Gymnastics is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. One of many sports I watch when I have the chance.

I find it utterly incredible what they can do with their bodies. Yes I know it takes years and they start very young. I was rather flexible when I was younger. Now I can barely touch my toes. One for me to work on there.

Last weekend, I watched the women’s competition. This weekend it was the turn of the men. Oh my goodness, it was so exciting. Lots of tumbles – intended and unintended. Man when they fall, they fall hard!

Footballers could learn a thing or two from them. Just saying. As someone who’s had quite a few falls herself, I greatly admire their resilience and mental strength to get back on the apparatus and finish their routines. I too know you have to get back on the horse. Literally in my case.

Team GB retained their European Team title. Absolutely amazing. Football didn’t come home, but plenty of other sports are smashing it right now.

Including my favourite sport, equestrianism. We’ve done rather well at the World Equestrian Games too. I saw Scott Brash took a tumble too. Maybe there’s a crossover. Gymnastics on horses? Oh wait, that’s called vaulting.

There are so many incredible sports out there. It’s such a shame we don’t get to see them that often. So I’m glad I got to enjoy the gymnastics this time.

Today Buddy made a serious misjudgement. Thankfully it wasn’t during our lesson today. No, it was on the way home. Somehow he got his haynet caught on his head collar.

He can be quite the drama llama about things sometimes. This time I think he realised the error of his ways and waited patiently for me to rescue him. That and he’s eaten all of his haylage.

Well it’s hungry work this jumping lark. We had a grids lesson over at World Horse Welfare with Justine Ward. I thought I’d arrive early so I could watch the lesson before mine. Good job too as two people dropped out of it, so I ended up going into the earlier lesson instead. There are many times when I’m grateful that it doesn’t take me long to get ready.

Justine was brilliant as always. Watching the videos back, she really does ride every stride with you. And this time, so did I!

I met one of my wise women for coffee this morning. I needed to get some things out of my head. There were quite a few flying round up there. Talking it out, really helps. Very grateful to have so many amazing people in my corner.

As we were leaving I noticed a crochet animal pop up stall. They were super cute. Then I saw they all had names and were ‘available for adoption’. Such a sweet idea.

I clocked there was a Buddy. OK so he was an elephant, but I had to have him. There will never be another Buddy of course. My little boy is the best.

This was proven by our hack today. The heavens opened and we got a tad soggy. In fact, I got a tad cold too! After weeks of being so hot I wanted to take my skin off, it was rather invigorating. I now get the whole cold plunge thing. Still not enough to join in though.

Now I’m not going to complain about a bit of rain and cold, but typically I’d just cleaned my tack. That got a tad wet too…

Have you ever walked the same route and suddenly spotted something new? That’s what happened on our walk today. Funny how it happens.

Bert and I headed out post-rain. The ground smelt earthy and it was so fresh I almost needed another layer. After weeks of no rain, you could almost hear the ground drinking it in. We’ve had a good amount so far.

Isn’t it odd that we Brits normally curse the rain. Give us a drought and suddenly we’re all celebrating. I will continue my rain dances for a bit longer. I’ve been loving hearing the thunder rumble too. Remind me if this when I am knee deep in mud, frozen to the bone and drenched come Winter.

As I walked along soaking up the freshness, I spotted this dead tree. Now clearly it’s been there a long time. And hasn’t just died. But I’ve never noticed it before. Maybe it was the light, but it really stood out.

Just goes to show that there is beauty hidden in plain sight all around us. If we stop and look.

I got two rather pleasant surprises today. Firstly, the Chiropractor’s husband popped in while I was peopling to bring her a coffee. He didn’t realise I was working, so I got the other receptionist’s hot chocolate. Not going to say no to that!

Then I got a voucher for a free pizza from Sainsbury’s. As it was on the way home, I popped in to pick it up. Well I needed a few bits anyway. And who’s going to say no to free pizza!

The downside was the voucher had to be activated and was only valid for an hour. A bit random I know, but hey ho. It’s still free pizza!

The only issue was that I got a bit carried away and activated it thinking I had plenty of time. By the time I’d faffed around, got to the shop, wandered about looking for the bits I needed, checked out, I had two minutes left. Plenty of time! All I had to do was scan the coupon. Simple. Nope. Flipping thing wouldn’t scan. Thankfully a lovely lady came to my rescue and we did it with seconds to spare.

I guess it really is true what they say that there’s no such thing as a free dinner. I ended up working rather hard for that free pizza…

Bert and I popped over to Forest Edge to catch up with some of the campers there. Not booking this camp was totally the right decision for me. It still made me a little sad that I wasn’t there, so thankful I was able to still go in a way.

It was lovely to see so many familiar faces. It made me laugh that people were more interested in saying hello to Bert. He has quite the fan club don’t you know.

He found it a bit boring after a while. Don’t let him fool you though. This was after he’d gone zoomies round the forest. He just found the horse watching a bit dull. Strangely I can’t say I’m the same…

It was Bert’s turn for a haircut today. He’s such a pro. He ran in and jumped on the table. In fact, he didn’t want to get down when he was finished. Every time the groomer put him on the floor, he jumped right back up.

He was getting quite fluffy. With the hot weather, he was getting rather hot too. Now he’s Mr Cool and Mr Sleek.

He seemed to find an extra gear running round the yard. The fluff was clearly an aerodynamic drag by the speed of his zoomies. He’s a very happy boy! I do love his Otter look.

Another full on day but oh my goodness it was worth it. Buddy, Bert and I locked and loaded early to head to Suffolk EC in Bury St Edmunds for our latest qualifier. This time BRC Combined Challenge in 70cm.

I always forget just how far it is. It took me 1 hour 40 mins in the end. But I do drive like Miss Daisy when I have my two best boys onboard. We hit a new low in Toby Travels when I was overtaken by a caravan. Obviously, it wasn’t just a caravan. That would have been impressive. There was a car connected to it.

I left lots of time. We arrived to find they were running ahead. So a quick check of the course and I headed to tack up. We had access to the course plan ahead of time so I knew it.

Combined Challenge is a round of show jumps, then straight out onto a round of XC jumps. It’s usually held at Horseheath on grass. But the drought has turned the ground to concrete, so it was moved to a surface. As a result, it was more like an Arena Eventing course.

There was nothing as technical or difficult as the jumps we’d made yesterday, so I was feeling really confident. That and when I arrived, I was told my team was in first place! No pressure. Or actually no pressure. Whichever way you look at it.

My confidence was well founded. Buddy jumped everything at a plom. We came away with a double clear. And a time fault for going too fast in the XC section (it was an optimum time).

I felt I was probably going a bit too fast, but he was in such a forward bouncy canter, I didn’t want to fiddle.

My team kept their first place position to win and secure a qualification to the Championship at Aston-Le-Walls in September. So chuffed with that! I ended up in 6th place individually. It would have been higher if I’d taken a slightly longer route.

I’m so happy with my little boy today. I’m pretty happy with me too.

After my malaise of yesterday, I woke up feeling more balanced, grounded and in a better frame of mind. Good job too as I had a spot of jumping practise arranged before our next competition tomorrow.

I arrived at the yard at 7:45am and was in the saddle pretty quickly. We’d set out some Arena Eventing fences yesterday. And sweated a lot doing it. Thankfully it was so much cooler today.

Buddy flew everything. Including the new table top my yard owner has made. We angled it a bit and it rode really well. In fact everything we built rode well.

Buddy out in his field, my yard chores started. Once Maid Duty was done, I popped home to pick Bert up so he could come and have a run around.

While I was getting everything ready for tomorrow, I realised I didn’t have enough haylage for the journey. So emergency trip to the saddlery with Bert in tow.

That meant I couldn’t put anything in the boot. So my back seat was crammed with two bags of feed and a bag of haylage. I had to put another bale in the front with me. Smelt lush though. Once back at the yard and haynet filled, I headed out to poo pick.

And all before breakfast! By the time I got home, it was lunchtime. A very productive day indeed! It’s amazing how much difference a day can make.

Let’s hope tomorrow is as productive after such good prep…

I’ve been quite emotional today. Think I’m processing what’s happened in the the last 3 weeks. It was bound to happen at some point. I had a good cry and went to walk it out with Bert.

One thing that I realised was that I feel rather alone at the moment. I know I’m not, but was the overwhelming feeling I had. I’m grateful my Dad is still here. But it was another very close call.

I also reflected that a lot of the closest people to me seem to be going through stuff too. I guess it’s an age thing. I know more and more people who are losing their parents or struggling with life changes. So more and more people around me are grieving too.

I’m still grieving for my Mum. The fact my Dad has nearly died twice this year alone is making me consider a future without him too. Don’t get me wrong, I hope that is many years away…

One of the things I love about coaching is holding the mirror for others. Sometimes I have to remember to hold the mirror for myself too.

This isn’t a post for sympathy. If you’ve been following my journey for any time, you’ll know that this is a safe space for me. I will be OK. I just needed to let it out today. Not that I had much choice, the tears came and I didn’t stop them. Like I need to lose more fluids. I’ve sweated out enough this week. Best up the electrolytes. Again.