In the Saddle: No horsing around for me

Well, there's not been much I can do riding-wise these last few weeks as I still have a shoulder injury. I can get on my horse but the difficulty comes in dismounting where I need to take my weight in both my shoulders to dismount.

I managed a short ride around the village for about twenty minutes and after three weeks off my mare didn't put a hoof wrong, but the pain during and after that ride was probably the worse since I had the accident so no more horsing around for me at the moment.

Instead I've decided to start the year with a good clear out of horse related items and have gone through all my fleeces, coats and polo tops with the ethos that anything not worn in two years is either advertised on a selling site or goes to charity.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That's the same for rugs and some tack. If I'm not careful I'll just keep collecting more and more and will need to build an extension to house it all! It's felt really good decluttering.

Having all the free time from riding has enabled me to think about goals for this year too. We will be rejoining pony club (Wentworth and District) with our little pony Jazz and we aim to get our little girl ready to go to pony club camp this summer as last year I felt she wasn't quite ready.

In addition to that we have joined the British Appaloosa Society (BApS) with our young foal. The Society was established in 1976 and is the oldest independent Appaloosa Organisation in the UK. There is such a great little community there of Appaloosa lovers, it reminds me very much of pony club given how friendly it is and of course we are all crazy about our horses-particularly spotty ones.

So, whilst I can't do much horsing around - I can at least sit and make horsey plans, tidy up the feed and boot room and dream about what spring will bring once I'm back in the saddle properly.