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!)

Why we have wine

Yesterday was a bit of a bastard.

The girl had her first school trip, and so the usual morning madness was a little bit more mad than usual.

I had cake to make. I like making cake, but the boy is being a bit of a terror at the minute, so anything that takes me away from giving him full, undivided attention is not going to end well.

So yesterday went something like this:

Get up, rush around trying to get everyone and everything ready. Be ready to tear my hair out by about 8.30am.
School run.
Home, put telly on for the boy and rush off to ice cakes for the school fete, and to make cake for the yard (I had promised)
Try to clear icing sugar off every single surface and kitchen appliance, while keeping the boy's grubby little fingers off the cakes.
Give in and let him have a cake.
Play pretend food with the boy (this mostly involved tipping dry pasta onto the floor and cajoling/threatening/pleading with him to at least help me pick it up again (this didn't happen just the once)
Have lunch.
Argue with the boy over anything and everything.
Hope the boy may nap (we need a break from each other)
He doesn't.
We do the horses together.
He then trashes my car.
I no longer care.
The girl is back from her trip early due to bad weather, so rushing back to get her and drop cakes off for the fete.
The kids are happy and having a nice game (involving the dried pasta) so I decide to have a bath. I have been feeling a bit crappy, hope a nice hot bath will help.
Nearly get brained by a Gup-A (toy submarine, for those of you not familiar with the Octonauts) as the boy has come to help.
Get out of bath, take kids to pool where the girl has a swimming lesson. Boy behaves (mostly)
Go to Hell on Earth, also known as school fete. But at least they had a hog roast and a fire engine.
Get the kids home around 7pm, wonderful husband puts them to bed while I escape to the yard to finish the horses and ride.
9pm wine.

Pretty Productive

Despite my having clearly failed at Monday morning, I have not done too badly since. In fact, by my usual standards I have been rather productive.

I am naturally a procrastinator, so will put things off until the very last moment. Housework gets done in the hour or two leading up to having visitors, despite having known about it for a week or more. I will happily give the horses a day (or 5) off, only to be desperately trying to get enough work into them in the week leading up to a competition.

Which is where we are now. The mare and I are doing dressage on Sunday, and although it is not just down to my laziness us having to play catch up (her having been lame too) it is a familiar experience.

I'll often write lists (I love lists) but although that seems very organised, it is just a delay tactic. I can't possibly clean the bathroom and hoover the stairs if it is not on some kind of list first!

So, this week (bearing in mind it is only Tuesday lunchtime) I have:

Done the weeks meal plan and shopping.
Exercised both horses.
Tidied and hoovered the sitting room.
Done a horrendous amount of paperwork (bank stuff, been putting it off for weeks)
Taken the boy to playgroup.
Played tractors with the boy (yesterday) and playdoh (today)
Taken my posh riding boots to have zip replaced.
Cleared out the car.
Washed lots of horse coats that were getting musty in the car.

As well as the usual dinners, packed lunches etc.

Pretty Damn good I reckon!

Monday again

Monday comes around way too quickly.

In some ways I quite like Mondays, I feel it is an opportunity to start the week as I mean to go on. Getting up earlier, making the beds straight away, brushing my hair before the school run etc.

But, inevitably, by about 7.30am I have already failed. Oh well, there is always next Monday!

My wonderful Dad, and lots of rain

My Dad popped to the yard on his way home from work at lunchtime yesterday, and agreed to watch the boy for me while I exercised the mare. Excellent (my Dad is amazing)

So I ran to the field, dragged her in (she wasn't very enthusiastic) and got her ready. It was starting to rain, so at the last minute I grabbed my coat. My Dad had asked why the horses were wearing rugs, and when I told him it was because of the rain, he replied "what rain?"

By the time we got into the arena, the very light drizzle had turned into slightly harder drizzle, and within 5 minutes I was having to wipe water from my eyes and the mare had her ears flat against her head.

We stayed out there about 10mins, which was better than nothing. My wonderful Dad sat in the hayshed with the boy, laughing at me. I said to him "If I wasn't so grateful I might be pissed off with you, what rain indeed!" Which, from the dryness of the hayshed he found hilarious.

Despite getting soaked, and running out of time to skip out the field, I did manage to exercise one horse.