You know you are a horsey parent when....

- Your daughter complains her plaits are too tight. To be honest, she should be grateful you don't stitch them in. Oh, and while we are on the subject of hair, you call the detangler spray 'Mane and Tail'

- Instead of asking your children to do things, you command them. Also, when getting them to hurry up you say "trot on"

- You will quite happily, and casually talk about worming and de-licing your children.

- You think the key to happy, healthy children is plenty of food and decent turnout. Also, routine is important - for horses and children.

I'm sure I'm not the only one!

Two steps forward, one step back

The gelding and I went out on our first solo outing the other day.

This is HUGE for us. Last Saturday was the first time I had sat on the horse in around a year, and I hated every second of it! I was waiting for him to spook, and he was waiting for something to spook him!

My confidence is in tatters, has been since my accident over 6 years ago, and seems to be getting worse rather than better. I can cope on my mare, she looks after herself, even if she can be a bit of a tramp. Any other horse terrifies me. Unfortunately, the gelding now falls into this category.

I got a friend to come to the yard on Monday to just be there at talk to me while I rode, huge difference, felt a little bit more in control.

Roll on Wednesday and we head out in the trailer to a local show centre to have a lesson. I was apprehensive, but more comfortable knowing a competent instructor was there. The gelding was on his toes and my initial reaction to seeing him come off the trailer was "Oh Shit, I'm going to die" for he had grown several hands.

But, he was good as gold and tried so hard. We only walked and trotted but I felt we achieved so much.

Today I was really looking forward to riding him. He obviously didn't share my enthusiasm, as he had a right little foot stomping tantrum. I had been on him for about 10mins, doing some big loops in walk and just starting to do some trot, when we had a couple of mini spooks. I ignored these and kept quietly on. This is when he decided I was being completely unreasonable and he couldn't possibly trot anymore, so he planted and did his little rears (I say 'rear' but it was the front feet barely leaving the ground) and bunny hops with his back end. He was cross! Unfortunately he did a jink sideways and I bent my little finger back - ouch!

I carried on until he was doing as I asked, then got off and put him on the lunge for five minutes at the end of the school that he was fussing about - surprise, surprise, the monster had gone!

Letting him off a little today seemed like the best option, he probably is still feeling a bit stiff from our lesson and the travelling, and making him very cross would have been counter productive.

Blessing in disguise?

So, the kids are at school/preschool, I am not currently working, and housework is not what I would consider a pastime. What do I spend this new found 15hrs a week doing?

The horses! Yay! I have been waiting for this moment for about 6 years now. Biding my time, so I can finally get on with my youngster (now 12, and not keen on being told anything, thank you very much) and the retraining of my ex-racehorse.

The first couple of days I didn't do a lot, I was just trying to get back into some sort of routine, and I always think it can take a while to get into the swing of things. So I pottered, I enjoyed every moment of mucking out (properly!) in peace. Then, on Tuesday I got the mare nicely brushed, and took her in the arena for a loose lunge. She gets quite tight through her back and I have been trying to encourage her to stretch more. She can be a little 'gung-ho' on the lunge, but was actually pretty restrained this time. She lost her footing once or twice slightly, but the surface isn't wonderful in there at the moment. When I brought her back in I see she has pulled a huge piece of hoof wall off. Fuck! This is typical, fucking, bollocksing typical. I could have cried to be honest. But instead I dry poulticed it, and phoned the Farrier.

Now, the 'blessing' is that I wanted to get going with my other horse. Here is my opportunity......

I'm Free!

Well, for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week.

The kids have gone back to school. By 'back' I mean the girl has gone back to school, and the boy has started preschool. This means that from 8.45am til 11.45am I am child free.

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and the summer hols have been great (if a little long) I mean there was that time that the boy found a dead rabbit, 'found' being carried around, or the time he had to be bathed in a bucket at the yard after a poo-cident, or the time that he walked into an electric fence (twice) with wet trousers on (I know) The girl on the other hand is an incredibly easy child, and had a relatively incident free holiday. She is glad to be back though.

I am proud of the fact my children seem confident and independent. Not once have I had tears at the school gates (I appreciate that could easily come back to bite me on the arse) but when so many kids are crying (or pretending to - I saw you, you little sod) and my kids practically run into school without a backward glance, I do feel a little insulted. But then I realise I am practically running out of the gates I suppose it is pretty fair!

Start of the holidays!

Today is the first day of the summer holidays. Half of me is looking forward to the next six weeks, while the other half is dreading it!

On the one hand there are lots of days out to be had, not constrained by school times, I get to see more of the girl, our week away camping in Wales, the boy's 3rd birthday and party, catching up with family, and possibly some fairly nice weather.

On the other hand, I am likely to have less time to ride, will spend too much money, have kids squabbling, the house will look even more like a bombsite, and too much time will be spent in front of the telly instead of doing wholesome family activities.

At this moment in time I am feeling a bit hard done by, having had a stressful day yesterday and feeling like my family very much take me for granted. This is not helping me get up this morning! So I am possibly looking at the holidays with slightly more dread than enthusiasm today.

Too Hot!

Yes, I am one of 'those' people. I hate super hot weather. I holiday in the UK and don't feel the pull of foreign shores for hot weather in the middle of winter. I am more than happy with -5c as long as the sun is shining.

I like the sun, just not the heat. In fact, out of all the people I know, the only ones who really like the heat are those who don't have to work in it.

It is too hot for the kids, it is too hot to sleep, it is too hot to eat (ok, that one is a bonus) too hot to ride, too hot to muck out. Even the slightly bright side of being able to dry copious amounts of washing is balanced out by the fact that it dries crispy and it is like putting knickers made of sandpaper on in the morning.

I may be slightly more grumpy than usual due to the fact I have had a lot to do this week, and the hot weather has made me that much slower. There were times this week when I genuinely wished I didn't have horses. Low points this week have been trying to catch four escaped horses, dealing with bees and an enormous hay delivery necessitating unloading 90bales and having to clear out all the loose stuff from the shed.

But the forcast says we may have rain next week - I can hardly wait!

Car crash dressage

Today the mare and I went to dressage. It was possibly the worst dressage test I have done in my entire life, in fact I don't think I have even seen many as bad.

Thankfully it was short. After I had left the arena for the second time and pretty much been run away with in the second canter I decided to call it a day and retire.

This goes against everything I have ever learnt. I was always taught to stick it out to the bitter end, no matter what, but sometimes it is better to walk away. Especially when you are making a spectacle of yourself.

Here is where I think we went wrong/a list of all the cock ups (I do love a good list)

1) After the last outing with super relaxed mare, I assumed that she would behave the same (hahahahaha) and left myself around 30mins of working in time. Of course, 30mins is a schooling session at home, but need to almost double that when out and excited.

2) I should have sorted a new bit sooner. I used to ride her in a copper roller bit with cheeks, but of course it is not dressage legal. So, before our last outing I started riding her in the gelding's bit, which is a little big and a little chunky for her. But seeing as she was going 'ok' I kept putting off getting a new bit. I shall make a decision this week and get a new bit ordered.

3) It hadn't occurred to me that there would be so many flies out today, but they were horrendous. There were lots of large, but harmless, bugs crashing into everyone and everything, but also the dreaded Horseflies were out - dirty, blood sucking bastards! I really should have brought a sheet for the mare to wear while she was tied up to protect her a little.

4) I shouldn't have let all the above bother me!

Oh well, onwards and upwards (hopefully!)