Stuck in a rut...

I try to keep this blog positive, even though there's always something to moan about and I really don't want to, but not having a post that explains what's going with us at the moment means that I won't be able to blog at all..

So last Saturday we got stuck in the thunder-lightning-hail storm which resulted in Vallu losing a shoe and me really hurting my back, it's now been nearly been a week and I'm still on painkillers. Otherwise we managed to escape from a very scary situation without any major problems.  But then... Vallu got his shoes done on Tuesday and managed to freak out during the shoeing, so that he managed to push to farrier over onto the ground (farrier is luckily okay!) and then step on the shoe so that the clip went into his hoof = blood and one very sore foot... 

Riding in the outdoor arena on Tuesday was just us walking because I didn't want to make Vallu work with a sore hoof and with my bad back it's not the most enjoyable feeling. A bruised hoof and a bruised back means that we're not the best combination at the moment :D Luckily the hoof is looking good and today I rode properly in the indoor school and he was moving fine! So maybe we might get through this with just a scare.

On Thursday we have the dentist coming, and since it's been such a long time since Vallu's teeth were checked (I know, very bad horse owner) I'm pretty sure that will mean a couple of days off for Vallu to recuperate. Because of this, I've decided to cancel my lessons and test riding clinics for this month, and just try to get us back to normal. Hopefully by the end of the month everything will be back to normal, we'll both be feeling better and we can go to the lessons and hopefully then starting competing...

Can your horse be your best friend as well? Vallu is good at posing!

Dry pony before the ill-fated hack out on Saturday

Night time walk on Sunday with Casperlee ♥ 

Good pony today!

If everyone wants to send us positive vibes, that would be great!

This week in pictures

AHHH EXAMS ARE FINALLY OVER!!!! :D
As this week was my second week of exams, I don't have anything to properly write about, but I did want to share with you all pictures from this week! :) Vallu has had a pretty easy week, only one proper riding/training session during the week when I didn't have an exam and then the rest of the days he's been on the walker, lightly ridden or lunged or hacked out. I think he might think that he's retired now ;)

Foxy "gimme sweets"

Aspen "gimme sweets too!!"

Evening walk during the sunset

Sunshine!

Cutiepie ♥

Our week didn't end very well, on Saturday we went out for a hack, and after getting about 100 yards from the gates of the stables, we got stuck in a hail/thunder/lightning storm which was pretty petrifying. I won't go into the details of how scary it was, I am just super proud of Vallu for being so brave and getting us back to stables in nearly one piece - he lost a shoe and my back is killing me. But still, he was a Super Horse. Never again am I trusting the British weather, if there is even one dark(ish) cloud in the sky I'll refuse to go out. 

Happy hackers!

Vallu has been such a super good boy this week, we've been out twice this week and Vallu is well on his way to becoming a happy hacker! Next week hopefully we can hack out again a couple of times, I'm sure Vallu is loving this as much as I am :)

Exam break

I now have a 2 week exam period, so Vallu gets an easy couple of weeks with no proper training whilst my brain tries to cope with remembering ridiculous amounts of politics information. It also means that my blog will be going on a short break as I won't have any training to post about. But in the mean time we will be very happily hacking out around the village!

We'll see you all in a couple of weeks ♥

Hope Valley Saddlery delivery and fun with Vallu

I love January sales, especially equestrian sales! Since I got so much horsey stuff for Christmas, I haven't found anything super special or exciting that I could claim to need, but Hope Valley Saddlery had an amazing deal on horse rugs, and we ended up buying two 150g Amigo Mio stable rugs for £40!! The normal price for one rug is £40, so it's like we got one for free! With 4 horses, these rugs get used a lot (spring and autumn) and so it was a good purchase. Hope Valley Saddlery has super speedy service, I ordered the rugs and Friday 3rd and they were delivery on Monday 6th morning?!

Vallu had the physio come and look at him on Tuesday, and after doing lots of work opening up the tight spots in his back and neck, she recommended a day off, then two lunge days and light riding for the weekend before starting training again next week. So I've been having lots of stress free time with Vallu, and one day when I decided to lunge him over some poles. You can see from the video below how much fun Vallu was having ;)

And we can proper lunging too! ;)