An afternoon off - well, sort of....

DS (Darling Son) has fallen asleep on the sofa. This is not ideal really, as I do need him to sleep in the car so I can get the horses done, but I intend to make the most of this afternoon all the same.

I should really do some housework as my super tidy friend is coming over tomorrow morning. I should at least attack the laundry pile and unload the dishy, but I very rarely get an afternoon 'off' so I am going to enjoy every moment!

This means 2hrs of Midsommer Murders, my laptop and my special dip in the sofa. The only thing missing is cake...

The Horse Ideal

When people think about horses/riding/horse riders, everyone has a different picture in their head. For some it may be racehorses, or riding school ponies. Smelly, scruffy girls from the local riding school or snooty toffs in shiny boots with a penchant for whips and spurs (for anyone who has seen the cover of Riders by Jilly Cooper!)

The same applies to horsecare. Some people have muddy horses living out wearing no rug, and some have horses up to their armpits in pristine bedding, wearing four rugs and a lycra hood. There are also many inbetween. To be honest, there is no real right or wrong way as long as you follow some basic care guidelines.

The majority of horse owners do not have pots of money, a beautiful house with stables and paddocks, a groom or a super shiny horsebox. Most of us do it as cheaply as possible! (although I am sure I am not the only one who dreams of all this!)

My horses are stabled at night on a deep littered straw bed, they go out for a couple of hours each day (more in the summer, less in bad weather) they are rugged, but due to the fact I have to rely on other people for turning out, the top rugs are always turnout rugs and do not get changed for going out/staying in. I have to balance out what is best for the horses, best for us (children, financial etc) what is sensible and meet somewhere inbetween. They are at a small livery yard, about 8mins drive away, and even though it is not far, if I were to go twice a day every day it would seriously eat into the day and for me it would make having horses and small children a near impossibility.

I would like to be able to be the one who feeds my horses their breakfast in the morning, to be the last one to check they are tucked up at night with a huge haynet and a clean bed, but sadly it is not possible at this moment in time. I would like to be able to go out competing every weekend, and to schooling sessions and clinics, but as it is I have to be content with a handful of outings each year.

I used to feel guilty that my horses are wasted with me, especially the mare, seeing as the gelding is a retired flat racehorse, and has earned a retirement. But actually, what horse wouldn't love doing as little as possible, eating their heads off and being a little bit fussed over with the odd day out? Sounds pretty good to me!

The Winter Blues

I am feeling very 'meh' at the moment. Everything feels like such an effort. The kids are annoying the hell out of me, I feel resentful about having to do the horses everyday with very little help and no company and DH is being a grumpy bugger.

When I think about it, I feel like this at almost exactly the same point every year. It is at the point when the novelty of winter has well and truly worn off, the horses and children are getting badly behaved from lack of exercise, and quite honestly I am sick of feeling 'weathered'. My hair constantly looks like a birds nest, my skin is dry and grey, my hands crack at the slightest movement and I am able to hide all my extra weight under huge jumpers, which doesn't give me much of an incentive to lose it.

I want some decent sunshine. I want to be able to have the windows open without freezing, to be able to hang the washing out on the line instead of all over the house. I want to enjoy spending the afternoons at the yard just pottering about without freezing my arse off or the children getting cold and grumpy.

And the extra daylight! All that extra lovely daylight to spend doing things instead of sat under a blanket eating chocolate.

I am so over Winter now!

Snow

I am cosied up at home waiting for it to snow. I actually like snow, despite it not being very practical for someone who has to go outside and do things every day. I like the fact that it is a 'free' day. A day when I can do the bare minium and not feel guilty about it.

I have already planned on getting the sledge out tomorrow once the horses are done. For the children you understand.

Taking your children out to play in the snow definitely ticks some Good Mummy boxes (it is fun too!) as long as you take 20 pairs of spare gloves with you and have hot Ribena and crumpets on standby for when you get home.

Fingers crossed for a decent amount of snow, and being glad I bought plenty of carrots today for snowman noses.

Christie has a Trailer, Hip, Hip, Hooray

Christie has a trailer and is coming out to play! (hopefully)

Eeeeek!!!!!!! It is so damn exciting to finally have some horse transport. We will, as of the weekend be the proud owners of a (used) Ifor Williams horse trailer.

It has not been easy. My mare has issues with travelling in a trailer. She is fine to load, doesn't even get worked up, but if she feels she can't get comfortable she will just sit down, or in the case of my friend's trailer, bend the partition so it is a better fit the old trollop

So as a horsebox is out of the question financially, I have been researching different trailers, I have been dreaming about trailers and quite frankly my non-horsey friends are bored stiff of me talking about trailers (and even, on one occasion showing my friend some pictures - poor woman!)

We thought we might like an Equi-Trek trailer, but were sure it might be tricky to find a decent one in our price range, plus there were rumours about problems to insure due to their desirability.

I was very taken with the Fautras Oblique 2 trailer, but again, out of our price range.

I then looked at every single make and model of trailer to see how wide they were, what sort of partitions they had if they came in a rear facing option.

We decided to go to a local trailer dealer and have a look at what he had. We have come home with (well, technically, will pick it up at the weekend) an Ifor Williams 505 in blue (sooooo pretty) with the view that actually, if the mare doesn't get on with it, at least they are easy to sell!

The only question now is where to first?!

Finally! Something to ease some of that maternal guilt...

It has been in the news the last couple of days that vitamin D deficiency is on the rise. There has been some speculation over why. Overuse of high factor suncream? Children spending too much time indoors?

Finally, something to make me feel like dragging my kids up to the yard very day is actually in their best interests, rather than mine. I am not being selfish trying to keep some part of me pre-children alive, oh no, I am actually just making sure they get plenty of vitamin D. It is obvious really.

It is just slightly unfortunate that there are so many other things to feel guilty about. Oh well....

Nothing of Interest

Just some general witterings really, about things that are bothering me.

I seem to have been really busy lately, and yet I have no idea what I have been doing. My house is not very clean, so it certainly hasn't been housework taking up my time. It is not the school holidays, so it is not a change in routine. I certainly haven't really been anywhere exciting (well, unless you count a very un-mumish night out resulting in getting home from the local dodgy nightclub at 3am <ahem> ) so the only conclusion is that either I am getting slower or the days are shrinking. There are no other explanations, I expect it is the first though sadly. And yet, January seems to be taking forever, is January actually 4months long?

I am still waiting for our winter too. What has happened? I seem to have been cold an awful lot, and got wet on too many occasions, but somehow there has not been a proper winter.

I also seem to have lost my baking mojo, which is a sorry state of affairs indeed. Somehow I have not managed to lose weight though....