Equestrian Reality

09/01/2025

Ended up playing an equestrian version of squid game last night which involved seeing how well I could balance a bucket of water in each hand while wobbling across ice like a hobbit penguin. 🐧🤦‍♀️I’m not gonna lie it’s rare I impress myself but I did 💪 naturally no one was around to witness this unlike when I make a tit of myself and there’s always an audience 🙄

While our drinkers held up admirably up to last night; they did of course go in the back yard at about 11pm. Thankfully having some sort of Girl Scout OCD I’d stocked up on spare buckets and gritting salt last week. The main yard is fully salted and gritted and safe as are the walk ways at the back yard where the team work however being thick I hadn’t salted myself a little path from my own back door to the yard so that’s todays project 😂

Top tips for equestrian ice capades

🧊 put your yard hoses inside overnight so they don’t freeze and just defrost your pipe and tap with a kettle and reconnect the hose in the morning

🧊 Layer up. There’s no such thing as bad weather just bad clothes. A few light layers is much warmer than less thick ones as the air gets trapped in between and warms up.

🧊 don’t wear your coat in the car!! My old boss used to murder me for it and actually she was right! You don’t feel the benefit of the coat outside if you wear it in the car or indoors. Get in car, coat off and heating on. You then get the benefit of the coat when you put it on to get our.

🧊 the cheap gloves from hardware stores with rubber waterproof palms are a game changer! Buy a size bigger and wear over another pair of gloves if need be

🧊If you suffer from chilblains bathe in hot water with sea salt and cider vinegar (I learned this from who knows so many of these things!) snow fire from chemists also is great (thanks )

🧊 sheepskin insoles that you cut to your foot size are cheap from chemists or Amazon and are an absolute game changer if you suffer from cold toes. Ditto for cashmere blend socks which are not expensive from Amazon

🧊 Plastic bottle of salt water in troughs can help stop them freezing.

09/01/2025

Well there’s sweet FA going on with the horses so here’s a few photos of the other fur children 🐶 🐈‍⬛ 😅

Jean Claude has doubled in size. Aside from an accidental paw to my eyeball which has me on anti biotic drops he’s been wonderful and is just the best parrot cat who loves to sit and sleep on my shoulder. I never had a cat until last year and have now fulfilled my apparent destiny of being a crazy cat lady and I’m here for it.

Pumpkin has gone from despising to quite liking the newbie. 🎃 They play for hours and gallop around the place. Pumpkin normally loves being outside but I’ve had to keep her in a more this week as it’s baltic so her paws get cold and also as she suffers from cat flu if she gets very wet or cold. She was rescued as a very unwell two week old from a ditch and is generally great but got a fever a few months back after getting soaked so much as she gets annoyed at yard patrol being shorter it’s for her own good.

Chica is still trying to eat everything around her 😵‍💫 but that’s pancreatitis dog life so I just have to watch her like a hawk. You know it’s cold when Chica stands and waits to have her rug out on! The one pictured is one I bought her from and I love it as it’s waterproof and warm.

Impatiently waiting for the ice to f**k off at the weekend 🙃

07/01/2025

This is what happens when I’m sleep deprived and allowed into the middle aisle of Lidl unsupervised - black beauty gets car pyjamas 🖤

I have discovered these were not designed to be put on by anyone my height, that it’s best not to climb a vehicle In ice and that it’s best to read the instructions before locking them in the car that’s now become a vehicular version of trying to change a duvet cover on your own 🤣

07/01/2025

No one captures a mood like a Zara model!
I call this photo “Artistic representation of equestrianism in January”
It’s been eleventy three weeks since pay day, you’ve spent all your money on matchy stuff that hasn’t yet arrived, the wine has run out, your legs hurt from trying to ride better, you are not adequately attired for the sh*te weather, your horse has thrown a shoe and you need to p*e 🤦‍♀️

06/01/2025

If anyone needs some good news…

06/01/2025

Do I want to build a snowman? ⛄️
Eh, no
However this morning was quite pretty ❄️ ☀️

04/01/2025

03/01/2025

Myself and had a wonderful day with at Gowran 🏰 Castle 💚🐴🥰

We were shooting the men’s wear with super showjumpers Timmy and Ted modelling the Cian breeches and Darragh training trousers.

We also had Izzy and Robin modelling some womenswear. The weather was 🥶 but the skies and the light were divine!! Serious skiing vibes going on - I needed sunglasses 😂

I got to model the gorgeous Emma top in its new colour - green 💚 I adore it!! The great news is, this is not a sample- this product has landed in Ireland and will be up on the website for sale soon 🇮🇪 😱 PM me if you would like one now as I’ve early access to it 🤫 - size XS to XL available

Thanks Emma for another very enjoyable day with your brand - and thanks also to our lovely host Olivia and photographer Thomas 📸

02/01/2025

I not meant to get attached as I can’t keep them all, but this little coblet has my heart ❤️ he is going to be someone’s best friend in 2025 I hope.

Yesterday I did not feel well. Not celebration inflicted as I didn’t really drink on NYE more just tired and not 100% as I’ve a fairly crabby stomach in general. Never the less we cracked on as we had booked to go to the super facility down in Carlow.

Biscuit has unfortunately for Tick Tock fallen in love with him he seems flattered but a bit overwhelmed 🤣🥰 that travelled great, it was cold, he’s clipped, he was after having two days off but I hopped up and there wasn’t a squeak out of him.

My biggest thing in a group is manners with ponies so we always work on this and he was great - he waits his turn, follows, leads, goes away from the group happily and comes back with manners. He adores water so he was straight in for a splash and a drink 😆 💦 we also popped the ditch, a bank, some logs, a little trakehner and some coloured solids. He had a super forward attitude so I was delighted with him.

Izzy had a ball on .downey.98 I’ve so much love and respect for this mare she’s been there done that and just loves her job!!

Thank you so so much to our friends Heidi and Aoife who organised, cheered us on and even made hot chocolate afterwards! I was so proud to see Ben and Abigail so confident on their ponies. Ben, my little fox Pitt Jnr have a display of riding around the track on Tank while Abigail our mini Sarah Ennis had my heart sideways launching down the bank with Benji 😂

02/01/2025

My poor Chica dog. The queen of bad food choices! 🫣

Chica suffers from pancreatitis. We have had many episodes in the past of it and from her going rogue due to ravenous appetite, which is common in rescues. The vets know us from the infamous giant toblerone incident, the time she licked some sedalin from a horses drool to the time she decided to eat the contents of a poultice 🤮

She had been doing great, off all meds and fit and slim but like us all at Christmas, she ate a bit too much too often. It’s easy when you haven’t experienced a dog with this to say “just don’t let her eat much” but her ability to find things is unparalleled. She eats at a sp*ed that defies physics I don’t think she tastes things. My FIL dog is by contrast a shy eater and chica will often try and help him. I’ve tried muzzling her in the past but she pines and scrapes her face off the ground. The house being more busy over the holidays gave her more opportunity to move around in and out of the kitchen.

We spent the night of the 27th in the emergency vets to the tune of €€€ as she had a raging temperature which was from pain. Having got that under control she bolted down the stairs on me on NYE after her own dinner and wolfed down half of the other dogs before I could grab her.

This resulted in another temp last night which thankfully I was able to get under control with medication, regular temp checks and sleeping on the couch with her with an alarm every 2 hours to monitor her. We are off to pick up some probiotics and a fresh supply of meds today and she will be watched like a hawk - a baby gate for the stairs is also being implemented. 😅 our vet
Are fantastic and are the reason she’s still with us. Thanks to Des for always going above and beyond to help.

On the plus side Pumpkin and Jean Claude played all night which is a far cry from her hissing and growling at him all last week. Pumpkin was rescued from a ditch at 2 weeks old so never really learned how to play so this kitten and the yard cats have really helped her.

31/12/2024

✨ 2024✨

How hard to pick just a few photos of an amazing year!

Highlights included -

💚 Visiting and having my first press pass - such an amazing trip with .downey.98
People say never meet your idols, having met many of mine there I firmly disagree!
💚 Grooming WSI stallion Pompidou AF and seeing Ross taking podium in the four year olds and reserve champ in the prelim at the nationals
💚 Training Super cob Tick Tock, competing in our first dressage show together and having fun at his first photo shoot
💚 Allowing Aoife to make me go to NIF where Sammy and I placed fifth after an amazing evening performance
💚 winning rider of the year with Oisin
💚 Working with incredible Irish brand from photoshoots to an amazing week at the RDS to having Sammy in the studio!
💚 Enjoying time with Chica and Pumpkin
💚 Running the first ever Charity ball! .jandy if you book them they will come 🥰
💚 Having help me out and kick me along the way!!
💚 Winning both combined training leagues with Sammy and Oisin at Coilog
💚 Welcoming Jean Claude 🐈‍⬛ to the family
💚 Enjoying time with
💚 Getting my head straight on the competition front thanks to
💚 Getting my head straight in every other way thanks to the help of
💚 Surviving lunatic animals thanks to
💚 Achieving a life long goal of competing with an Irish ☘️ 🇮🇪 flag thanks to the incredible and . So many memories made that I’ll be eternally grateful for! Such a pleasure to compete with my friends .downey.98 and .murphy.14 , making new friends, dressing as an Olympic mascot and having my two wonderful horses with me 🐴🐴

#2024

31/12/2024

New year, new me, bought myself a Birkin 😂 🪴

29/12/2024

Huge thank you to for helping me with Tick Tock.

Izzy and I headed to this morning. Biscuit and Tick Tock travelled great together and we had a fun jumping session with Tom.

Tom also helped me last week with Tick Tock and has given us both so much confidence.

My little cob had never show-jumped off site but has been now to Coilog and Knightsfield and I’m just thrilled with him. He had never jumped a water tray so I walked him over it in hand before we jumped it and he was happy out. He’s still green but he is so honest and willing to do things that he works it out it as he goes.

Key points for us today where
🐴 If it wasn’t perfect, don’t change things, come the same again and let the horse learn
🐴 The horse must move obediently off the leg from halt as if he doesn’t, he won’t be quick enough off the aids in front of a jump either
🐴 Keeping my back a little more rigid with some positive tension helps with the jump

Thanks so much Tom, looking forwards to more jumping soon 😊

Izzy and I both wore our Equieire grey Olivia breeches, our Mountain Horse boots and our Tesoro gilets from TRI Equestrian.

I wore my Antarès Sellier helmet from PM Equestrian.

Tick Tock wore his Eskadron saddlepad in basalt from Equissentials Dressage

22/12/2024

Equestrians!!

We made it 👌🐴

Shortest day of the year done and dusted 😊

Happy Solstice everyone 🌅 🌄