A bit of a bang

Ever since last Wednesday I've been a mess trying to wrap my head around the fact that both my horses are injured, and safe to say it's not been an easy few days. Over the weekend I was in Finland attending my grandfather's funeral after he passed away after losing the fight against cancer, yet at the same time all I could think about was that one of the vets was coming to see Erik on Monday afternoon.

On Wednesday morning when we went to turn out the horses, I noticed a new rather large area of swelling on the inside of Erik's front leg and with a more prodding I also found quite hard smaller lump in the middle of swelling. Thinking that he'd just banged himself overnight (clumsy horse) I turned him out and tried to think nothing of it - whilst at the same time going into a total melt down in my brain - and decided to give him days off over the weekend whilst we were away and hopefully it would have gone down and away on it's own. However seeing the leg on Thursday morning before our flight, I decided that there was no way I would be able to cope mentally unless a vet confirmed to me that there was nothing more serious going on. I had nightmares of broken bones and torn ligaments!

Luckily Monday afternoon came round quickly and we had the lovely Manuela from Wessex Equine come have a look at his leg. After hearing about what we thought had happened and my explanation of the swelling have gone down incrementally each day, but also that it is more swollen in the morning after a night in his stable and that the swelling goes down when he's been turned out, so after a quick examination of the leg, the vet wanted to see Erik moving. We did the usual walk and trot in a straight line on a hard surface, and then lunged in the arena - during which Erik was on his best behaviour and the vet agreed that he wasn't lame and was actually moving quite well! I'm REALLY pleased that he's not in any pain and is moving so well, he's not been on any painkillers so that the vet could see exactly how he's doing.

FLY OFF an alternative to fly spray - sponsored blog post

Over the summer do you get bored of having to use lots of different sprays and gels to keep the flies off your horse? I find it amazing how much spray I can get through in a few weeks and still there are tons of flies aggravating the horses. A few months ago I was contacted by a wonderful company called Fly-Off who have designed a new way of combating flies, and since then I've been testing out their product! 

Fly-Off have created a product which are leg straps that have little holding pouches for inserts. There are four different types of insets: Deet Extra, Citro Extra, Neem Extra and a standard insert. You can mix and match these inserts to effectively keep flies away 24/7, without you having to worry about the chemicals in fly sprays. Fly-Off uses repellents that have natural oils and aromas that to keep the flies away, and these specially infused inserts can be worn on the horses’ legs, fly rug, saddle or head collar. The inserts last for up to two weeks and have been proven to deter flies from anything up to 1m radius. What I really like about these straps and inserts is the they release repellent over 14 days, so for two weeks you don't have to do anything 👏🏻 They're also waterproof, and can be worn all the time so provide 24 hour protection for the horses. They've made a massive difference to Vallu who wore them inside in his stable too as he is very sensitive and easily agitated by the flies.
 

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Classic AW19 collection

So I might be a little bit late to the party (thank you crazy work hours) but WOW what a strong collection Eskadron have created for this year's Classic autumn/winter collection. This whole set is giving me the vibes of an old collection from a few years ago when Eskadron also released a petrol colour 🌊 I think a teal blue colour is such a good strong colour to have in a collection because it suits every single horse, but an especially good one to use for an autumn/winter range. AND how nice is it to see an Eskadron collection that doesn't have any navy or white or cream in it?! 

Interestingly, for this collection Eskadron have decided to go for just three colours rather than their normal 4-5 different colours 🤔 This time the colours are: soft grey, caviar and teal blue and to be totally honest, I like all of them. I also think the design of the cotton emblem pad, the velvet and the big square glossy pads are so beautiful! Over the years Eskadron proven over and over again that they are 100% worth the price tag as their products just last and last, you really do get quality with Eskadron.

AE Blog Hop: 12 Tough Questions

Just in time for my week off from work that includes a trip to Finland and less horsey activities than I would like, here's a fun blog hop with some cracking questions! Thank you to Alberta Equest!

Q1:  What hobbies do you have outside of riding?

Life at the moment is VERY full on (I mean whose isn't, but I feel like at the moment I am juggling far more than I can cope with!) and having the horses at home means that whenever I'm not at work I'm very busy catching with things that I don't manage to do on work days! At the moment I'm trying to balance work/riding/blogging/family/friends/trips back home to Finland/sleeping with varying degrees of success 🙅🏼

Q2: What is your boarding situation?  Are you happy with it?

We have the horses at home, with 5 acres, a barn with 5 stables, a feed area, tack room and storage room and a 20x40m arena. I'm over the moon with happiness and eternally grateful to have another chance to carry on keeping the horses at home.