Money is such a taboo subject in the UK but earning, understanding and managing money is so integral to life. It’s also fundamental to owning horses. Some people like to avoid totalling it up, some people scrimp every penny to keep horses, some people earn enough to not even think about it, but for me understanding my spending, knowing how much my horses cost and having a plan make everything so much easier.

I track every month and do a deep dive every year to see if what I’m putting aside is enough to cover the costs and plan my budget for the year ahead. So here is a video outlining my November-November horse spending over the last year, what everything cost and how I budget and manage my money for horses.

You can’t beat that peaceful feeling of getting the weather window just right so that you have a wonderful ride amongst beautiful scenery!

I think it’s really easy to forget with social media that we only see snippets. I’m guilty of watching peoples reels (Bella Fricker – in particular) and catching myself being envious, when in reality Bella woke up at 4:30am to bake those Brownies and do extra work hours so that she could play with her ponies in daylight, or Georgina (another absolutely incredible endurance rider) just finished back to back on calls as a vet and is raising a family, sneaking in mountain rides when she can. All those beautiful photos and posts we see…probably taken on the weekend in one day and spread out over the socials rather than an endless week of sunshine and fun. People have jobs, responsibilities and what we see are the fun parts.

To have the lives we live we make compromises elsewhere and I just wanted to show what a normal day was for me, and I’m aware I’m supremely privileged that this is what a normal day looks like. But like everyone I make choices based on what I want to prioritise so other aspects of my life, like socialising or eating out are non-existent.

It was raining, fairly windy and a bit cold…three of Estrid’s least favourite things but we had scheduled to have our first ride in 9 weeks together and the weather was not going to stop me!

I have been very lucky to have horses that I can leave in a field for 2 weeks or 3 months, tack up and get on like nothing ever happened. Surprisingly Estrid was no different, she actually seemed pretty excited to be tacked up and stood beautifully to be mounted.

Despite the gloomy weather, being behind her ears and walking through the changing leaves of autumn felt like the loveliest occasion. I’m so grateful to be back on board in time to go on rides through my favourite season!

I have 8 weeks left before the horses go on an extended stay to Wales and I go on honeymoon to New Zealand. In that 8 weeks I’d like to get Estrid back up and running so that she’s a bit stronger and fitter going into a winter break. She’s already had 6 weeks off to let an injury settle after she haphazardly ran through some fencing. She hasn’t lost too much fitness but she’d definitely looking more podge than hench.

I’m starting with two weeks of just walk and then I’ll introduce a small amount of trot and build it up week from week for the following 6 weeks. But ultimately our training will remain about 50% walk, 50% trot at the 8 week mark but we’ll do more time in the saddle and hopefully spend a lot of time on some hills and exploring some more varied terrain.

We’ll start with linear work for the first 3 weeks and then I’ll start introducing more circular, acceleration and change of direction stuff as she get’s stronger. But really I just want to go on nice autumn hacks with my pony and enjoy my favourite season.

On another note, my livery has space for someone with 1-3 horses, near Draycott in the clay if anyone would be interested in joining me!

My favourite time of year has arrived! Low light, golden hues, orange leaves and crisp blue skies! Which means it’s almost time to switch up the horses routine. Every year we set up a winter paddock, clean troughs, get hay feeders out and generally get ready to hunker down.

I actually really enjoy it, the routine is comforting, I love organising and planning. Plus this year there’s the added excitement of a new livery joining the yard!

After our wonderful ride at Long Mynd there was something not right about the way Estrid was moving. At the end of May she had an accident involving a lot of bucking, legs being tied together by straps and running through a few fences. Her back right was really sore, as was her back. When we got back to training she felt great, we both had a great time at Long Mynd but in the week following I just knew something wasn’t quite right with that back right.

So I decided to scrap the rest of the season give her 6 weeks off and then re-assess. Well that time has come and we made our way to the vets who even said that they were surprised to see her at the lameness clinic as she looked really good, but when you know something’s not right you just know how your horse should move.

They found a few incidental findings in the right hind that may or may not be related but still feel that the issue is higher up and quite likely a muscle strain. So now we have a couple of weeks left of her holiday and we’ll start doing walk work again and see how we go. Everyone is pretty confident she’ll be fine and I’m pretty sure I just bought her back from her accident too quickly and too soon. So we’ll take it extra slow this time and hopefully be ready to start pre-season training in full swing!

There is nothing like a good tidy and sort out to get my motivation back. I have had many thoughts over the past few years of giving up horses all together, my desire and motivation comes in waves and at the lowest points I could never see a horse again and spend my time and money on travel and adventures. Ultimately I think I’m in too deep and it’s too much a part of who I am to set it aside so easily.

But there is always one thing to guarantee a fresh start and an extra boost of motivation, and that is a good tidy and sort out. Call me strange (I am) but there’s something about it that re-sets my perspective and makes me feel ready to start again.

So it’s a good job really that I’ve been so lacklustre and have left everything everywhere and not put anything back where it should be as it’s given me the opportunity to start again!

When the ponies are off work it’s always nice to sneak in some human holiday time. We headed to Northumberland with my family for 4 days and it was lovely to just bimble around and not have an ounce of hay lurking on any part of me or my clothes!

We had a jam packed schedule of Gardens, Castles, Beaches, Dark skies, Romans and of course lots of yummy food!

I can’t believe summer just up and left, I didn’t really get the summer I hoped for but we still had lots of fun at the more local rides. I have definitely spent less time at the yard and as a result the absolute filthy chaos I made for myself to tidy is entirely my own doing. However, I do love a good clean and tidy to kick off a fresh start and what better time for a fresh start than going into a new season.

Note to self: Autumn clean would be much easier if I had done a Spring clean. But at least now the stables are ready for when the clocks change and we go back to being stabled.