Trends to watch out for: Le Mieux 2021 AW collection

Oh my favourite time of the year - autumn is here! I personally adore the autumn winter collections, and this year we start this year's trends to watch out for series with Le Mieux from HorseHealth. They have done absolutely classic colours for autumn - rioja (wine red), oak (dark green) and dijon (mustardy yellow). It feels like I'm looking at the colours one the trees that I see outside my window when autumn fully sets in 🍁♥️

HorseHealth have gone ahead and create ALL the possible equestrian clothing too, everything from scarves and socks to base layers, hoodies, short and long and waterproof coats. The Mollie hoodie and the Loire Waterproof ring coat are my favourites of this collection, and whilst I already own a winter riding coat it's not completely waterproof so I am very tempted by a waterproof one for riding! There's also thermals in matching colours and finally a men's collection too! It might be a small one, but it's a start - I don't think it's fair that so few equestrian brands cater to men and it is great to see another company join in!  For each saddle pad there is matching bandages (classic and loire) as well as grafter and fleece brushing boots - although weirdly enough there aren't any fleece brushing boots in dijon, only grafter boots. I have used both their fleece brushing and grafter boots and can wholeheartedly recommend both. 

#rootd: pistage

Saddle pad: Equestrian Stockholm pistage

Bandages: Equestrian Stockholm pistage

Over reach boots: Kingsland

Top:  Primark sweatshirt

Gilet: Spooks crown 

Breeches: Pikeur grey Gia leggings

Trends to watch out for: Le Mieux SS20 collection

Wow! We're only half way through the first month of 2020 and already we have our first spring/summer collection being released! I for one am very very excited to start seeing more and more collections, I adore the brighter colours that companies bring out and it makes me feel like we are on the home straight towards spring. 💐 But first of all, let's have a closer look at this year's first collection which is by the fabulous British company Horse Health who produce all the Le Mieux products.

The beautiful new spring/summer collection from Le Mieux includes four new colours: champagne, french rose, mint and citron. Whilst champagne looks rather similar to caramel/beige, the other other colours are rather exciting! 🍋💚Citron and mint are also in the new Mini collection which is aimed at 5-12 year olds. I mean how cute is it that if you have kids you could do the ultimate matchy and have everyone dressed in the same colour?! I also really appreciate the fact that a company is being inclusive enough to create products for kids too. French rose, mint and citron have got matching hat silk, base layer and t shirts, but champagne doesn't so you'll have to hunt down matching rider clothing from somewhere else!

#rootd: orchid mauve

It's been a while since my last #rootd blog post, but I thought now that the AW19 collections are on their way, I should really get back into these posts especially since my own unicorn set arrived last week 🦄 Eskadron orchid mauve is one of those colours that I've been on the hunt for ever since FOMO (fear of missing out) started after being silly and deciding to not purchase this colour in 2017! And as much as I love my bright colours, I simply adore my pastel colours which is why a orchid mauve has been one of those sets that I've constantly been on the look out for.

 Saddle pad: Eskadron orchid mauve big square cotton

Bandages: Eskadron orchid mauve

Over reach boots: Anky white sparkly

Top:  Pikeur Hope

Breeches: Aztec Diamond Equestrian grey leggings

Aztec Diamond Equestrian - 'Behind The Scenes' press day & interview with Jordan McCabe

What a day this was! The lovely people at Aztec Diamond Equestrian and Sam Forrest PR invited me to an afternoon in London for a Behind The Scenes press day in the amazing Core Clapton building, in Upper Clapton  London. This equestrian brand has been hugely successful since launching in 2014, and now Aztec Diamond Equestrian are doing a 5 year anniversary re-brand and had invited the media to come to view the brand new collection at an exclusive “behind the scenes” media day. The event was held at an absolutely beautiful Edwardian space that is also used for yoga and wellness – it was such a nice place to visit, even if it took me hours to get there and hours to get back! One of the problems of living deep in the countryside in Wiltshire... But anyway, the lovely founder of the brand Jordan McCabe opened the doors for the media & bloggers to come along, meet her and her team and to see what goes on behind the scenes as they worked to create all the content the new collection for their new 5 year re-brand 🎉🎊

It was amazing to have Jordan walk me through the new collection on the rails, telling me about the styles, colours, new branding. She was incredibly busy, but still had the time to chat to me about the new products for ten minutes - you can tell just how passionate she is about all the products and how much it means to her to have these designs come to life! As a long time fan, it was lovely to see the new products but to also have the chance to touch & feel them and to see just how well made they are. My biggest worry with buying online products is that they won't feel as nice as you think they should when you're looking at the photos online, but trust me the AD stuff really is well made!

#rootd: soft & dreamy lavender

Although I missed out on last month's #rootd, I'm back this month with one of my all time favourite spring looks! I think this is SUCH a cute riding outfit, I love how it looks on all the horses. Yeah it might be a bit girly, but pastels are my favourite colours to use in spring time so the boys will just have to deal with it! 💜 I've also started using my leggings more and more now that the weather is starting to warm up once again, and although these Aztec Diamond Equestrian leggings don't have any 'sticky' bits, they are so comfortable to wear and unlike my Pikeur leggings, they don't fall down all the time! I love the fact that most equestrian brands have started to follow the colour trends of the big fashion lines, so lots of normal non-horsey shops like H&M, Next and Primark have got clothes that match - sorry Pikeur and other expensive equestrian brands, but your prices for sweaters and hoodies can be a bit much when there is no guarantee that they won't shrink in the wash and my horses like to slobber & stain my clothes! 

Trends to watch out for: Le Mieux SS19 collection

Well hello there Le Mieux, WELCOME BACK!! 👋🏻 After several disappointing seasons of collections from Horsehealth's Le Mieux (so much so that I didn't even include them in my Trends To Watch Out For series last autumn), I am utterly in love with this new SS19 collection 🌸🍑They've created such beautiful springy pastel colours - there is a stunning lavender which suits every horse and a lovely soft peachy orange that even an orange hater like myself would quite happily buy. And for those of you who like having matching ears/fly hoods to complete the sets, Le Mieux has your back and has created them in both colours 👏🏻

Although I stopped using Le Mieux saddle pads several years ago when they rubbed Vallu behind the saddle, over the last year or so I've only heard good things about their newer pads. My mum also owns several of the newer sets and as they've never rubbed her horse I thought I should finally give them another go! It was the binding of the pads that rubbed Vallu all those years ago, but with this new "super soft suede binding" this problem won't come back.

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! 👏🏻

Walker & Hawkes ladies pink stripe tweed coat - Equestrian Co.

I was contacted by a company called Equestrian Co. back in the spring and asked if I would be interested in reviewing a product from their site, and after having a look at their website we agreed to do a collaboration once I'd moved back to the UK 🇬🇧 Since having moved to the countryside in the most beautiful part of Wiltshire, I have totally fallen in love with country clothing, but with being busy with the horses and trying to get the house and stables sorted out, to find an online store that sells everything I could want in this style is such a bonus!

I ended up choosing the Walker & Hawkes ladies pink stripe tweed shooting coat simply because from the moment I saw it it on the website, it looked like it was "mine". 💞 The Walker and Hawkes coat is £69.95 from Equestrian Co. and no surprise, it is one of their best sellers. I can’t believe I had never thought about investing in a thick winter coat that you can wear both at the yard and going out, because this coat is very practical but also stylish at the same time. I know I will be very warm now in winter when that bitterly cold wind, rain and maybe even snow returns!! Being made from from a combination of the best quality wool (60%) polyester (25%) and acrylic (11%), there's a reason why this coat is SO WARM. When I tried the coat when it arrived during the middle of the day when it was +25C and thought I was going to melt - which guarantees that when we are facing winter temperatures again, I will be nice and toasty! I've been wearing it this autumn, and can highly recommend that if you often cold, then this is the coat for you!

With it's heavy-duty brass zipper together with the woollen cuffs inside the jacket this coat will keep you warm even in the worst possible weather, like today when the wind is bitterly cold, I was incredibly warm. So, if you're looking for a thin transition coat from summer to autumn then this coat will simply be too warm for you. But, if you're looking for the perfect autumn and winter coat then this is it! 🙌🏻 I am genuinely looking forward to going on long walks and spending time outside in winter for the first time in many many years thanks to this coat. One the best features of this coat is the fact that there are FIVE pockets - two hand warmer pockets (best thing ever!!) , two front pockets (treats for the dogs 🐶) and an extra inside pocket where you can keep your phone dry and your keys safe!

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Classic SS18

I can totally get why some people think I'm a bit crazy, especially when someone asks me a question about anything that is equestrian style/brand related as I could easily talk for hours and hours and hours... Especially if the topic was Eskadron's collections! I'm always very impressed with each one of Eskadron's collections, and honestly out of all the years I've been following equestrian trends the only one that I didn't like was Eskadron Heritage 2016. But I think this collection is fantastic and deserves 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For this SS18 collection, Eskadron has once again gone for the classic navy and grey that they tend to have for each collection so these colours are no surprise BUT what was quite unexpected (at least for me) was the colour choices for this collection! There is a lovely light mint green (jade) and what looks like a nice strong but soft shade of yellow (sunrise). I'm not a big fan of yellow but this particular shade is really pretty! And I think it was a nice touch was to add a floral pattern in, which for this collection is the 'deep blue flower' which I honestly actually liked already when I first saw it in some leaked photos. I know it's gonna be a love/hate reaction to this floral pattern, but I believe a lot of people will actually like it rather than hate it... Eskadron have already done a floral pattern in their Next Generation SS17 collection, but I do think this one is a lot prettier? 💐 But anyway, the official colours are: white, jade, deep blue, sunrise and steel grey. 

#rootd: rose and grey

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018! 🎉✨
I hope that you all had a lovely evening, my New Year's Eve was spent at home trying to keep the dogs from freaking out about the fireworks and doing checks on the horses to make sure that they stayed calm too - luckily we had a couple of bottles of champagne at home!! 🍾 But anyway, lets start the new year off with a bang - a rose peachy pink and grey riding outfit suggestion! This could be a "new year new me" riding outfit for those of you who have never used pale peach pink before 😜 But since I've been a long time fan of rose gold, so when I heard that Eskadron were releasing a rose gold inspired collection, I was on it like a car bonnet to order the rose big square glossy pad and bandages from the Heritage 2017 collection. I love the fact that Eskadron and Pikeur follow the colour trends of the big fashion lines, so lots of normal non-horsey shops like H&M have got clothes that match - sorry Pikeur but your prices for sweaters and hoodies are sometimes quite extortionate!

Saddle pad: Eskadron rose big square glossy

Bandages: Eskadron rose

Over reach boots: Eskadron Platinum grey 

Top: H&M sweatshirt in powder pink

Breeches: Pikeur grey Piana breeches
Snood: Pikeur anthracite snood

What I got for Christmas 2017

Christmas (and birthday) hauls are some of my favourite posts and I love reading these kinds of blog posts about them and seeing them on Youtube. I've always felt a bit nervous about doing them as I don't want anyone to think I'm boasting in any way but I love reading them myself so I decided to finally do one this year! But anyway, inserting the mandatory disclaimer here that I am no way bragging about what I received, I just like being nosy and reading these posts so assume others will too! I love sharing what I got and hope it inspires people if they are stuck for gift ideas throughout the year. Obviously, I have not included every single item because some of them were not horsey gifts, but I appreciated every single one of my gifts. Oh and the reason this is done so early is because we had main Christmas evening on the 16th so 90% of my presents were opened then, and the rest were opened on Christmas Eve as per usual in Finland! 🎄

But back to the good stuff, let’s delve into what you probably came here for… the PRESENTS! 🎁

Christmas wish list 2017

Alrighty guys, get readyyyyy as it's time for my annual Christmas wish list! I have done a Christmas wish list every year since I started this blog and since there's only a month and a bit left until Christmas, it's about time I create the "dear Santa" post that I can share with my family so that they know what they can get me for Christmas - I know they read this! Although I do feel like I'm very early this year because it's only mid November, but oh well here goes!!🎄🎁

1. Montar Amber sweatshirt
Ever since following Equissimo on twitter and Instagram, I have fallen a little bit in love with one of their stocked brands, Montar. Hailing from Denmark, Montar is known as one of the most innovative European equestrian brands. And this sweatshirt... Glittery and grey, what more could you want! ⭐️

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Heritage A/W 2017

🎉📢 Oh my goodness me, I'm so excited that after such a long time we have ROSE GOLD!!! 📢 🎉 Finally, the equestrian fashion world is branching out into using gold rose instead of the typical silver or gold accents! When I saw the first leaked photos I did have my mouth hanging open for a bit in shock because I had genuinely thought that this would never happen... I mean how long has rose gold been a thing? At least several years!

But here we go, this is the new Eskadron Heritage collection AW 2017 featuring cream, brick red, military green, black, basalt grey and rosé as the main colours, with rose gold accents. I was pleased to see Eskadron leave out brown for this collection, I can't actually remember when they last did a collection without some shade brown 🤗 And they've also not done a black for a couple of seasons too, so it was nice to see that coming back - the black glossy wave pad in particular is very eye catching! I'm also really impressed with the military/army green. It's quite an unusual shade of green which I think will look good on so many horses and would predict it could actually turn out to be quite popular. The grey is lovely as always and although I am not the biggest fan of red, this shade of brick red looks good. The rosé (pink) looks to be a bit more of a peachy rose compared to the last two seasons which have been a bit too barbie pink for me, but the hint of peach in this has made me fall in love with this colour! I think it is a totally perfect match with the rose gold. 💕 I'm just SO much more impressed with this collection compared to last year's collection.

Equestrian Stockholm AW17 Steel Grey set

Having survived the first absolutely manic week of my second term at university this year, I was SUPER excited to see that my Feather Dressage delivery had arrived on Friday. I've been on the hunt for another smart matchy set for training because at the moment I've only got my navy Equestrian Stockholm one, so when I saw that ES were coming out with this colour, I knew I needed to get it! ♥︎

So of course my outfit for the next day was sorted! 💁🏼 I just knew it was going to amazing on Basse (grey on grey rocks!) but I must admit I was bit apprehensive about how it would look on Vallu, especially now that he is in his weird winter coat which is currently just a million different splotches of brown. But I love it, even on him!

#rootd: black and pink

Whilst I was writing one of the posts for my 'trends to watch out' series about HV Polo's winter 2017 collection, I knew that I needed to get in with the floral trend and get some of that pattern into my horses' wardrobe! I wasn't feeling the all-over print design of the Superior pad, so I decided to stick to the more subtle floral edging which I love. I know you can't see it that well in riding photos, but honestly it super pretty. When my mother saw the saddled she summed it up well by stating "it's classy but with a hint of cute thrown in" 🌺

So the riding outfit of the day is:

Saddle pad: HV Polo Brandson pad in black

Bandages: HV Polo Favouritas black

Top: Pikeur Sina top in black

Gilet: Pikeur NG SS16 Bepina Gilet in Magenta

Breeches: Kingsland Chisasib riding leggings 

Feather Dressage Horse Fashion Charity Show in aid of Prince Fluffy Kareem

Like last year, for the last weekend of September I did a quick fly by to my old yard to help out at the Feather Dressage Horse Fashion Show and this year it was in aid of Prince Fluffy Kareem. PFK is a small, action-oriented group of people working to help horses, donkeys and camels by the pyramids in Cairo, Egypt. When I found out the fundraised would be for PFK I was ecstatic! I've been following PFK on Facebook for several years now and am always in awe of the work that they do over in Egypt. I've been joyous with their success stories and sobbed whenever they lost anyone and whilst I know you can't pick a favourite charity, this one is very close to my heart.

And once again, what a weekend! We managed to raise an amazing £6,200 and I did burst into tears  at the end when the total was revealed. To know all of us have managed to help make life a little bit easier over the winter for PFK made the lack of sleep and stress totally worth it! 💕

Trends to watch out for: Equestrian Stocholm AW17

Following on from my 'Trends to watch out for' series with Eskadron and HV Polo's autumn/winter collections, here is the third one featuring Equestrian Stockholm! Everyone knows that I have been a BIG fan of Equestrian Stockholm ever since they started, especially since they are a Scandinavian company and I will always support companies from 'my' area. I've honestly loved every single colour from each collection so far, and this season is the same. Deep plum, steel grey and golden brass are such autumnal colours, it's perfect🍁🍂

For those of you who may be put off by the prices (I did have the same reservations at the beginning) these pads have lasted even better than my Eskadron sets... My midnight blue pad is a year old and apart from a few scratches on the logo from the washing machine, you wouldn't be able to tell that it's had a year of being my most used saddle pad! 👌🏻If you are looking for a really smart matchy set, I'd recommend ES.

An interview with the DressMyHorse app creators

A couple a days ago as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed I saw that someone had shared the link to this new app, where you can upload a photo of your horse and try on different matchy sets, instead of having to ask on different Facebook groups for photos of other people's horses wearing a certain set. This app was definitely built for people like myself who have a matchy addiction, so naturally I was very curious so I immediately downloaded the app and got to work. After a few days of playing with different sets on Basse, I knew this had been a fantastic idea which is why I went to their website to read more about the people behind the app. According to their about page, Sonja and Neil are "horse owners and self-confessed horsewear and tack shopaholics" who decided to build the app "because of an awkwardly red chestnut and its indecisive owner." I love this, because finally someone has understood the matchy problems we face (can't decide what colour to buy...)  and done something about it.

Trends to watch out for: Eskadron Classic AW17

I presume most people following this blog know that I am an avid Eskadron fan. For me, there is no other brand that has guaranteed great quality products which are stunning and Eskadron are always the one I look out for when new season collections start appearing! So for part 2 of my autumn/winter trends to watch out for, here's a quick look at Eskadron's classic sport AW17 collection:

The colours for this collection are dark taupe (brown), navy, orchid mauve (pinky colour), aqua marine and the lovely anthra melange (grey). I am a big big big fan of pinks and blues, so this collection is a huge success for me and scores 10/10 for sure! There is always going to be some shade of brown in every Eskadron collection, and once again this is a lovely shade. I also think the dark navy will be popular too, but from seeing everyone's preorders orchid mauve has already nearly sold out - how crazy is that?! The collection isn't even in shops yet but they're already nearly impossible to get hold of.