

First arena hire

"You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Although an arena hire may not seem like a big event for many, for me to go to a different arena that wasn't ours with Erik was a huge achievement. Don't get me wrong, I love riding him at home in my own arena. On most days he's perfect and on the rare bad day he just does a few small spooks that I just sit to, and then carry on as if nothing had happened. But the thought of taking us out of that arena which is my comfort place, to another arena where I couldn't be in control of the surroundings and what might happen whilst we were there gave me the chills of panic! 😨

So on Thursday I finally got my act together. I was already full of worry at 6am as I knew we were going to the neighbours' arena in the afternoon - just to ride, nothing more exciting than that. But, not only would it be my first outing of this year, it would also be my first ride not at home with Erik ever and my first time 'hacking' him on the road to the neighbours'! Rama had already done a massive spook before we'd even left our home, I panicked about leaving Vallu in the barn as he was shouting for Erik as we hacked to our neighbour's arena but guess what.... I did it! 🙌🏻 And I had a great time too (after about fifteen minutes of not breathing and my anxiety filling me up full of ideas of everything that could go wrong). We dealt with a barking dog, automatic gates, fallen over fences in the arena as well as horses turned out near the arena and Erik took it all in his stride.

Trends to watch out for: Anky SS19 collection

Despite the fact that this winter seems to be lasting forever, my calendar keeps reminding me that we are hurtling towards spring at full speed. My paddocks may be muddy and water logged and the sky might be grey and cloudy but at least my favourite equestrian brands are bringing out colourful collections to cheer me up! 🌼🌺 The third blog post for this year's trends to watch out for series is Anky's SS19 collection! For this collection Anky have gone with estate blue, royal blue, mineral blue (my favourite!) flaming scarlet, sunny yellow, tawny brown, pale gold, sparkling charcoal and snow white. What's even more impressive is that the white, gold, brown and the black all have gold sparkles in them, which creates the most beautiful glimmer to these pads. And points to Anky for creating NINE new colours - that is stellar work from them! 👏🏻

Snow weekend

 "When it snows, you have two choices: shovel, or make snow angels." ❄️☃️❄️ Or, if you have horses at home, do a sun and rain dance and pray to everything out there that the snow will melt away as quickly as possible!! So the current weather is certainly feeling wintery... A blizzard arrived on Thursday night, and I woke up on Friday morning to feed the horses to what can only be described as horror as I realised we'd had about 7cm of snow, and it looked like it was going to stay.

 After having kept the horses in for most of Friday (there's only so much hand walking a girl can do!) by Saturday midday it was time to let the horses blow off steam. So with every single horse booted and rugged up, we could only hope that their shoes would stay on and that no one would injure themselves. After a few minutes of the horses deciding to increase my heart rate dramatically - thanks Erik!! - they all settled down and spent three hours sunbathing, eating hay and rolling around in the snow whilst my boyfriend and I sat on hay bales with a beverage in hand enjoying the sunshine! 😎