Welcome

I was a horse-mad kid who dreamed of having my own pony one day. The Christmas after I turned 11 I got my wish - a little black pony named Jock who was about to teach me the harsh reality of owning horses. Between bouts of laminitis, dragging me under trees, bolting, rearing, bucking, escaping and generally being the sort of pony who ruins horses for kids, I somehow kept my enthusiasm. I still dreamed of Pony Club and competitions, but with very little support and no coaching I was all at sea. Somewhere along the way I lost my nerve, and I never really got it back.

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My second pony was a newly-started 4yo half Thoroughbred. I knew nothing about saddle fit, training a pony, or any of the things you need to succeed with a young horse. But after moving house and finding some friends to ride with, I finally started figuring it out. I began riding a part Welsh filly who had been bought for my friend's younger sister but was proving to be too much of a handful for a young beginner. I later bought this pony and she was my turning point. We did hours of trails together and she was my introduction to jumping. I gained the confidence to keep working with the half Thoroughbred, and over time he became my first proper competition horse. By the time he was 20yo and I was 30yo we had competed to state level at horse trials and won countless showjumping ribbons. At the age of 21 he finally won his first dressage competition.

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Over the years I worked on horse studs and in racing stables, living and breathing horses for a distressingly small amount of money. I prepared Thoroughbred yearlings and attended sales, travelling interstate and staying in fancy hotels as financed by my employer. On leaving the Thoroughbred industry I took up breeding ponies and the odd partbred Arabian, training, starting and competing my home-bred youngsters before selling them on to become someone else's reliable saddle pony. I taught at pony club, trained as a showjumping judge and course designer.

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For a range of reasons, I walked away from horses in my early 30s. I re-homed my stud ponies, sold most of my equipment and took up breeding dairy goats. My health was not the best and I was a single mother carrying a huge burden of trauma.

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Over the past few years I have begun to answer the call of the saddle again. I bought a couple of young New Forest Pony mares. I got back an older pony who I bred who had been a saddle pony in her younger days. But this time I am determined to do it better, to be a better horse person and to make things better for my ponies so that I can resume riding as safely as possible with my physical limitations.

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I am both blessed and cursed with the understanding of how much there is to know and that I can never know all of it. But after months of reading, thinking, listening I know that I have to start doing. And this blog will help organise my thoughts, track my learning, and maybe inspire others who are overwhelmed with all the options and don't know where to start. We'll learn some new tricks and search for a better way.