I ticked another long overdue item off my to do list today. Well two in fact. First was my eye test. Still need reading glasses, but my distance is above average – for my age. Why does that need to be a factor?! Why can’t it just be celebrated?

I wasn’t best pleased when she used the words ‘people nearing 60…’ Thanks for that! I am so not ready to face that milestone. I have four years to get my head round it.

Who knows what the world will look like in four years?

The second was to put a trellis up to support my rose. This involved power tools, so always a risk in my hands. My aim was to encourage this rose to grow up the wall. The lack of trellis has meant it was rather tangled so it did take a little bit of time to sort it out. Hopefully it’ll be easier to train it now.

I have another tell us that needs to go up at the front. I didn’t want to push my luck today. Drilling two holes without issue was a success. I was happy to stand back and admire my handy work. And given my distance eyesight, that could be a long way back…

Oh my goodness me, I am such a happy bunny tonight. I think you can guess why…

It was Carleton Riding Club’s show today. After our time away at camp, I was feeling good about our chances. But never dreamed we’d win the 70cm. That’s usually a hotly contested class.

Learning my lesson from our less than successful outing for the Combined Training qualifier, I left early for my class. Good job too as it was gridlock on the slip road up to the venue. Thankfully a very kind person let me pull onto the roundabout and continue on our way.

I went to check how they were running thinking I’d a good 45 mins. Bit of a miscommunication meant I thought they were getting the course ready for the 70cm. So quickly went to walk the course, only to be told it was actually for the 60cm. Phew!

I’d already decided that after my unscheduled dismount at our last competition, I was going to go steady and see what happened. Buddy pinged round the course. He tapped a couple, but they all stayed up! I thought I might get a placing with a steady clear round. Little did I know there were only two clear rounds. We won by 0.01 of a second!

We even got to do the lap of honour to the Horse of the Year theme tune. Such a lovely touch. And qualification to the Sunshine Tour in September at Hickstead.

I was in two minds whether to do the 80cm class. After walking it, I decided to go for it.

Again, Buddy pinged round till fence 5 where he punched it out. At some point, I lost my left stirrup and couldn’t get it back so had to jump the rest of the round without it. Shows how much my balance has improved. Sticky jods help too.

For some reason, I thought I’d stop and try to get my stirrup back. Poor Buddy got a bit confused by it all. With hindsight, I only had one fence left to go, so I should have just carried on as I still couldn’t get it back. So jumped the last fence without it. Anyway we ended up 8 faults. I came out laughing about it all.

They say you’re either winning or learning – today I did both. It’s not often we come home with a red one. We’ve had two in July! I could get used it you know…

Check out the latest upgrade to my lorry. Smart huh?! It’s my valiant attempt to be better at timekeeping when I compete. I have a bit of a habit of forgetting the check the time on my phone. As simple as it sounds, I usually put my phone ‘somewhere safe’ before riding. Then lose track of time.

I also thought it would work when I wake up when I’m away and don’t want to check my phone. Sometimes the best solution is to go old school. I got one that is silent too.

Putting it up was really easy. Let’s hope my future timekeeping goes like clockwork too.

Yesterday evening I felt a bit overwhelmed with stuff, so I took my own advice and put the phone down.

I’ve tried really hard to set a rule with myself that I don’t check my phone till after I’ve had my breakfast. I’ve found it allows me to set the tone for the day by grounding myself first. At the moment, I’m having breakfast on the patio. Listening to the birds. Watching Bert play with his ball.

Clearly it doesn’t go like that every day, but where I can, I’ve found it works for me. Today I didn’t check my phone until after we’d finished our walk. I was content to just be with Bert. I obviously took it out to take this photo. The barley looked so lovely. Made me laugh as yesterday it was Buddy in the barley. Today it was Bert.

One of the things I love about being away with my boys is that a lot of horse places have rubbish signals. I don’t miss the constant pinging of my phone. So I’ve set the intention to be better with my phone boundaries so to speak.

As humans, we weren’t designed to be bombarded with so much information or be always on. Today I unplugged a bit. A stompy walk helped…

Buddy, Bert and I headed over to Horning today to catch up with a friend and her horse for a hack. Well Bert stayed in the lorry, fear not, he got his moment.

There was a lovely cool breeze as we mooched about. We talked the whole way round. We came back past the Radar Museum. My friend said she’d take a photo with it in the background. It was a bit of a challenge as both horses were trying to have some snacks.

When we got back, Buddy waited on the lorry while Bert got to run around with two other dogs. It was so sweet seeing them all chasing each other round the garden. They ran out of steam faster than Bert. Either that or they’re more sensible girls rather than my tearaway boy.

It seems only fitting that we headed out in Toby today. I brought him home one year ago today. We’ve had so many adventures already. Here’s to many more…

I got a new fob today. It’s for the car park at the Chiro’s office. It’s taken a while to come through, so each time I’ve been at work, I’ve had to leave my car by the gate, run through the building (that includes two secure gates and a lift) to then run round to open the car park gate from the inside.

It’s totally doable, if a bit of a pain. But no more as I now have a fob to open the gate. I have to admit, I worked in the building for a while, then on the street for many more year, and I never realised there was a car park there!

It’s rather small, but I’m grateful I can park there. Of course it does mean I get to practice my 3-point turns getting in and out. I say 3-point, it’s many many more. Today as I was attempting to get out, a lovely lady offered to move her car to give me a bit more room. Very kind of her. I managed to do it with needing her to move. I appreciated her offer though.

I had to go for my mammogram this morning. Still makes me laugh that it was at 9:33am. I arrived early. They started late as their IT system was playing up.

Before anyone panics, this is my 3 year routine scan. Nothing sinister going on. Well the actual scan was pretty uncomfortable. I’m sure the machine must have been designed by a man. It’s hard to get into the right position and painful at times. Still it’s a necessary evil.

The trailer was branded at the Boudicca Breast Cancer Appeal, they missed a trick there. It could have been boob-icca. I’m here all week….

I headed to the Spa today for a very well needed massage and Afternoon Tea. My muscles really needed it after last week’s camp. My stomach always needs sandwiches and cakes.

My friend took a photo of the spread and when she sent it over, it looked like I had turned into one of those claw Arcade games. So she asked AI to recreate it. Isn’t it brilliant?! It made me laugh.

I’m all floppy and full. A lovely combo. Good job it wasn’t taken after as there wasn’t much left…

I encouraged one of the yard liveries to come to camp with me. She did and had a fun time. It was her first camp with her horse. She’s nearly 69, so just goes to prove there’s no age limit on horses or camp!

Today, she gave me a gift box to say thank you for giving her the confidence to go and looking after her while we were there.

I’ll let you guess who each gift was for. Let’s just say we were all very happy with her choices.

There are a few old stables next to the field that Buddy is in. My yard owner suggested I clear one out so that Buddy could have a day stable and get out of the sun if he wanted to.

As he was getting a few days off after camp, I thought I’d tackle it. It didn’t take as long as I thought. In fact, fighting with the electric tape took longer.

I thought I’d encourage him to use it by putting a net of haylage in the stable. That worked. He went straight in. Clever boy.

What I hadn’t factored was that the horse in the adjoining field got very confused by Buddy’s ‘disappearance’. When Buddy went in the stable, the other horse called for him. When he came out again, he looked very confused. Several times, Buddy went in and out. The reaction was the same. Clearly the other horse assumed some sort of trickery or black magic.

Horses are very silly sometimes. It did make me laugh though.

Hopefully Buddy will continue to use the stable. Horses are also a bit dense sometimes. He has shade in his field, but seems to enjoy standing in the sunshine. After blistering temperatures, it was actually quite chilly today. No, I am not complaining. Shorts may have been a bit ambitious…