Win a £25 Viovet voucher

The nice folks at VioVet have not only supplied me with a ‘back to work bundle’ for Dustry as he begins his post kissing spine op rehab but they’ve also given me a £25 voucher to giveaway to one lucky GHE reader! They sell feed, medication and accessories for horses, cats, dogs, birds, and other small pets so for your chance to win simply enter your name and email below. [contestfriend contest=”4747″] Competition closing date 10th April 2017 The winner will be picked at random and contacted via the email provided Good luck!

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Rehabilitation Plans After Kissing Spine Operation

It has been 8 months now since Dustry went in for his kissing spine operation and to coin a phrase ‘its been emotional’. He has wintered out really well. Thankfully he has had a little furry friend ‘Rufus’ (Dustry’s ‘handbag’ as he has been nicknamed!) to keep him company and the winter weather has been kind. So the start of his rehab is imminent as soon as the yard switches from winter back to summer routine and he moves to a paddock nearer the yard then his work shall begin. Last month he had his 6 monthly dentist appointment (and…

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Birthday Dressage Bootcamp @ Pepperwood Park

Cards, cake and a 2 day residential dressage bootcamp, what more could a girl want for her birthday!? Packed and prepped Bolly and I set off in the lorry to my instructor Grand Prix rider Karen Sherperd’s home Pepperwood Park near Stockbridge, leaving Mummy Groom to follow us the next day and watch the final lesson of the boot-camp. Bolly is such a pro he settled into a strange stable and just tucked into his hay net like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. There were 6 of us on the boot-camp riding from Prelim to Elementary, and it…

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11th in our 1st ODE together. If in doubt kick on!!!

As I walked further round the cross country course this thought popped into my head…. “I wonder if I could ask to move down to the smaller class?…hhhmmm No! Chloe, get a grip these only look big because you normally see all your XC fences from horse back, you’ve not jumped a 90cm course for 6 years that’s the only reason it looks big, they are not big….repeat they are NOT big” More on that later….. So Bolly, myself and “Mummy Groom” arrived at Rabson Manor for Swindon Riding Club’s ODE. Starting our eventing debut together in August wasn’t the…

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Kissing Spine Surgery – before, during & after care

Avid readers will be up to speed with Dustry’s lameness diagnosis, but if you’ve just discovered my blog and want to know the history it’s here. He went for his kissing spine operation in Lambourn at Valley Equine Hospital. It’s a great facility and pretty local to me, but unfortunately it doesn’t exactly hold happy memories. The last visit I had there in 2011 was with Soap who as a result of an injury sustained in the field had to be PTS and we drove home with an empty lorry 🙁 Brushing off thoughts of the past I dropped Dustry off for…

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Combined training when it’s hotter than Hawaii

My weekends are getting booked up and the summer weather has been typically drab this year so I took a punt and booked a random Tuesday off work to take Bolly combined training at West Wilts. It just so happened that this freak day off coincided with a mini British heat wave and we found ourselves competing in 30+ degree heat. According to my weather app that day Melksham was hotter than Hawaii!!!! You literally couldn’t make this up! Thankfully the judges decided we could ditch the dress code and ride in our stock shirts. When I rode in for…

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Kidney for sale. 1 careful lady owner!

If the last 20 years had done anything to fade my recollection of just how incredibly MEGA polo was then within seconds of arriving at Cirencester Park Polo Club and hitting the ball it all came flooding back with a vengeance! It’s so hard to explain to an eventer, show jumper, dressage rider etc the sheer buzz that polo delivers. I can imagine the counter arguments: ‘Yes polo looks fun but……’have you but have you ever jumped clear round a 1.30 course of show jumps?’ ‘ridden the perfect passage?’ or ‘felt the thrill of notching up a clear xc round…

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Win a Tottie top for two!

Win yourself and your best friend matching Tottie summer tops. Those generous bods at Tottie have given me 2x summer slogan vests to give away so if you’d like to win one for you and your BFF simply enter the competition below. If you want to improve your luck then get your friend to enter too, then you’ll have double the chances to win! [contestfriend contest=”4443″] These limited edition vests look great with jeans, at the gym or in the saddle. I’m told they are super soft so if you’re anything like me they might also get ‘styled’ with pyjamas…

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POLO…because YOLO!

I’m a great believer in the saying ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’  and probably on the strength of that phrase alone I have ended up in some unusual, amazing and down right odd situations. Let me elaborate…. Last summer (which is becoming a bit of a habit) I went along to The Rundle Cup Polo Tournament. It’s a local event to me, great for spectators, and the perfect opportunity for some “competitive picnicking”. If you like lounging about in the sun, quaffing back Pimms with chums, watching fast horses gallop inches from your face, and pottering about the luxury trade stands…

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Fat horse, lame horse, cardboard boxes & moving house!

The last few weeks have been a blur!! In the midst of moving house I also had to take Dustry to ‘Horsepital’ and as such have been whizzing about the B-roads of Wiltshire in my trusty Ponymobile driving either cardboard boxes containing my worldly possessions to their new home or (even more precious cargo) my broken pony back and forth to the vets. There are times when my mind has been so frazzled by stress that I’ve half expected to see Dustry delivered to my sitting room and my sofa standing out in his paddock. Broken pony news first. Since…

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