Sorry for the radio silence from this end, but lots of shenanigans happened during September and October and I didn’t get a chance to write anything down! But I thought I would compress it all into one blog, two for the price of one.
In September, Benji and I made a huge leap in our journey as we moved to a new bigger livery yard, still in the same area. When I was deciding where to go, I was trying to find yards that would still be closer to Flora’s yard, (unfortunately there is no space where she is kept , so Benji has to go in a different yard) so I can do them both in quick succession. When I look for yards, I always have to be careful to make sure that there is no fungus, bacteria, etc that would be growing anywhere. But how, I hear you say, can you be sure that there aren’t any fungus’s. Etc.? Well, in a perfect world the yard would be sterile, clean, dust free places, whereas in reality that’s never. I always look for yards that are relatively kept clean, and have outside facing stables and not indoor barn stables, and that the yard is out in the open. Ideally if there is an arena, it needs to be a non dusty surface, but I have had to learn to make sacrifices and adapt to how I am around at the yard. Thankfully, Benji has settled in very quickly and is a yard favourite.
Sadly, at the beginning of October I went to my doctor’s appointment at Frimley to find that my lung function had dropped which surprised me. But the change in seasons and weather might have been responsible for this and I wasn’t the only one suffering, as many other patients were also falling victim to it. So my doctors thought it be best to start a course of IVs, and luckily I was allowed to do them at home. I’m very fortunate that myself and my mum are trained to administer ivs, so I could still be at home and see my two horses. This time was going to be different as I had to find someone to ride Benji whilst I was off for 2 weeks, thankfully I have fantastic friends who stepped in to help keep Benji going. It’s a strange feeling from having gone from riding most days, to no riding at all! At first, it was nice to have a break but then I got itchy feet by day 3 and really missed being in the saddle. Luckily I can still lunge, but as there is literally a needle in my side I cannot risk falling off and damaging it. If you want a more detailed explanation on what my daily IV schedule looks like, I have another smaller blog called ‘My Frimley Life’ on Facebook which you can read.
After finishing ivs on the last Friday of my 2 week course, I was invited to enter in an Interbarn combined training competition at my sisters yard and training with Tom Rowland on that weekend. As many of my friends and followers will know, I have a habit of just throwing myself into new challenges, and having only ridden once before the weekend was an interesting decision. Definitely felt a bit rusty having not ridden for 2 weeks on Saturdays lesson, Benji was probably wondering what on earth I had been doing the previous night! But thankfully I got my mojo back for the show the next day and Benji and I we’re on fire to not only come 4th overall, but to get our PB in dressage and come 2nd with 69%! He is such an amazing boy and can’t wait to get out competing again this year. I do have to be careful as due to the winter and cold, and people getting ill, there is a chance I could get ill again and have another course of IVs. But I always stay strong through it, as I know I’m surrounded by friends and family who help and support me in any way they can.
