Roosa's Horsey Life

25.8.13

30 Day Equestrian Challenge, Day #9

I wrote this yesterday, but forgot to publish it!

30 Day Equestrian Challenge

Day 9 - Any injuries that have occurred from riding

I've been very fortunate to have never broken any bones, or been seriously injured in any way, especially when considering the fact that I have been surrounded by horses for over ten years!

But I do constantly have cuts, bruises and muscle cramp/tension/soreness all over me, especially my legs and arms! I've had the usual trodden on toes, bruised feet, cuts on hands and bite marks on arms from cheeky horses! There's also the usual back pain from too much riding + mucking out, shoulder ache etc but nothing too serious!

My most recent is this really annoying cut on my foot, which will not heal. I've had it for over a week, and it rubs open every time I put my riding boots on, even when it is covered with gauze swabs and vet wrap!

23.8.13

30 Day Equestrian Challenge, Day #8

30 Day Equestrian Challenge

Day 8 - Tell a little about the yard/barn that you ride at

At the moment, we are lucky enough to have all our horses at home! We have four stables (2 indoor and 2 outdoor) a 20x40m outdoor arena and paddocks (sand and grass) It's not much, but it's perfect! I have to walk 50m from our door to go see our horses, so I'm very happy with our home.

Our outdoor arena

Grass paddocks, behind them are the sand paddocks...

Which look like this!

Indoor stables on the right where the light is

Outdoor stables with Nelli and Vallu, behind that our hay barn

We're also super lucky to have such awesome neighbors, and we get to use their indoor arena (20x60m) and get to go for hacks in their woodland.

Across the road is the indoor school!

22.8.13

European Dressage Championships

Henri with our parents (C) Hevosurheilu

So Henri did really well yesterday, scoring 68.86% in the Grand Prix, with one judge giving him 73%! Although in the beginning there were a few tiny mistakes, thanks a bad spook right at the last minute in the warm up, the rest of the test was really quite alright even though Jojo was a bit hot and Henri had to ride a little bit on the safe side. But it paid off! Placing 29th out of He was the only Finnish rider (out of a team of 4) to qualify for the next round, the Grand Prix Special which is tomorrow morning.

Fingers crossed that it all goes well tomorrow ♥

Henri riding Jojo (C) Hevosurheilu

30 Day Equestrian Challenge, Day #7

30 Day Equestrian Challenge

Day 7 - What's your biggest riding pet peeve?

Oh thank god this is a short one today, since I'm also going to publish another post later about Henri's success today and I'm going to be up for a while finding all the pictures and info!

My personal biggest riding pet peeve is how easily I stress if I have to rush at all. Now I had to google what 'peeve' actually meant: a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it. I'm pretty sure that other people won't have a near melt-down, and get incredibly irritated if they are short on time... I find it particularly annoying when it's my fault too, e.g. I spent too much time on the phone or lost track of time and then fall 15 minutes behind schedule! This really stresses me out and then my riding becomes totally pointless because I'm feeling anxious.

I won't go into details about my annoying riding problems, since Day 23 is about my worst riding habits. You can expect a long one for that!!