The way to heaven is on horseback

I don't think it is going to be a late night for me tonight as I am just completely and utterly shattered and I haven't done anything to make me feel this tired, I think that the problem is my Art Teacher, mentally I am completely on edge wondering what he is going to do next, especially with tomorrow being the Art Deadline and I think that that is what is making me feel so completely and utterly tired, but hey-ho life goes on. Today I have been doing some more horse work, as you all know i do art and I learn best by using bright colours, and drawings, so today I decided to do a drawing of the Gastrointestinal tract, I still can't spell it so I am hoping that's right. On one of the slide shows on the Lecture there was a diagram of a cartoon horse and then inside the horse you could see all the parts of the tract so I went on Google and managed to find the same picture and then I copied the picture coming up with this:- You can see my face peeping round the noteboo...

This time last year I hadn't started writing a blog, I just simply didn't have the time for a blog, I had made one, but never bothered with it in fact i can't even remember what it's called or the password for it or anything! A year ago I was extremely stressed out as this was the final week for my art Unit One and then it was time for the Exam Paper to come out. Well not so this year, my art journey has been filled with ups and downs and a subject that I used to love, I now spend a lot of time hating but I think this is because of my Art Teacher. See my art teacher has to have everything his way and if it's not all his way then he gets grumpy. Earlier this year he was told that he was pushing me to hard and it was making me feel ill, I was over working myself and leaving no other time for any of my other subjects and because of this my Exam Results suffered a lot. Well I have decided that this is simply not going to be the case this year, yes I want a good grade, ...

There has been some horse related things going on today but no horse time until Saturday. Today I got up and did some Art work so I am hoping that my art teacher is going to be happy this week and manage to not complain at me, but knowing him he will still find a way to complain at me, but that is something that I am used to now.  Then I did some work on my Equine Nutrition course, I was mainly just writing notes, but I just found it all so fascinating, I really do, I'm looking forward to getting involved in discussions to do with it and just learning more about an animal that we all love, I' keep looking on the discussion forum. I think I am also going to take L.Williams advice and look on the website and see what other courses that I could do, I am hoping there will be something photographic on there as you all know that I want to start a photography business and also I am doing a university photography course but any little bits of advice that I can get to help with tha...

So today I got en email saying that I was starting the course and could log on to check what was going to be happening in the first week! Well I was that excited that I just decided to watch the first video, I learn better by taking notes while people are talking and three and a bit pages letter after an 8 and a half minute video, I was even more excited. The course I am finding so interesting and I just want to learn more, It's like my brain is a sponge that is absorbing everything. I can't wait to be able to learn all these new things and then be able to put them in to action. I also find it so odd or maybe Ironic is the better word that i started off doing a series for this blog on 'How the horse works' and then a few weeks later a course about Equine Nutrition appears for free. At the minute it seems like luck is on my side and things are just falling into place. Today I haven't really done much after two massive branches fell down at an old couples house a...

Today I got to work with two different horses, but in total we used four horses. The snow came thick and heavy last night, and at one point riding wasn't an option. The roads were full of snow, you couldn't drive on them and it was just getting worse. This morning mum text my teacher, Fiona, to ask if the lesson was still on and it was, as long as we could get there and mums new car did get us there without complaining about the snow although the roads were no where near being clear. When we got there I had 40 minutes to play with Gatsby and groom him and it felt weird to groom him with hardly any mud on but it was fun, and he was being playful including letting me stroke his ears which is something he used to love but something he now HATES! He didn't like it but he let me do it and because he did that he got rewarded with lots of Carrots! He was a happy boy after that :'). Then I tacked him up only putting on his boots and borrowing Elaine's horse, Soloman...

After the day I have had today the song 'Dancing Queen' by Abba seems to fit quite nicely with my day. This afternoon mums car came back, they had removed the 'third pedal/second accelerator' and they had also taken all the loose cabling stopping it from messing around with the radio which should mean that the Radio and central panel won't have any more problems with them. The car was supposed to be back for 10am so that we could do all the jobs in it at once fill it up with petrol and do the shopping, but mum got told that we wouldn't have her car back til 1pm and then it became 1:30 they might make they're mind up one day, and actually stick with it. So this meant that this morning we went to do the shopping and then later in the afternoon we went to fill the car up with petrol making what should have been one trip became two trips.  We then decided to wash both my mum and dads car so that the grit and salt that has been on the road does not effect th...

Well while I am trying to think of a post title, I thought I would start writing my post and thinking about something that was catchy that I could put as a post title. So what have I done today? Well after the car accident during the summer, my mum had to see Professor Angus Wallace who has dealt with the complicated history that is my mums shoulder. None of her muscles work the way that a 'normal' persons do. We saw him and he gave us the good news that nothing in her shoulder needs re-operating on. We then did some jobs and came home and I was going to put some posters up but never really got round to it. I felt too tired as for some reason all day I have just wanted to fall asleep. We then went 'swimming' but never did any swimming and instead just decided to chill out in the steam room and the jacuzzi which is my personal favourite, I could spend hours in there but it wasn't as hot as normal today. But I haven't really done anything that is exciting tha...

Well as some of you will know mum wasn't happy in her old car after two accidents one that included a lorry driving into the side of my mums car with my mum, my sister, my nephew, and I in the car. So her and my dad decided it was time for a new car so mum started looking on the internet and decided that she quite liked Nissan. To start with she liked the X-trail but soon decided that she preferred the Nissan QashQai (I swear that's hard to spell). So the day after she had found one we liked we drove up to check it out and make sure she really liked it  and she did, so a week ago (just before all the snow came) my mum, brother and I drove up to fetch it and it is such a comfy car and the plus side Mum's going to be able to pull a horse trailer but we will come to that later. Mum decided that with my brother being a huge bike fan and taking his £2000 bike everywhere, as well as mum needing to take his mates and their bikes places, that she was going to get a bike rack, ...

Well guy's there is nothing horse related going on, but I can say that I am really missing my horse time and I can't wait to see my favourite horse again as well as all the other horses! But I have been spending some time doing some photo edits, so I thought that I would share some of the edits that I have done with you.  What else have got to say? Not a lot really, mum got a text off Fiona yesterday and she said if the weather is still like it is then on Saturday we would have some grooming time, unmounted workshops and possibly some lunging which I am major excited about as I have always wanted to and just never had the chance. Also I have been invited to a party that the owner of Star the shetland pony is throwing to say thank you to everyone for spending hours out searching looking for Star, and of course he will be there too, so I will finally get to meet the little Shetland that has captured everyones hear.  Tomorrow I will tell you all about the major...

Well I thought I would blog about this now, even though it is earlier in the day than I would normally sit down to write a post. Every couple of days I get a horse and hound newslettter, this tells me about all the latest things that are going on in the Equine world and I read something that sounded really interesting to me and something that I thought would help with me wanting to own my own horse this year. The thing that interested me was the chance to do a Five week 100% free UNIVERSITY course based on Equine Nutrition.   I asked my mum what she thought about this and she said 'no knowledge is useless knowledge' and that if I wanted to do it, it would be useful and would come in handy in the future so today I signed up for it. Oh did I mention that is online and will only take up three to four hours a week? I think that is something that most people can say is extremely useful and helpful and I am really looking forward to doing it.  So for any of you fell...

Today began day four of the poor miniature shetland star being missing, so me and my best mate Evie who had stopped at mine last night decided to head out again to look for him, we spent two hours walking from way he had last been seen and were rather disheartened to find nothing, with the weather as it was last night (Heavy snow) and no sightings of Star things were not looking good. But today against all odds star proved that he was a fighter and returned home to his family. He had run down an alley way near his home and got trapped under a tree, so he was staying sheltered but couldn't get out, his owner went out knocking door to door, and was told that they had heard an odd neighing sound coming from down the alley way. Heidi rushed down the alley way to find a very cold star who had lost a lot of weight over the four days but other than that wasn't harmed at all, she rushed him home to wrap him up in blankets and gave him access to plenty of food. It looks like someone wa...

Today I spent two hours meeting up with the locals to try and bring Star home, He is a 32 inch (height) Miniature shetland pony that has severe skin problems and is used to living in doors because of it's size so is Not used to the cold without at least 3 rugs on. Unfortunately the pony has no rugs on, but has got on blinkers and miniature driving harness and is pulling a blue sledge unless this has come off anywhere. We searched through fields, Privet property, cricket courses and golf course and found nothing, there was no marking, no poo or anything to let us know that he is still in the area. A reward has now been offered to anyone that manages to get Star back to his home and family, and his medication as it can be fatal if he does not take this as he has severe skin issues, he is distinctive as half of his mane is missing. We are all extremely worried as the night that he went missing he was hit by a van, that didn't even stop to tell the owner. We all hope that this lit...

Any one in the Derby Area can you please keep out for a black Miniature Pony, He's from smalley and was last seen at the smalley cross road on the way to derby but know one know's which way he went after that! There's search groups out today and it is going to be in newspapers and on the news but the most important thing is that we manage to get this little pony home safely to his family that are really missing. He is roughly 30 inches tall I think and was last seen with blinkers and a driving harness on, like in the picture that you will see below. He also had a blue slay attached to him. He is tiny and could be anywhere even in someones back yard, the family are really worried about him and don't even know if someone has seen him out and taken him and planning to sell him. EVERYONE CAN YOU PLEASE COPY THIS AND LET AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS SO THAT WE CAN GET HIM HOME SAFE!!! If you can go out and live locally then please do even in this horrible weather, ...

Well so far there has been no Gatsby time :( this is one of the main reasons why I hate snow because there might not even be any Gatsby time this weekend, as where I ride now we haven't got an indoor school yet :( but hopefully that is going to come some time this year, making the winter days a little easier to ride in. So today i put a BBM status that I was going to be gutted if it snowed much more cause i wouldn't be able to ride then I went on facebook and found i was tagged in a picture and thought ohh  this is weird only to find someone had put a picture of Gatsby on for my to ride.  Gatsby says hello hope your enjoying the snow I know for a fact my feet don't like this horrible white stuff. Tomorrows post will be longer but tonight I am really tired and just want to curl up and sleep, which is odd because I got a lot of sleep last night/this morning. Tomorrow I have a hospital appointment, and as long as we can get there and its not cancelled because it is snow...

What is it? It is not a disease but is an inappropriate behavioral pattern in horse, and can also be called 'Sterotypic Behavior'. Like humans animals can exhibit Obsessive compulsive behavior, that is non-lethal but can still be destructive, well horses to exhibit repitition and habitual behavior, that can be difficult to control and stop. Cribbing is when a horse places his upper incisorts on a hard object e.g. a stall door, and sucks in large amounts of air. They make a gulping noise, and will repeat it. It's not related to nutritional disorders or any illness, but is linked to boredom or nerves. This is more annoying than it is an actual illness, however it can lead to superficial health issues e.g. enlargement of the throat muscles. It can also be mistake for wind sucking. As the horse cribs the arch in the horses neck causes the horse to swallow air. Symptoms? Teeth marks can normally be found on a stable door, or any other wood pieces. Top fr...

Well seen as there is nothing going on for me in the horse world today I thought that I would do the blog hop now, and probably a smaller post later just about my day in general, random thoughts you know the normal kind of thing that I tend to do. So while I was reading some blogs I noticed that Equestrian At Hart and Viva Carlos had done a blog hop that had been started by Collegial Equestrian and thought why not I might as well join in too soo here goes.   So here goes the theme is Share a memory from:  The first horse experience that you can remember.  Your first 'aha' moment - when something really clicked for you as a rider. Entering the Ring. Could be your first show, or another time when simply entering the arena could be considered a 'debut' of sorts.   Here are my answers:- The first horse experience that I can remember, was seeing horses and always wanting to stroke them and getting my mum to pull over at the side of the road next...

well today I finally started my own business it is called 'Rosamber Photography' and is aimed mainly towards Equine and Pet photography in my local area. A couple of days ago I made a logo for my company and was contemplating buying a domain name but the price put me off (until mum said you wouldn't say no if I was paying for it to which I said yes please' who knows what else is to come). I then created a Price list and made a website through a blog. This contains prices, what I do and who I am and why I want to do photography.  So above is my logo it is a mix of two of my names Amber and Rose, originally I had wanted to do 'AmberRose' but surprise it was taken so my um came up with this name and once I had got that I came up with the logo so what do you guys think? If this works my weekends are about to become really busy but it won't mean my hour and a half with Gatsby gets cancelled that is NOT going to happen. Not much else has really happened tod...

What is it?  Swamp Fever is a horse disease that is caused by blood sucking insects. The virus is a lentivirus, much like HIV to the human. Swamp fever can be treated through blood, saliva, milk, and body secretions. However the infection is mainly given by biting flies e.g. a horse fly. The virus survives up to four hours in the carrier. Mares can also transmit the disease to their foals. The biggest risk of transmitting the disease is when the horse is ill, as the blood levels of the virus are at theie all time highest. Stages  Acute This form is the sudden onset of the disease at full force. The symptoms will include high fever, anemia, weakness, swelling of the lower abdomen and legs, weak pulse and an irregular heartbeat. The horse can also die suddenly  Subacute . This is slower, and has a less severe progression of getting the disease. The symptoms include recurrent fever, weight loss, an enlarged spleen, anemia and swelling of the lower chest, as wel...

Well Last night, I walked out the door with my mum to go and fetch my brother and said 'at least it hasn't started snowing yet' then I looked outside and went 'Damn I spoke to early at this time it was only very small almost pea size snow flakes that were coming down but they were starting to settle, my first thought was oh no here comes the Hazard zone, it might sound mad but me and snow DO NOT go together at all. Two years ago on the first day of it being snowy, I managed to fall over and break my hand and damn was it painful, I was soooo annoyed, and ever since then I just haven't liked snow, it causes too much of a hazard to me. However I do think that snow looks pretty, the snow kept coming all night and settled, cancelling my plans to go out with friends today as the roads were to icy and not what we are used to.  Then when we were watching Morning TV it got me really thinking, any other country when it snows they keep going, and don't come to a compl...

Here are the photographs from our lesson :D Trotting Gatsby with Longer reins to warm up I just like this photo Impatient Gatsby is showing his face, think he wants people to hurry up. Shoulder in Gatsby says 'no to lateral and go to forward.' Sitting Trot work. More Lateral work but in sitting I think that says it all. Just Chilling with Gatsby, One Happy looking Pony.  Okay so here is a sneak peak at one of my video's this one is just trot work and I will be putting another video up tomorrow that includes the trot to canter transitions and a very nice walk to canter transition that Gatsby decided that he liked and wanted to do. So proud of how far this horses come and so happy to have been a part of it! The changes in this horse are amazing, and he just seems so happy these days, but on to the video:  Until Next Time A Girl With A Dream.

Sorry guys, the past two days have been quite busy. Friday I ordered my first thing for uni and that was a new Kipling Bag, I love those bags and think that they just last for a really long time as well as being practical, and looking good which is always important and another good thing about this bag is the fact that it was on offer! EEPPPPP!  This is the bag and of course it is in pink, because by now I am sure that you will all have guessed that my favourite colour is pink. I then went to my local youth group on friday night and had originally planned on updating my blog when I got in however my best friend Evie asked if I could stop at hers for the night as she wanted me to help pick a song for her Baptism, needless to say we never got round to it, maybe next time we will actually remember instead we put some films on and curled up with her dogs. We then couldn't stop laughing because we decided that we wanted to watch Catwoman and every single time that a cat meowed ...

First of all something beautiful is the topic. Something that I find beautiful is animals in general not just horses but all animals. and I did a GCSE topic based on this as well as an AS topic based on this to do with wild animals. so here are some pictures of Animals that I have taken of the years. My dog on Christmas Eve. Hidden Otter can you find it  And I have a huge thing about Leopards

Today was my day for my retake of my AS textiles Exam and I went in feeling confident about it, I had revised a lot this time I knew my stuff and I was ready for whatever was going to come up. I was sitting right at the back of the hall, which i preferred and there wasn't that many people, that were doing other exams, well other than my entire textiles class that was retaking the exam. The first section was really easy and was on fibre's which I had been revising with my mum whilst washing my hair after we had been swimming. The next section that we had to answer was to do with environmental and ethical issues, I also found this quite simple, although with having broken my right hand twice, my hand was really starting to hurt by this point, but I just ignored it and got on with doing my paper that was the important thing. Then the final section was to do with what fibre blends, fabrics, embellishments and fastenings make for a good school skirt, we then had to judge between tw...

What is it?  Colic is a word used to describe abdominal pain, it can initially indicate that there is a problem with the gut but it could also be other organs that are contained within the abdomen. There are so many different causes for the it can range from something as simple as the horse isn't digesting it's good but could be as complicated as a twisted gut. The main thing to remember is that prevention is essential, the risk of a horse getting it can be reduced by simple management techniques but it can never truly be eliminated.  Causes?  As well as obvious general changes in a horses temperament a horse with colic can also show other signs. Here are the signs that a horse might have colic, restlessness and pawing at the ground, sweating and an increased heart rate when there is no apparent reason for it. Trying to kick at the stomach because it is irritating them, going as if to urinate but not being able to. Attempting to roll and an elevated pulse rate. ...

Today is the day before my textiles retake exam that I told you guys about earlier in the year. In the lesson today we decided that it would be beneficial to do a past paper as this would get us used to the layout and the set up of the questions. We decided that we also wanted to get a feel for how the paper was marked so we did one question and then had to mark it. I think that I marked it fairly and i even had to get my mum to recount my marks because I was surprised when I got 50 marks this was a B, we can safely say that it is an improvement from the last textiles mark that was a U. After this we were supposed to have English, well that didn't happen only three of the people turned up for the lesson so we got sent away to do some revision as I had spent all of lunch revising I decided that it was time to just relax and chill out! So went to the sixth form centre, and sat with some mates and while they played chase, I got my diary out and wrote the majority of the important...