Look who’s back! What a relief! Buddy, Bert and I can go to Big Camp tomorrow. I feel like Cinderella – we shall go to the Ball.

The Buddymobile needed rather a lot of work, but he has his MOT done. He also had a service and health check. Let’s hope he’s feeling much better now.

My original plan was to go to camp in my new lorry. Best laid plans and all that. So I get one last camp in the Buddymobile. For old time’s sake huh?!

I’ve had the Buddymobile nearly 6 years now. Yes we’ve had our issues, but we’ve had so many adventures together. I will be sad to sell him when my new lorry arrives. So maybe it’s fitting to make some more memories before he goes to someone new…

Buddy and I were meant to be show jumping today. Sadly I had to withdraw. Now I’ve had to withdrawn from competitions before as I’ve been lame or Buddy has been lame. Think this is the first time it’s because I have a lame lorry. Or two to be specific. Only me huh?!

My new lorry needs a part from Germany of all places. And the Buddymobile failed his MOT so needs some work doing to rectify that.

It looks like I will be taking the Buddymobile to his final camp this week. Well providing he’s fixed and MOTd. Adventures in my new lorry will have to wait a bit longer.

This made me laugh on arriving at Easton College. My first reaction was genuinely ‘crap how did a horse get in here?!’ It’s been a long week people….

It was lovely seeing so many friendly faces though. Always fun to catch up with my Carleton family.

I took both my boys out for a walk today. Not together. We’re not that far along. It would be quite magical to be able to do that one day.

First up was Bert. I knew it was going to be warm today so thought I’d take him out before it got too hot. There was a lovely cooling summer breeze out on the fields.

My plan had been to give Buddy the day off. But the breeze made it so pleasant that I couldn’t resist taking him out too.

I think I was hotter mucking out than I was riding!

I took Bert to the woods this morning for a cool walk before it got hotter. He had so much fun. I spotted these mushroom growing. Don’t worry I didn’t pick any. I remember being told that you only eat the wrong kind of mushrooms once…

I woke up feeling like I didn’t have much room in my head today. I had another bad night’s sleep. This time as the rain was dripping off the shade sail onto the elephants ears outside my bedroom. Having already got up once to remove a dead mouse from my bed, I got up again to rearrange the garden furniture to stop the dripping noise. The positive was the fact it was raining! That was very refreshing.

Walking round the woods helped to ground me and clear my head. Ready for a rather challenging day. Nothing I couldn’t handle, let’s just say it’s a good job I am a professional organise. Sometimes I really do wonder why things have to be quite so hard though.

I had to order this photo from the day dressage camp we did. It shows the bond we have. And clearly the love I have for him. Buddy is my partner-in-crime. I’d be lost without him.

He is the reason I’ve worked so hard. He gets me out of bed on a bad mind day (Bert does that too). He makes me want to be a better rider. He gets the best I can provide him with. Even if that means I go without.

It makes me so sad that there are people who say I’m cruel for riding him. I don’t have the words to convey how I feel in the saddle. Or how he makes me feel. And for someone who writes for a living, that’s something! I have to leave my stuff at the stable door or on the mounting block.

Being away at camps, clinics or competitions bring me joy. A lot of sweat too of course. There have been bruises, there have been broken bones and there have been many, many tears. There have also been amazing achievements, memories and moments.

I’m not the best rider and he’s not the best horse. But we are better together.

We’re off again next week to Big Camp. We couldn’t go last year as Buddy was off games, so looking forward to getting back to the learning…

Well today started well. I dropped the Buddymobile off at the mechanic for its service, MOT and health check.

My friend came to pick me up from the garage. As we were near the rose place, we stopped for a spot of lunch in the cafe. Don’t ask me how, but I managed to flick some food in my drink. Honestly, you can’t make me anywhere.

After lunch, we headed out to smell the roses. Literally. Found a few more beauties I want to buy. Go and stand under the rose arch, my friend said. Off I trotted, only to find it was designed for someone less Amazonian than me. So it looks like I’ve got a very fancy hat on. I wouldn’t look out of place at Royal Ascot (yes I know that was last week). I had to crouch down to to seen!

The original plan was then to go and pick up my new lorry. Not new new, but new to me. Very exciting!! But the garage need to fix something first, so I will pick it up another day.

So two out of three ain’t bad as the Meatloaf song goes…

Took Buddy out for a long hack this afternoon. The barley is starting to turn golden and the wheat isn’t far behind. The sunshine has helped for sure.

The lack of rain is a bit of an issue though. We got a rather refreshing shower as we went past the water cannon. Buddy has been past it many times so wasn’t phased by it. He was a bit confused by the ‘water in the face’ though. Not sure he found it as invigorating as I did…

I bought myself some new crockery today. I’ve been thinking about getting some for a while, but haven’t found the right set.

The set I have is nearly 20 years old now and showing it’s age (there are quite a few chips now). I say set, I have 7 dinner plates, 5 side plates, 8 pasta bowls and 1 cereal bowl! Can you tell what I’ve broken the most?! How on earth I’ve ended up with only 1 ceral bowl is a mystery. I mean I know I’m bad at cooking, but clearly I eat more cereal and toast than I thought.

Anyway, I saw this set today and had to have it. I love Highland cows. Not that I’ve met one. I think it’s the fringe.

My dinner tasted better on a new plate. Is this what it’s like to be a proper grown up?!

Can you tell that I had a delivery today?! They came to pick up the skip today (might have put a few extra bits in it first). This is what I found when I went to move my car. Good job it was underwear and nothing breakable…

Surely it would have taken less effort to ring the doorbell than attempt to stuff it through the letterbox. I’m sure there was some logic there…

Common sense is definitely on the endangered list. Maybe I just need a bigger letterbox?! Whatever, it did amuse me.

OK I admit it, I really enjoyed our two flatwork lessons today. And I think Buddy did too. It’s not always been our forte, but I know that some of that is my stuff.

We practically floated round the arena. In fact, the instructor commented on how light on his feet he was today. That has not always been the case…

The word ‘delightful’ was used several times. High praise indeed!

There has been a huge shift in my riding since our last camp. Some of the feedback then was about how I can ambush Buddy sometimes. I override and can be quite ‘shouty’ with my aids. This is something I was aware of, but was stuck in a pattern.

So I took a look at it and worked out some things. Since then, I’ve been working on less being more. Giving him clear instructions and us both time to prepare.

Today’s lessons built on these intentions. I have a few more exercise to use and ways to progress them. We know I love a plan. And homework!

The biggest thing today gave me was a huge smile, tears of joy and a full heart. I adore Buddy. Today reminded me just how good it can feel to be on the same page. And believe me when I say we’ve had times where we weren’t even in the same library…

There was a lot of sweat, a few tears, but thankfully no blood! I will bank today away under ‘things we can do well’.