The way to heaven is on horseback

Well all I have seen over the blogosphere recently was 'a year in review and goals for 2013' posts so I thought why not and decided that I might as well do one, but most of you will already know what this year has been like! I am going to do this in a month by month format and will try and add pictures for you all too! JANUARY! Nothing much really happened this month I went back to riding at Broomfield and had a few eventful rides on Arthur, I didn't fall off but we had our fair share of arguements because he decided that he didn't like the top end of the school, it also bought on our fair share of cold winter nights, and many nights on Thomas jumping him and then wrapping him up warm in his Duvet and rugs!  FEBRUARY!   This month was the first month that I got to ride Gatsby, I had seen him one weekend when I had gone up to visit some of the other horses and decided that I really liked the look of him and wanted to ride him, mum asked Steph (who taught me)...

so as you all know the past couple of days I have been being creative but have not had the time to put it in a post what it is that I am being creative about, so here is a post dedicated to telling you what it is! Two days ago I went to look at some boots at Risley Saddlery and decided I didn't like them but thought that whilst I was there I might as well have a look round and see if there was anything else there that caught my eye, my mum and I also needed to look at Jackets because my dad has decided that he wants a Bronte jacket for his birthday but we are going to be ordering that off the internet for him and hope that it comes in time for his birthday which is near the end of January. While I was there I saw these really cute ear fly covers or fly bonnet as it is some times called that you use in riding and put on the horses ears and it keeps the sound out and the flies away, my mum looked at them and said they wouldn't be too hard to Crochet, so I then asked if we co...

Thanks mum for giving me the title of this post it sure did make me laugh! Well as you know today was my day to ride Gatsby and in true typical English weather it decided to not only chuck it down but to get windy too! But we still plodded on and I got called a dedicated rider again, I am starting to love the compliment but not have as much as I love the sports that we all do! When I got to the yard the rain was just starting to settle down and because of this we decide that we would do a quick brush down as earlier in the day Fiona had done a proper groom and then tack up quickly while the rain was easing off as, so instead of getting on at 1, we got on at about quarter to 1 but then we stayed on til 2 so we got extra then the hour we normally get! YAY! During the lesson we decided that we were going to do some shoulder in and leg yielding, because it was something I really wanted to try because I have been working on my elbows and I just really wanted to try it. So to start with...

Hey guys  Todays post is only going to be really short as I didn't get round to updating earlier on in the day and have spent the evening working on a new crochet project, it's something that all you horsie fans will love and there will be a post about it tomorro!  Also wanted to let you all know that tomorrow I am riding Gatsby and it will be my last ride of the year, so there will be lots to write about and I am also going to be taking some horsey pictures so there will be plenty for you to look at over the next few days! Promise!  Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream

I really really hate my elbows, why can't they just co-operate instead of sticking out and being damn annoying!!!?? Keeping my elbows tucked in can be the difference between getting the outline with Gatsby or Gatsby shoving his head in the air saying 'forget that I am NOT listening to you, til YOU sort your elbows out!!' so that is what I am going to do.  A few weeks ago my mum said that if I couldn't get my elbows tucked in place while riding she was going to tie them in place so that I got used to holding them in position whilst doing normal jobs. So that is what I asked my mum to do today. There is pictures so that you can see how I have done it. I also spoke to my riding teacher about doing it and she said as long as I did it so they were tied infront of my ribs and not behind my back I was welcome to do it. So every day I am going to do this, don't care how stupid it looks because I think it might work. I've only had it on for about five minutes so far...

Hey Everybody, well yesterday's post was a really short post so today I have decided that I will take the time to make it a longer post. So today we had the tradition of my sister, her partner and my nephew coming over, and boy is that little fella starting to get clever and adventurous! I am not sure if all of you know that my mum has a little black and white Shih Tzu called Angel, who was originally my sisters and was bought for her as a Christmas Present. However at this time my sister already had Two cats that were used to having the space to themselves! Well my sisters Dad rang my mum asking if we would have the dog cause Anne-Marie didn't realize how much hard work it would be and Angel wasn't getting on with the Cats. Angel's been with us ever since, and she is 100% my mums dog but Angel has decided that she doesn't want to be around Brody we think it's because she thinks that she'll get told off but we really do not know. But today Angel was cur...

Hey Everybody, I hope that you are all having a good day and got everything you wished for, about all your horses are being spoilt at this festive time of the year! It's only a quick post today and then tomorrow it will be a longer post but here is 2 pictures that I thought I would leave you all with!  This is another picture of my hair it shows off better the colour of my hair for the purple near the back that almost looks pink which I love and then near my fringe and that side of my hair you can see the copper highlights that I had put in too, which I love. A more festive picture for you all. After having our Christmas dinner today my mum had got a Christmas pudding for the people in the house that like Christmas Pudding this picture was taken just after my little brother lit it, as that was something he decided for the first year that he wanted to do. Until Next Time A Girl With a Dream

Will you think Christmas Eve would be a day to chill out and just spend time relaxing, well that didn't happen because all day plans have been being changed and nothing has happened that has supposed to. We ended up going over to my sisters because we were originally all going to Santas Grotto at the Garden Centre that is about 5 minutes down the road from me. But she was too ill to for that so instead we went to see her at her house and also to see my nephew and of course her boyfriend Mick. We exchanged presents and we won't see her again until Boxing Day, during which we all have a big family meal and unless my sisters ill, Brody's ill or Mick's ill, it happens every year! It's kind of our own Family tradition. Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream

So Yesterday as you all know I got to ride Gatsby again but I didn't really have time because of how tired I was to tell you what I did during the lesson. I got there early like I always do so that I could spend some time just grooming him and tacking up and when I got there one of the ladies who has her own horse there said 'its only real riders that ride in this weather' which made me laugh. The weather at this point was a lot of rain but it was very fine rain making it look almost like it was a wet fog, was really weird and when I looked at the Arena it was like a lake at the bottom end of the school and then some big puddles at the top end of the school. Fiona said that if it had been a driving wind and really heavy rain that we would not have rode but because it was like it was she said we might as well because in the world of horses we don't get time off because its raining and its cold and we don't want to get wet. So we might as well get used to this now wh...

I've just nicked this quote off ' behind the bit ' blog and its really got me thinking maybe it will you guys too but its just a thought  “Jessica loved everything about horses."  "She devoted her free time to watching horse movies, reading horse books, drawing horses, and writing stories about horses. We had promised her she could have her very own horse when she turned 10. She asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and a cowgirl hat. She was a creative, beautiful little girl who loved playing with her little brothers, Travis and Shane. She spent time writing in her journals, making up stories, and doing “research” on orca whales – one of her passions after seeing the movie Free Willy last year. She said her dream was to see a real orca. Thankfully her dream was realized in October when she went to SeaWorld.  We can not imagine our life without her...We are devastated, and our hearts are with the other families who are grieving as we are.”

Well the past few days have been pretty hectic and I have been all over the place so this post could end up being quite long but that depends on whether I get tired part way through and decide that I am going to give in and finish it tomorrow, but we will see how I go.  I'll start with what happened yesterday and go from there! Yesterday was the day that I finally got my hair fully purple, it was a different one to I chose last time and it is quite a deep purple but it tends to look different in different lights for example in one light it looks black another plum and another deep purple! what was supposed to take two hours ended up taking four hours, cause my hair is really long, and they had to use a LOT of dye to get my hair the colour I wanted it! but i LOVE it so here's some pictures:-   So above are the pictures that I promised of my hair after that I had tea and went to a youth group that I go to, we even got a new just dance disk and after winn...

My arms are really starting to ache, but as the saying goes if there is no pain then there is no gain. Well my muscles are definitely screaming at me to stop moving them, but no I have to be stubborn, for my riding I need to get more in to the habit of talking my elbows in and keeping them there cause at the moment I find that I keep my elbows in place and then the next minute I think about something else and I don't have them tucked in. So it is something that I want to work on whilst I am doing the day to day things for example typing on my laptop, so that is what I am doing! I am sitting in bed with my elbows tucked in and can feel my muscles starting to ache but I am going to keep doing it. My mum spoke to my riding teacher and they both agreed that this is my main problem so the next step is if I don't do it naturally I am going to tie my elbows in place but not tie them behind my back I was going to tie them in front of my ribs!  Any way I just wanted to show y...

Hey guys,  Todays post is going to seem completely random and out of the blue but it was something that I felt I just HAD to blog about. Early today I was looking at my friends riding pictures on facebook and was in complete and utter shock to see that she had several photos of her riding her horse including jumping her horse without a helmet on. Now you might wonder why I felt so strongly about this, but this is a horse that has been known to take off with her, throw her off, rear up and bolt, and she's put she's doing it because the horse is 'safe as houses' but how can a horse that rears and bolts be 'safe as houses'? It's just not possible and so stupid that she thinks that she can say that. I would never think of getting on Gatsby without my riding Helmet on because who knows what can happen? Horses are unpredictable animals that have a brain of their own and can do what they want. But what do you guys think?  I can't wait til Friday, for t...

Well today has been time for me to play with my camera as after my Interviews yesterday I felt really ill this morning and tired so had the day off school and tomorrow I am going back in to school as long as I am feeling better, which hopefully I will. It has been two days since I got my new Nikon 1 J2 in pink of course and boy have I fallen in love with that camera, it's so fun to use and has some amazing features but the best bit is it is sooo easy to use and get used to using. So today the Christmas decorations got put up it's a week til christmas and they are only just going up because my brother wanted to help put them up but my brother isn't in that often so finding time when he could put them up is pretty hard. Then tonight my sister was coming around so we had to tidy all the things up so that Brody who's just over one couldn't grab hold of them and put them where they are supposed to, he's starting to learn what no means though so we don't have...

so today I had my last two university interviews and I am so glad that they are over because before them even though I don't realise it I get worried/nervous/stressed about how they are going to go, and then after being all those things then normally happy at the end of the interview I feel completely shattered and so do I the next day!  The first interview was for the fine art photography, which was my least favourite of the two courses, but it was another course at Derby (the closest uni to me). However after the interview today even if I get a place on that particular course there is no way that I will be choosing it. To start with they looked at my work and then said to pick which my favourite pieces were and say why they were my favourite this was easy and I found okay, BUT then they started making me feel even more nervous and on edge. They said that my work was confusing... how can photographs be confusing? NO other course has said this! URGHHH!! Then they said that my ...

Today's post might not be as interesting as others because what I planned to do for my post today I cannot do. I originally planned to put pictures on as todays post, the pictures were going to be things that I thought represented this time of the year for example the frost on trees making the trues look like they are covered in snow, the Christmas decorations for example our outside fiber-optic tree.  So instead I decided that I would update my blog on something a lot more horse related, which I think you will all prefer. I have just finished watching the Global Dressage Forum and found one riders opinion quite interesting, although I am not sure of their name as I flicked on to this channel half way through the interview. The rider was saying that she thinks that picking a horse at three and deciding what their discipline is then is wrong, at three how can we say that a horse is meant to be a dressage horse, an eventer, show jumper or cross country horse? I kind of agree wit...

hey everybody, Tonight isn't going to be the longest post as it hasn't been one of the best days and at the minute I am pretty tired even though I have been asleep from about 6/7ish really not quite sure what time I fell asleep. I didn't update last night as my best friend Evie invited me over to hers and we watched Ghost rider and then part of the Green Hornet but we didn't quite manage to finish that.  Then today it was time for my riding lesson, there won't be any pictures of that though because the camera that I ordered for next day delivery didn't arrive today when I spent quite a bit extra and no-one knows where the camera has gone because somewhere along the lines the camera has managed to go missing or as my dad said someone might have stolen it. None of us are quite sure what is going on yet with that one but as soon as I know I will let you guys know.  So today I got to Ride Gatsby again and we had quite a fun time grooming him even if he ...

After the jumping came many more dressage sessions, jumping sessions and practice for a competition that I thought I was doing on Gatsby but then according to Broomfield Jenny, Gatsby's owner said that I couldn't ride him for the competition because she didn't want him to be used for the competition to this day I will never know the truth about what happened, unless one day I ask Jenny.  Next was the cross country training and boy did I have a laugh with that Gatsby loved it because he was able to goes as fast as he wants when he wants and was able to jump which is something that Gatsby loves to do. We did several different jumps and he loved it, that was the last time that I rode Gatsby at broomfield. After this lesson I was taken ill and put in to hospital and by the time I went back to Broomfield Gatsby was gone but I was told he was coming back. So I waited til September but he still wasn't back his stable was just empty, no horse was in it. During this lesson ...

Hey y'all So today its been my interview for De Montford University at Leicester, I was really looking forward to it even though I knew it wasn't were I wanted to go in the end, but I really wanted to look around and almost use it as a practice interview for the two interviews at Derby on Monday. The tour around the university was long and painful, it lasted for about an hour, and we walked everywhere on the campus including seeing the gym, swimming pool, showrooms for the apartments on Campus and the Student Union. It was then time for a talk on the photography course about what you learn about in each year, and then we saw some of the students works some of them where about it odd but I think that doing any art type of course your going to have students that are a bit eccentric and weird, it's something I love about the 'art' type subjects because you can be unique and do something different. Then we got a tour around the photograph set up, it was an old buildi...

I know that I already posted today but I wanted to post about the first time that I ever met Gatsby, it was a friday and I had got time off school so after shopping mum took me up to broomfield college, I'd only wanted to see Tobias but when I was stroking him there was this gorgeous black horse tied up eating hay and kicking the side of the wall. The next time I went up I got a picture with Gatsby which I am so gutted about but unfortunately I haven't got anymore so gutted about that. That was when I decided that I wanted to ride him. My mum asked steph if i could ride Gatsby and the next week I got to ride him to say I was buzzing was an understatement. I got on him and I haven't looked back since. The first time I rode him we were doing a dressage test that I hadn't practiced, didn't know and was trying to remember, I could just feel the gorgeous trot and nice even canter that Gatsby had. we came 4th in that test and I honestly think that if it wasn't fo...

Well tomorrow I have got another university appointment except this one is going to be lasting all day so the decision is that I am taking my laptop with me as I could be waiting for ages to do an interview. As the interviews start at 2:00pm and go on to 5pm and we don't know whether or not I will be in the early part or the afternoon or what time, I have a feeling though that it will be towards the end of the day as my last name begins with a 'w' and I am going to assume that it will be done in alphabetical order, but that is the best guess that I have got. To get ready for tomorrow I had my nails done during lunch time and I love them, I had them done with Acrylic Extensions. Then i had a purple coloured tips with three white lines across the purple and the rest of the nail plain and natural there are pictures and I will put them at the end of this post. I just love having false nails, I think for me they are a confidence giver. By the way by the end of this post my ...