The way to heaven is on horseback

 Todays plans had a few changes in them but they were all for the best. As you will know I had a great time jumping Gatsby yesterday but I was knackered by the time I got in bed, I got in bed at 8 and went to sleep within about 5 minutes and slept through until about 10ish. When I got up mum told me that there was going to be a change of plans, instead of getting to the stables for 12:30 I got to the stables for 11:30. Fiona said that she would explain when we got there and when she did explain it made a lot more sense. With only having Gatsby and Rocky that we can use I was going to ride Gatsby early on my own and do some jumping I was all for this. In stead of riding for an hour I rode for 45 minutes but it was more consistent work and I wasn't being as lazy as I tend to be, I was working harder and trying to build my stamina up.  I got Gatsby ready to get on him at 12:15, we started warming him up and making sure that from the beginning he is active. Fiona told me not ...

I love jumping and I've only recently realised it. I bet nobody saw that coming! Ever since I was little I had this image in my head of being able to get on and jump without having a care in the world and now I feel like I can do that!  Today was the last day of the summer holiday, it seems like this whole holiday has gone so fast and soon I'm going to be at Uni and back to being at the Stables less but I will still be there come rain, snow and sunshine! This morning we mucked out the stables and I put Gatsby some new bedding down I love the pelleted bedding that we use and being able to watch it expand. The morning seemed to fly by so fast, I did Gatsby and Fussy's stables, I was so proud of my bedding in Fussy's stable, I know that sounds silly but it was the best I'd ever got it, the banks looked good and it made me want to lie in it myself! When it got to lunch time Fiona told us that we were all going to have half an hour lesson on our own! My mind instant...

 After receiving my iMac this morning. My mum and I were sitting in my room when my dad asked if I would like to go for a walk. So we went on the same work that we went on yesterday. It really is a lovely walk and the great thing about is that it is underneath a canopy (not sure of that's the right word) of trees, so even when the sun is shining it never gets too hot. We have decided that we think that the walk is about 30-40 minutes long and is between 1 and 2 miles, The animals were all out in the fields again but I forgot to get any photographs for you guys.  When we had finished the walk we sat talking for a while before I drove my dad to the hospital for him to get some blood tests done. Then we drove back and I spent some more time chilling getting to know my mac a bit more. I can not wait to start University, I'm going to learn so much and be able to build on skills that I already have. As well as develop knew skills, I love the fact that by doing a foundation year...

This morning I had to be up nice and early for the installation and delivery of my Mac. As you all probably know I have a macbook Air, that I purchased because it was light weight and usable but also because it was going to be good for photography. Then when I started applying for Uni I realised that realistically the screen was going to be too small for me to be able to edit photographs properly.  So when it came to being accepted at University I then had to go for Interviews to do with Disability Allowance because of my long term chronic stomach pain, and through this it was decided that I would be able to get an iMac and software for it (for example a dictating software and planning software) as well as an olympus recorder so that I could record the lectures then be able to put them on my computer and take out of them the most important things. All of this was to be able to help me study better and improve my revision strategies and things like this. So this morning when it...

If you haven't already then head over to She Moved To Texas where you will find her competition ! Her blogs fun to read and she is currently doing a series on Photography. The winner will receive a Horze Halter, so head over and check it out now :).  Today I haven't really done a lot, I managed to sleep better last night so wasn't feeling as tired today, my Dad and I even got around to taking our dog for a walk. It's a nice walk that we discovered about a year ago and the best part is that the majority of it is off the road! I will have to take my camera one day so that you guys can enjoy the view to!  Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream 

I would like to say hi to all my new followers and say thanks for stopping by and following me. I would also like to ask if theres anything new followers and old followers would like to see more of on my blog. Obviously there will still be my riding diary and recording going on. But as I am starting Uni in September I would like to know if you guys would like to here about the adventure that I am about to begin! :)  Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream 

Today has been a relatively simple day, although at the same time it has been a completely exhausting day! I woke up in time to get dressed have some toast and go out the door to be at the yard for 8am this morning. When we got there we turned all the horses out and got to work on mucking out, I was going a lot slower than normal because I think I've pulled the muscle in my left leg so putting pressure on it is either completely fine or a nightmare. When we had got all the stables mucked out and some of them had their haynets put in, we decided it was time for a cup of tea! Fiona arrived to say hi with Daniel while we were drinking our tea and as they were leaving we decided to move on to doing the rest of the haynets. Well Elaine walked towards the hay barn only to find that in the middle of the Hay Barn was Sam! Sam had managed to get in and was standing munching on they hay, what can I say he's a horse with character? When Elaine went to take him out of the barn he then dec...

Yesterday was the pony club in hand and best turn out show. When we got there Fiona had already chosen the horse and person combinations, and I was quite surprised but looking forward to having Sam. Sam's one of the newer ponys at the stables. We had an hour and a half to brush and groom them however we wanted to we could bath them if we wanted to, so I set to work going all over his body with a brush first. I knew from the beginning that I could not do his mane and tale because his Mane used to be hogged and is only just starting to be grown back (where he was before hogged him because he had sweet itch). His tale I think at some point had been pulled but I think that he has been rubbing it as well, so that meant that plaiting him was out of the question but I was okay with that. Instead I spent some time trying to get his white socks clean and then I washed his tale. I liked doing this although Sam didn't always like it but we got there in the end. I then went over his tale ...

Yesterday I had my weekly riding lesson, I already knew that I was going to be jumping because Fiona had told me so the day before.  When I got on we spent a shorter amount of time working with my stirrups at my flat length (during the warm up and a small amount of trot) before putting them up three holes for my jump length. The first thing I noticed was that my ankles were going to ache and so was my hip and while I was nervous I was looking forward to jumping Gatsby. While I was doing some trot work with Gatsby Fiona and Steph (a lady that's going to be there most Saturdays that Fiona is teaching to do her BHS IA, I think!) set up to sets of trot poles one down each side. One had four poles and the other had three poles and was set up with the jump wings on each side. We went over the jumps a couple of times just doing rising trot then moved on to moving in to my jump seat. When I felt confident doing this Fiona asked if I was happy to move up to jumping, which I was. We sta...

Sorry for not posting the past few days there's just not been a lot going on until today. This afternoon I went up at 1pm to my stables to see how the back person works with horses it fascinates me and I loved being able to watch it. Seeing how different things all move together, not the best description but I can't think of the right words! The original plan was that I would go home at 3, but instead I got more horse time! Fiona and Elaine said that I could go with them to look at a horse, so that was really fun because it's not something that I've ever really done before. It was an interesting experience, and Clyde was a sweet horse but wasn't the right horse for Elaine. But I really enjoyed the experience it helped me with kind of knowing where I need to go in the future.  When we got back to the yard, the bedding had been delivered so I helped Elaine to move some of the bags of bedding. Then Fiona said that while she was riding Vettie that I could ride Gats...

So for a while I've been wanting to do a post that is more for me than anyone else. This post is about the money I spend on riding and also things that I will need in the future.  Every year I spend £1080 on riding lessons (one lesson every week of the year). I then also do Pony Club on a Monday night a year's worth of Pony Club (one meeting a week, every week of the year) would be £520. So thats £1600, this doesn't include any of the own a pony day's or extra activities that I do. I am so lucky to have a family that supports my riding life style and definitely think that it is more a life style than a Hobby.  Now on to things that I would like or need in my riding future. The first thing on the list is a new riding Hat that I can then use for competition, I've decided that I would like a black velvet one, as blacks the colour that I prefer. When looking on the internet I found two that I like. The first one is a Gatehouse Hickstead Velvet Riding Hat this c...

First of all  I would like to say that if you haven't already you should head over and read Slow and Steady wins the race . I love reading Amy's blog and the adventures that she has with Steady! Her blog is great fun and when she reaches 100 followers is going to hold a contest, so head over there now!  Today I went out and did some driving practice around the area that I a going to be doing my test, as it is less than a month until I will be doing my test! In fact I think that it is only two weeks away. Time seems to be flying past so fast at the minute. Before I went for my drive I helped my mum to trim our dog. We have a lovely Shih Tzu called Angel and when she was a puppy we first took her to someone who was a dog groomer and we ended up leaving with Angel half done so ever since then my mum has been trimming the dog, the only problem is Angel just doesn't like it. So we have to bribe her to sit nicely for mum to do the job. Then I've spent the rest of the aft...

Why is it when you think that you are going to do a dressage test, your brain freezes up, you can't think and you tense up? Well that was exactly what happened today. When we got there we all got given the tests that we would do I got to do a British Young Riders Dressage Scheme 'C Squad' test. This test included Walk, Trot, Canter, serpentines, 20m Circles and half 20m circles. We walked through our tests first and I noticed just how much canter work I would actually be doing and I think that this is the thing that I was most nervous about. When we had walked the test, we then tacked up the horses that we would be riding, we tacked up Gatsby, Rascal and Rocky. I rode Gatsby, JaimieLeigh rode Rascal and Mollie started off riding Rosie but then later switched to riding Rocky and JaimieLeigh got on Gatsby.  In walk all the horses was fine, Gatsby was active and stretching, he was responsive and listening well. Rascal and Rosie were also fine. JaimieLeigh and I are used t...

For a while when I've been reading some things recently I started playing with the idea that backwards to go forwards might make more sense than I initially thought so yesterday towards the end of my riding lesson we started playing with that. Not long after we did that I was able to get Gatsby in to an outline and forwards. I could really feel his hind quarters coming underneath him and there was power behind his trot.  When I first started working with him I got a really nice stretch and forward moving walk, from the beginning I wanted to make sure that he was responsive and listening to me. When I picked him up it took a bit more convincing but eventually I was able to move him up in to the outline, it wasn't as good as the lesson we had before but it was still there. The most important thing to me was that we were getting the outline more and more often. I remember a time when I got it once every few months now I'm getting it nearly every week and I love the feelin...

Today has been another day where I haven't done a lot but feel completely knackered. This morning I went up to the stables, it was windy and wet but we still had a really good time. It sounds odd but I love mucking out stables I find it therapeutic and relaxing. It didn't even bother me that it was cold and raining.  When I had finished there I helped my mum and uncle do the super market shopping. After that I went to visit my sister, nephew and her partner. It was nice because I haven't seen her in a while and Brody was really nice and loving. He was active and so funny, he was running all over the place keeping us all busy. He always makes me smile because he loves sharing.  Then tomorrow I am riding again, I just love my horse time!  Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream 

After not sleeping all night last night, and waking up constantly, I found out at about 7:30 this morning that I HAVE GOT IN to Uni. So in September I will be a full time commercial photography student at Derby University. I was so worried about my exams and not getting the results that I wanted to get but I did get them. Out of my two subjects my strongest subject was going to be textiles or so I thought, but I was wrong, in English which I was most stressed about I managed to get a B! When I was predicted an E. I worked so hard to do what I wanted to do and get where I wanted and it seems like it's finally paid off!  Until Next Time  A Girl With A Dream 

Today had been a day where I haven't done a lot but feel completely exhausted. This morning I woke up far too early for me, normally I sleep until later on but for some reason my brain had decided that this was not going to be the case today, so I got up and dressed and watched T.V. for a while. Around lunch time my brother and his friend got up and I drove them to the gym then I came home. Later on I went to pick them up from town and when I got in I took my dad for a drive. Now I LOVE driving but my Dad always said that he would only get in a car with me after I passed my test but this rule got ignored and he's been out with me twice and both times he gave me constructive criticism  that I think will help to improve my driving. It also helped because I was trying to get everything out so it was a bit like being on my driving test. When we got in the guy that was coming to look at our trees turned up (he only ended up being two and a half hours late). One of the trees tha...

This was the drawing that I did on Gatsby showing the bones that he has. I never knew that horses have 18 ribs that is a lot of ribs. It was super fun and I think the look on my face say sit all.  This drawing on Gatsby isn't as good but it shows all the different Muscles (or at least some of them). It was fascinating to see both the muscles and the bones moving when lunging Gatsby I loved it.  This morning I had my referral dentist appointment to do with pulling a tooth out. When we got there we had a long wait and lots of paper work to fill in. The person seemed really nice and the colour scheme was black and pink (this was the first thing that I noticed). The dentist agreed with the work that needs doing and did an x-ray while I was there however he did get confused when it came to my medical history because of  how complex it is. When I'd had the x-ray all that was left to do was book the appointment to have the sedation for the work to be done. Bare in mind ...

Today has been a long but fun day, filled with lots of horse time. At 2pm I got to my stables, armed with face paint as we were going to be painting all the bone structors on the horses, this is something that has always fascinated me and I loved learning more about. When we first got there we went out to the fields to bring in Gatsby and Rascal, as well as Big Rocky and Soloman. Fiona gave us some sheets showing where the bones where on the horse and also more information about the muscles. I haven't fully read the sheets yet but found them really interesting (diagrams were really helpful). Before she unleashed us on to the horses on our own, she bought Solie out of his stable and showed us how to draw the parts on to the horse. For the next hour I spent time drawing all the bones on and then because I finished early on Gatsby's other side I drew on his muscles, this was a little bit more confusing but at the same time fascinating. I really enjoyed doing it and found it so he...

At the end of my ride Fiona asked me what I had changed to get Gatsby going as well as he was doing, I said that the main thing was that I was sitting properly and in the right position everything was where it was supposed to be. I then mentioned that on Broomfield's Facebook page that they would be doing the winter league dressage again and I wanted to know in my mind if it was something that I could do, if I was able to get Gatsby working in an outline and also if I could keep him going in the outline. There is now a possibility that I might be taking Gatsby to Broomfield to do some of the winter league competitions but I needed to find out dates. So last night I sent a Facebook message to Steph who's in charge of the competitions and she told me that in September she will start accepting entries and then in October the Competitions will be starting.  Today has been another chilled out day. I didn't manage to get to sleep until 2am this morning, so had a lie in this ...

Today was a really good day at the stables, when I got there like normal I spent some time hugging and grooming Gatsby. When I got on the thing that I had to make sure that I was doing from the start was moving my hips and not restricting the movement. He was forward and so much more responsive, he was good to ride and you could see that he was listening and that was the best part.  When I asked him to move in to an outline he did it willingly and easily, it felt so nice to be able to do it without having to over think it. Fiona commented saying that we were doing well and to ask for more. I knew I could push him for more but I didn't know how much more I could push him. The moment I started to push him more it felt amazing, it was so easy to do and I realised that the key to getting it easier was to drop the weight down the back of my arms. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be but it was so effective, all though by the end of it my arms were starting to rea...

The past few days have been a little bit hectic. On Tuesday at the Bakewell Show Equestrian Day I had seen a black Bridle that had pink padding on the brow band and nose band and diamante on the brow band too. I LOVED it. On the day I was going to buy it, but the man on the stall was in the middle of a conversation and I didn't want to interrupt it so I decided that it didn't matter and I wouldn't get it. The next day I was kicking myself for not getting it, so when I went out with Dean and Sue they said they would take me to the shop to pick one up. Well when we got there we were told that they had no full bridles the only one they had got was pony. On and Off on Thursday Dean, Sue and I looked for another one that was similar and we just couldn't find one, so my mum said that it just wasn't the right time or place and I wasn't meant to have it. This made perfect sense to me and I do agree with it, one day I'll find one that was similar that day just wasn...

Yesterday I went to Bakewell County Show Equine Day it was the first year that they had done this show day and I was expecting it to be really good. It don't think that it lived up to my expectations for it but it was a good opportunity for me to practice doing my photography these are the shots that I am the happiest with so let me know what you guys think. Some of the shots towards the end have a blurred stripe along the bottom because of where the fence was, I wasn't quite tall enough to miss it!  I absolutely love this shot! It is a true action shot!  Until Next Time A Girl With A Dream

So as all of you know My Memories offered me the opportunity to host a give away that can be found here . I was also given a free copy of the software to review and tell you all what I thought of it, so here's my review.  My memories is super easy to use, it is compatible with both Mac and Windows (PC). When you first open up My Memories Suite V4 you get three options the first is to Create an Album from Designer Templates, Design Your Own and to browse more content online. You also have an area at the bottom that gives you the opportunity to open any recent albums that you have created. These are the three options that you will get when you open up My Memories Suite v4 and also the chance to open Recent Albums you have created.  If you open up the option to create an album from a designer template you will see another new window, this window gives you a list of all the different designs that you can use and if you click on one it shows an example of the album. Th...

For the first year Bakewell show decided that they would do an extra day before the show starts that is just equestrian things. In magazines this sounded really good but when I looked online there was hardly anything about it other than trade stands would be open, it was £5 and it was free parking. When we got there we found that the majority of the trading stands were closed and wouldn't open until tomorrow and that there wasn't a lot going on. We decided that if they do this day again it needs better advertising and it needs more life! There wasn't a huge amount of footfall, and there wasn't a lot going on in the arenas there was a bit of dressage when we first got there and then the only thing that was really going on was working hunter.  However it offered me a great opportunity to work on my photography skills, I was able to play around with the manual settings, decide whether I wanted my camera on continual shooting or not. I was also able to play around with...