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Candid Equitation & Trail Riding, Odemira (2025)

07/07/2025

What is it with July 7th and hospitals?!

Exactly 3 years after the infamous 'Megab**b' saga where I nearly died of sepsis thanks to a mosquito bite on my b**b causing a 500ml abscess, I'm back again!

Thankfully this time it's just a lumbar puncture to further investigate the brain damage incurred due to cancer treatment in 2021-2023. I'm more symptomatic lately so my neurologist wants a dig around. MRI scan showed nothing new, so though nothing is structurally any different, there may be a biological change such as an infection so let's see.

People always ask how I can be so upbeat with all my health trouble but actually, i don't think I'm doing too bad! Other than cancer, sepsis, crap genetics and brain damage, my health is great! I've never had a bad back and both Covid and norovirus always seem to skip me🤷‍♀️
I have a charmed life surrounded by animals, beautiful nature, loyal friends, a supportive partner and a job I love. I do have PTSD due to the amount of medical trauma I've built up and anxiety from having the Li Fraumeni Syndrome guillotine over my head constantly. This means I'm sometimes grumpy or quiet or angry with no discernible immediate cause, but on the whole I feel like I got a pretty good deal. I believe everyone gets a reoccuring challenge in their current lifetime and staying out of hospital just happens to be mine!

06/07/2025

👑Nero👑

Now that the awful heatwave has ended (note to self, when its 42 degrees Celcius outside, make sure the radiators in the house are switched off before you go battening down all the windows and shutters!🙈), it's all systems go here on the ranch! Summer camp started this week, so I have my teenagers here and I'm cracking on with my training projects.

I started trail riding Nero this week and he's been amazing- very keen but sensible and getting better on his feet all the time. This was his first canter outside here, given a lead by sensible old uncle Bruno, ridden by Audrey.

Extra kudos to Audrey, she's got less than 3 months riding experience in total, spread over 2 years and only rides when she's here! Last year she arrived nervous about trotting, this year she's giving me a lead on the forestry canter tracks on her first week- quite remarkable really.

28/06/2025

🥵Absolutely nothing to report since I'm back home as it's been too bloody hot to do anything😫

Here's The Peach Fuzz and Bridge, having had their second hose of the day and finally able to go outside- even though it's nearly 9pm and it's still 30 degrees!

20/06/2025

🎊That's a wrap! The spring guest season of 2025 is officially finished!🏇

We just waved off our last advanced group, all vowing to come back asap and crying as they left🤣 If that's not a sign of a good holiday, I don't know what is! It's been like riding with a group of mates all week, just a total pleasure despite the heat🤗

We've had 3 advanced groups and 3 beginners, all very different people with very different expectations. The vast majority of folks have been so much fun to get to know and we can't wait to see again!

The horses have been absolute stars; flooding, drought, escaped cows, the classic people who think they ride better than they actually do- anything that's come our way, they've dealt with it like the professionals they are and kept everyone safe and smiling. João and the volunteers have kept things ticking over in the background like clockwork and Tatiana made sure nobody went hungry.

Biggest source of gratitude is for my business partner and friend/adoptive mum Sandra; this year presented a number of big challenges, but we held a united front and had each other's backs the whole way through. She is the wheels behind this whole thing and none of these things would be possible without her🙏 Cheers! Here's to the autumn 2025 season 🍂

The only thing left to do now is to bu**er off to Switzerland for the weekend with my partner to watch some of my beloved Eurovision Song Contest performers!
Over and out🫡

19/06/2025

🏇When I say you need to be confident on these rides, I mean it!🏇

This is the Black Lake ride, it's 16km and has many opportunities for a blast. A very popular route with guests and volunteers alike, it's challenging and fast yet very doable for riders with a secure seat who are up for an adventure.

This is part of my slower group in action, consisting of Bruno, Hope, Tali and Fae! These horses are small, nimble and sensible, making them ideal for the trappy ground and twisty paths. I'm so proud of all the horses this season, the conditions have been challenging pretty much the whole time; yet they've dug deep, looked after riders of all abilities and done their jobs amazingly well❤️ I am so incredibly lucky to have such a great string of horses to work with!

*Please note, these horses are only slow when compared with my taller, longer legged group- they are 'slower', not slow!

18/06/2025

When the guests backs are turned and I have no idea what the f**k they're trying to do🤣

Jokes aside, we are already half way through our last group of the spring season and what a fun, relaxed group it is! This was just before we found a sheep flailing around with its throat sliced open and had to call for reinforcement- always bloody something!🐑

The weather has been a real challenge this year, with some weeks being canceled due to flooding, while this group has had to wrangle temperatures of up to 38 degrees🥵 It's been very difficult to strike any middle ground to be honest, but horses and guests alike have handled it with it good humour; overall it's been a great season with lots of returners bringing their friends with them to join the fun🤗

Through July we have summer camp for our teenage guests, then a well deserved break through August before our autumn season kicks off🍂 We are full for 2025, but our 2026 dates are available on our website- they go fast, so if you've been thinking about a holiday with us, don't dally!

11/06/2025

🐻Benny🐻

I'm so enjoying Benny! Not my type at all, but he's utterly fearless, has a stomping walk and always has something in reserve.

I'm particularly enjoying him this time round because when we first met in 2021, I was right in the thick of my cancer journey. I'd just finished 18 rounds of chemo and was waiting on my bilateral mastectomy, with radiotherapy and immunotherapy still to complete. I had no hair, no eyebrows, very little control over my bowels, was extremely weak and I weighed 45kilos. I rode Benny on short, slow rides as he was lacking muscle and lethargic and so was I! Eventually his expressive paces (especially his huge, active walk) became too much for my stomach to handle and I had to stop riding him😪

4 years later, we're making light of a 15km trek together, both fit, strong and full of energy! He's in the right shape to really show what he can do and I'm fit enough to appreciate it. Benny actually has a butt now and that white coat I'm wearing in the left picture doesn't even fit over one of my arms anymore🤣

Life's a funny old thing, all those different versions of ourselves we can be.

07/06/2025

🦄When you have things in common, such as severe light sensitivity, even more severe bu****it sensitivity and an excellent fringe😎

05/06/2025

👶Branco🦄

I remember when Branco first arrived, I couldn't stop looking at him. He was newly weaned and almost ethereal looking with his iridescent pure white coat, blue eyes and peachy skin. He also had excellent movement and a curious and sparky yet laid back nature. He was my dream horse come to life and I couldn't believe he was real!

He's 5 now and I still feel the same way every time I see him! Branco was the first one I really fully loved because of what he was, rather than what he could do for me. I thought I loved other horses previously, but it was so different with a little foal who knew absolutely nothing and would take years to become 'useful'. Even as a baby, he was a massive dopamine factory- not because I could go for a ride and blow away the cobwebs, but because he was funny and demanding and sweet.

Nowadays, riding him is the cherry on top and I try to remember this with every horse I work with.

04/06/2025

👑Nero👑

I'm finally riding Nero! 🥳
He's been here 2 months and due to years of riding in hyperflexion, being stabled and poor farriery, his body and hooves needed a serious reset.

As our osteopath (Ruth Mayer) put it, we needed to pull him apart to put him back together. Once everything that was jammed had been pulled apart, I started the process of putting him back together- which was basically pulling the shoes, letting him be a horse and teaching him out to balance. I had some interruptions being that it's guest season so this could've been quicker, but thankfully he has nice owners who just want him to have a nice life; the extra time turned away with the herd has done him no harm at all👌 He's completely sound now, so it's time to get on.

The first ride after rehab is about me getting on and off without any drama and maybe testing the response to the rein and leg.
Nero was non plus about me getting on, so I was able to test his responses to the aids.

His go to response when a rein is picked up is to curl under and his ears end up unlevel when asked to bend to the right. He's good at running through his shoulder when not contained by two reins and although he lifts his ribcage away from my leg without trouble, he doesn't move his hindquarters or shoulders so readily. Basically there's a lot to do!

As for what I'll be using on his head, I typically ride in the rope halter for a while because that's what I do my groundwork in and I find the aids transfer more easily to the saddle. I'll attach the reins at various points on the halter until I find the one the horse likes best. With these compact, short necked, narrow chested horses that tend to twist and brace on their shoulders though, they usually do better in a snaffle.

Reason being, I have the ability to mobilize the jaw and start correct bend from there. Many horses initially can't turn their heads properly for one reason or another, but they can put their tongue out on a given side and that is at least a starting point. I first just ask them to lick one way, then relax the jaw, then finally start to give at the poll. With a bitless, you're going straight for the poll! Even if you only ask for a tiny amount of bend, that tiny amount of bend is still not easy. Yes, horses lick and chew naturally when not tense, but I need them to lick and chew on cue and in a specific way and the snaffle is the easiest way to achieve this.

I'm trying to stay bitless for Nero, but if it's easier for him to understand in a snaffle then I'll switch. I'm not especially attached to any particular tool, I just crack out what's necessary as and when🤷‍♀️ I'm not pro or anti bitless, so please keep these type of comments away from here. Make your own pro/anti bitless post!

Congratulations if you read all that 😅

03/06/2025

'Same Horse Syndrome'

How many horses do you ride per month on average? Five? Ten? Maybe you're a work rider on a racing yard and get through 100 a week!

The vast majority of horse owners are riding and working with their own horse and nothing else, yet some feel qualified to use words like "always" and "never" when talking about horse training; cute at best and obnoxious at worst. These are the folks with same horse syndrome. If there's anything working with multiple horses teaches you, it's that there's no such thing as "always" or "never". What works for one doesn't work for another and there's always one that makes you completely reassess everything you thought you knew 🤠

If you only work with one horse, it can fool you into thinking you're better than you are. Say you got your first pony in kindergarten, rode it until your legs were long enough to knock the jumps down then didn't bother with horses until after university; then you got a young horse you rode exclusively until it died at the ripe old age of 34. You recently got a 12yo someone else did a cracking job producing and it's going peachy- that 45 years years experience you love to flaunt in comment sections isn't the flex you think it is. Ok, maybe you hunted, competed to medium level dressage, won a bunch of jump offs and regularly gallop bridleless on the beach without incident. Still, it's three horses. Three. In the entire world, you rode three horses. And yet here you are, declaring green or anxious horses as dangerous and other riders as bad, because they don't behave like or ride the same way that worked well for you and your three horses🤷‍♀️ I don't get it and pay these people no mind- difficult when there's so many of them!

Personally, I rode 6 today! Yesterday I rode another 5 and worked 3 on the ground, with one of those ending in a first ride. I probably worked with more horses yesterday than the average rider does in a life time and yet I wouldn't dare say "always" or "never"! I also don't think that 29 is a huge number for me to be working with monthly. It's significant, but I know all the horses well and they know me. Not compared to my racing days, where the biggest stable I worked at had 350 stables and I had to gallop horses I'd only just met and maybe wouldnt see again afterwards.

Switch horses every so often, it'll keep you humble. Maybe, though with some folks I'm maybe hoping for too much!

02/06/2025

🏇🐎Burning off some steam💨

Branco is at the beginning of his ridden life now, with the current focus being balance and attention to the aids; that said, he's still a little scallywag with excess energy and loves a regular hoon around the countryside with his 'dad' Bruno to break up the serious stuff ❤️

*I've gained a lot of new followers recently so just a few things that always come up:

No, I do not need to worry about running into other riders as there are no other riders in the area.

No, I will not run into dog walkers or cyclists. This isn't a park, it's just one of the 700,000 hectares of abandoned eucalyptus plantations in Portugal; there's nothing to see and nowhere to go, nobody comes here🤷‍♀️

No, the ground is not too hard, it's only June- let's talk again in August!
This is one of our smoothest tracks, hence the horses are happy to run and buck. Every single one of our horses are barefoot, if it's too hard or rough they simply slow down or don't go up a gear to begin with. They live on hard and rocky ground so they're adapted to hard and rocky ground🤷‍♀️ The few who do struggle with it wear hoof boots and don't gallop.

Candid Equitation & Trail Riding

07/07/2025

06/07/2025

28/06/2025

20/06/2025

19/06/2025

18/06/2025

11/06/2025

07/06/2025

05/06/2025

04/06/2025

03/06/2025

02/06/2025

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